The Hunters of Hidden Mickeys Are on the Case

People who go to Disneyland think Mickey Mouse is everywhere.

They don’t know the half of it.

On Disney property in Anaheim and Orlando, Fla., die-hard Disney enthusiasts like to play a little game of hide and seek in the spirit of “Where’s Waldo?”

Their mission? To find hidden Mickeys.

These Mickeys -- typically in the classic three-circle shape of the beloved mouse’s head -- are subtly camouflaged and planted on rides, in logos and in decor.

The official line from Walt Disney Imagineering is that it will neither confirm nor deny the existence of hidden Mickeys.

“If you ask the Imagineers to tell you where the hidden Mickeys are, they’ll tell you they don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Disneyland spokesman John McClintock. “It’s definitely a secret.”

Just not a very good one. Friendly ride operators might give a few clues to tourists in search of Mickey. And for those willing to do a little research, there are several websites with directions for how to hunt him down, including www.hiddenmickeys.org.

Steven Barrett has even written a book about how to find them at Walt Disney World in Florida.

“It’s another game to play for Disney nuts,” Barrett said. “The secrecy part adds to the allure.”

Hidden Mickeys were outed in the late 1980s, Barrett said, after an article appeared in the Disney magazine and information started cropping up on the Internet.

How exactly they came into being remains a matter of debate.

Disney historian Dave Smith said they started at Walt Disney World about the time that Disney-MGM Studios opened in 1989.

“A few of the designers of attractions thought it would be fun to sneak in Mickey figures so that people would notice and chuckle,” he said. “It sort of caught on, though not officially.”

Disney fan Jim Hill, who runs a website devoted to Disney and the entertainment industry at www.jimhillmedia. com, offers a more interesting explanation.

When Walt Disney Co. was preparing to open Epcot in Orlando, Hill said, officials wanted to distinguish between the Magic Kingdom and the new park. “Some pinheaded executive at the time said there will be no Disney characters at Epcot, no Mickey Mouse,” he said.

But the Imagineers didn’t take well to shutting out their muse.

“They said, ‘No Mickeys? OK, fine. We’ll hide them.’ It started as a way to thumb their nose at Disney management, and it sort of mushroomed from there,” Hill said.

Over the years, hidden Mickeys have taken on a life of their own. Imagineers have concealed Mickey Mouse in movies (check for a glimpse of him in “The Little Mermaid”), Barrett said.

Some Mickeys are so obscure that if the lighting’s not just right, they’re practically invisible. On the Indiana Jones Adventure ride at Disneyland, for example, there’s a huge hidden Mickey in the cracks of the wall in the queue area where the safety film is projected onto a large screen. And on Soarin’ Over California at California Adventure, blink an eye as a golf ball shoots off the tee and you’ll miss Mickey’s recognizable head.

There are, however, some unofficial rules.

Purists say the true hidden Mickeys are only those in the shape of his head, not his entire body -- though his shoe, glove and profile have also been spotted. And it doesn’t count when the Mickeys are accidental, such as those formed from three barrels hanging from the ceiling in Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland or the dials in a boiler room of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at California Adventure. Most decor -- such as Mickey-shaped cutouts on benches -- also doesn’t qualify.

Nobody knows exactly how many hidden Mickeys exist. Only Imagineers can point to the ones they intentionally embedded in attractions.

In some cases, Disney cast members have also joined in on the fun. One well-known hidden Mickey appears in the ballroom scene in Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion: Three plates have been shoved together in the shape of Mickey. And in the mummy room of Indiana Jones Adventure, Mickey ears have been tossed onto an unsuspecting skeleton.

Spotting both might require several cycles through the rides.

A bit of caution, however, to aspiring hidden-Mickey seekers: “You can make yourself crazy,” said Brandy Del Rosso, a concierge at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel, who points people in the direction of the hotel’s logo, a grandfather clock and some tiles under the check-in counter.

Samantha Howard, 16, of Brentwood, agreed: “I’ve become obsessed.”

Said Jane James, 37, of Albuquerque: “After a while, there’s just circles everywhere in the world. At Christmastime, they’ve got the wreaths and balls everywhere. That got kind of crazy.”

It can be enough to make people googly-eyed, especially when those desperate to find a hidden Mickey start viewing things through Mickey-shaped lenses.

Stacee Chong, 31, of Temecula is undeterred. After just a few hours of searching for hidden Mickeys, she was a woman on a mission, wide-eyed and checking out every circle on every Fantasyland ride.

“Now that there’s something to do in line,” she said, “I’m going to buy an annual pass!”