Making over Mickey

Mickey Mouse turned 75 this year -- and, like many oldsters, he's no longer connecting with young people. But Disney is trying to give its mascot a makeover for the new millennium, the New York Times reports.

Even the company's own research suggests that the 75-year-old mouse is becoming increasingly difficult for Americans of all ages to relate to - particularly children, whose entertainment world is filled with online computer games and other distractions.

"Mickey hasn't really changed, and I guess the question is, have the times passed him by?" said Tom Wolzien, an analyst at Sanford Bernstein & Company who covers Disney. "I think they've had chances to upgrade the character, but they haven't done a lot with it."

Disney, though, is now trying hard to find Mickey's 21st-century footing - an effort for which it bought additional time last January when the United States Supreme Court upheld the extension of the Mickey Mouse copyright through 2023.