Steamboat Willie
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"By 1927-1928, audiences would groan when a cartoon came on. Animation had worn out its welcome. The novelty was gone. If sound hadn't come in, the cartoon would have vanished."
—Shamus Culhane, on why Steamboat Willie was such an important film for animation.
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"Steamboat Willie" was a black and white Mickey Mouse short released on November 18, 1928, being the short that kicked off what we have come to know as The Golden Age of Animation. It is notable not for being the first Mickey Mouse cartoon (that honor goes to Plane Crazy), nor for being the first sound cartoon (Fleischer Studios had already experimented with adding sound to their cartoons), but for being the first cartoon with a completely post-produced soundtrack of music, dialogue, and sound effects. Namely, it was the first cartoon to get it right, bringing The Silent Age of Animation to an end.
The short itself begins with the iconic image of Mickey Mouse at the mast of a steamboat, whistling to himself. The villain, Pete, the real captain of the ship, steps in and hassles Mickey for not doing his job. The steamboat docks to pick up a cargo of animals, and Minnie Mouse rushes to board the ship as it leaves the dock. Mickey manages to get her on board (by using a hook to pick her up by her panties no less), but an Extreme Omni Goat eats her ukulele and her sheets of music. Somehow Mickey and Minnie are able to make the most of the situation by cranking the goat's tail, which causes it to play music. The ensuing scenes involve Mickey abusing animals in order to add to the music, by swinging a cat by its tail, choking a duck, pulling on the tails of baby pigs and then playing the mother pig's nipples. Animal abuse aside, this scene readily showed off what adding sound to cartoons could do. Pete gets angry at Mickey for slacking off again, and forces him to peel potatoes. The short ends with Mickey throwing a potato at a parrot for laughing at him.
The short was revolutionary for its time, and its copyright status in the US was up in the air for a while; Disney successfully lobbied the US Congress to extend its copyright to 2023, though by the original law it should have fallen into public domain years ago. It may in fact had been in the public domain due to errors in the original copyright formulation, but don't let Disney hear you mention that. Whatever the case was, the short finally became old enough to fall into the Public Domain on January 1, 2024. In several other countries, including Canada and Russia, the short had been in the public domain for several years.
This short has also placed no. 13 on The 50 Greatest Cartoons list, and has been listed on the National Film Registry.
- Common Knowledge: As noted above, not the first apperance of Mickey (or Pete, for that matter).
- Everything Is an Instrument
- Extreme Omni Goat
- Furry Confusion: Perhaps seeing a three foot mouse swing a cat around by its tail is some form of twisted justice.
- Not to mention you have a non-anthropomorphic cat in the same cartoon as Pete.
- Genre Busting
- ISophagus: The goat, which becomes a living phonograph as a result of eating Minnie's sheet music and ukulele.
- Kick the Dog: A rare example of someone doing this several times and still being the protagonist.
- Mickey Mousing: The Trope Maker, though Ur Examples do exist in some form, silent cartoons did have musical scores (which would have to be played by a piano player in the movie theater) and characters would often move to the beats, but not to the same extent.
- Moral Dissonance: It's not okay to abuse animals just so you can make music anymore.
- Panty Shot: A very extended one at that.
- Peeling Potatoes
- Prehensile Tail: Mickey uses it to pick up a hammer so he can use it to play a barrel like a drum and bang the trash can at the same time.
- Rubber Hose Limbs
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics
