Steamboat Willie
About Steamboat Willie
Mickey pilots a steamboat, whistles Steamboat Bill, and razzes Captain Pete until Pete takes the wheel and spits on himself. At Podunk Landing, Minnie is hauled aboard by her bloomers with a cargo of animals. Mickey and Minnie play Turkey in the Straw on a goat, a cat, a goose, a sow, and a cow. Pete shuts Mickey in the hold, and Mickey throws a potato at a parrot.
Cast & crew
More about Steamboat Willie
Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks directed, Disney produced, and Celebrity Productions released it on 18 November 1928 at the Colony Theater in New York. Wikipedia gives the cost as $4,986.69. A Cinephone sync on 15 September 1928 failed, and the second session was paid for by selling Disney's Moon roadster.
Themes
Reviews
Variety of 21 November 1928 called the short a high order of cartoon ingenuity and said the sound brought laughs galore.
Technique
Sound was post-synced on Powers Cinephone with a click track, after a failed recording session in September 1928.
Music
Wilfred Jackson and Bert Lewis arranged the track, built on Steamboat Bill and Turkey in the Straw.
Preservation
The short entered the U.S. public domain on 1 January 2024.
Notes
- Ub Iwerks, Wilfred Jackson, and Johnny Cannon animated.
- It was the third Mickey short made, after Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho, and the first released.
- The soundtrack uses a click track and a filmed bouncing ball. Powers Cinephone, a Phonofilm clone, carried the sound.
- The Green Brothers Novelty Band played, conducted by Carl Edouarde.
- Variety on 21 November 1928 said it was not the first sound cartoon but the first to draw real laughs.
- United States copyright ran out on 1 January 2024.
Scenes
- Minnie is hoisted aboard by her bloomers.
- A goat eats her sheet music and becomes the barrel organ.
- Mickey beans the parrot with a potato.
Also available
- Internet Archive (SteamboatWillie)
- Wikimedia Commons (Steamboat Willie (1928) by Walt Disney.webm)
