AFP - Czech illustrator and animated film director Zdenek Miler, the author of the world-renowned "Little Mole" (Krtek) character, died at the age of 90 Wednesday, Czech news agency CTK said.

Miler produced about 50 films featuring the "Little Mole" and his friends -- a mouse, a hedgehog, a hare and a frog -- and illustrated more than 40 children's books with more than five million copies sold.

"Walt Disney used almost all animals in his cartoons, except one -- the one that I picked," Miler said about the "Little Mole", whom he created after tripping on a molehill during a walk in 1956.

Later in that year, he produced the first "Little Mole" movie which won a Silver Lion prize at the Venice film festival.

The animal adored by generations of children became a truly universal hero after US astronaut Andrew Feustel -- whose wife has Czech ancestors -- took a "Little Mole" puppet on space shuttle Endeavour's last mission in May this year.