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Steamboat Willie, released on November 18, 1928, is an animated cartoon featuring Mickey Mouse. The cartoon is a parody of the Buster Keaton film Steamboat Bill Jr and was written and directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. However like most age old parodies, it has become more famous than what it is parodying.
Music for Steamboat Willie was put together by Wilfred Jackson, one of Disney's animators (and not as sometimes reported by Carl Stalling). It comprises popular melodies including Steamboat Bill and Turkey in the Straw.
Although other cartoons with synchronized pre-recorded soundtracks had been produced and exhibited before (notably by Max Fleischer, My Old Kentucky Home, 1926), Steamboat Willie was the first sound cartoon to attract widespread notice and popularity. The film has been close to entering the public domain several times; each time, copyright protection in the United States has been extended. (See U.S. copyright law.)
The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
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This short was intended as a parody of Buster Keaton's Steamboat Bill, Jr.
The script had Mickey serving aboard Steamboat Willie under Captain Pete. At first he is seen piloting the steamboat while whistling. Then Pete arrives to take over piloting and angrily throws him out of the boat's bridge. They soon have to stop for cargo to be transferred on board. Almost as soon as they leave, Minnie arrives. She was apparently supposed to be their only passenger but was late to board. Mickey manages to pick her up from the river shore. Minnie accidentally drops her sheet music for the popular folk song "Turkey in the Straw" (alternate versions include "Natchez Under the Hill" and "Old Zip Coon". The lyrics are thought to have been added to an earlier tune by Bob Farrell who first performed them in a minstrel show on August 11, 1834). A goat which was among the animals transported on the steamboat proceeds to eat the sheet music. Consequently Mickey and Minnie use its tail to turn it into a phonograph which is playing the tune. Through the rest of the short, Mickey uses various other animals as musical instruments. Later audiences have often described those scenes as humorously exaggerated examples of animal cruelty. Captain Pete is eventually disturbed by all this noise and places Mickey back to work. Mickey is reduced to peeling potatoes for the rest of the trip. A parrot attempts to make fun of him but is then thrown to the river by Mickey. This served as the final scene of this short.
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