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Steamboat Willie

1928 American animated short movie by Walt Disney

AI overview

"Steamboat Willie" is a 1928 animated short film created by Walt Disney that introduced Mickey Mouse to audiences. It is historically significant as one of the earliest and most influential animated cartoons, helping to establish Disney as a major figure in entertainment and animation.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Key facts

Directed by: Walt Disney Ub Iwerks
Story by: Walt Disney Ub Iwerks
Produced by: Walt Disney
Starring: Walt Disney
Music by: Wilfred Jackson Bert Lewis
Animation by: Ub Iwerks Wilfred Jackson Johnny Cannon Les Clark ( inbetweener )
Color process: Black-and-white
Production company: Disney Cartoons
Distributed by: Celebrity Productions
Release date: November 18, 1928 ( 1928-11-18 ) (US)
Running time: 7 : 47
Country: United States

Article

Steamboat Willie is a 1928 American animated short film directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. It was produced in black-and-white by Disney Cartoons and was released by Pat Powers' Celebrity Productions. The cartoon is considered the public debut of Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, although both appeared months earlier in a test screening of Plane Crazy and the then unreleased The Gallopin' Gaucho. Steamboat Willie is the third of Mickey's films to have been produced, but it is the first to have been distributed, because Disney had seen The Jazz Singer (1927) and became determined to produce one of the first fully synchronized sound cartoons.

Steamboat Willie is one of the first cartoons with synchronized sound, and one of the first cartoons to feature a fully post-produced soundtrack, which distinguished it from earlier sound cartoons, such as Inkwell Studios's Song Car-Tunes (1924–1926), My Old Kentucky Home (1926), and Van Beuren Studios's Dinner Time (1928). Disney believed that synchronized sound was the future of film.