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Steamboat Willie
Directed by Ub Iwerks19288 minAnimation / Short
Mickey Mouse takes the wheel of a riverboat, toots the whistle, and turns livestock into a one-mouse band — a goat for bagpipes, a cow’s teeth for xylophone, a cat for bagpipes again. Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks’s 1928 short is not the first Mickey cartoon drawn, but it is the one that made him immortal: the first Disney film with fully synchronized sound, premiered at New York’s Colony Theatre months after The Jazz Singer had taught the country to listen. Mickey, Minnie, and a furious Captain Pete sail through gags timed to the music with a precision that changed animation. The mouse who would become the face of a studio empire starts here, whistling at the wheel.
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Mickey Mouse takes the wheel of a riverboat, toots the whistle, and turns livestock into a one-mouse band — a goat for bagpipes, a cow’s teeth for xylophone, a cat for bagpipes again. Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks’s 1928 short is not the first Mickey cartoon drawn, but it is the one that made him immortal: the first Disney film with fully synchronized sound, premiered at New York’s Colony Theatre months after The Jazz Singer had taught the country to listen. Mickey, Minnie, and a furious Captain Pete sail through gags timed to the music with a precision that changed animation. The mouse who would become the face of a studio empire starts here, whistling at the wheel.
- Director
- Ub Iwerks
- Year
- 1928
- Runtime
- 8 min
- Genres
- Animation / Short
- Catalog sections
- Short Films