| Steamboat Willie | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster[1] | |
| Directed by | |
| Story by |
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| Produced by |
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| Starring | Walt Disney |
| Music by |
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| Animation by |
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| Color process | Black-and-white |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Pat Powers (Celebrity Productions/Cinephone sound) |
Release date |
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Running time | 7:47 |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $4,986.69 |
Steamboat Willie is a 1928 American animatedshort film directed byWalt Disney andUb Iwerks.[2] It was produced inblack-and-white byWalt Disney Animation Studios and was released byPat Powers, under the name ofCelebrity Productions.[3] The cartoon is considered the public debut ofMickey Mouse andMinnie Mouse, although both appeared months earlier in a test screening ofPlane Crazy[4] and the then unreleasedThe Gallopin' Gaucho.[5]Steamboat Willie is the third of Mickey's films to have been produced, but it is the first to have beendistributed, because Disney had seenThe Jazz Singer (1927) and became determined to produce one of the first fully synchronized sound cartoons.[6]
Steamboat Willie is one of the first cartoons withsynchronized sound, and one of the first cartoons to feature a fullypost-produced soundtrack, which distinguished it from earlier sound cartoons, such asInkwell Studios'sSong Car-Tunes (1924–1926),My Old Kentucky Home (1926), andVan Beuren Studios'sDinner Time (1928). Disney believed that synchronized sound was the future of film.
The soundtrack was arranged byWilfred Jackson and Bert Lewis, and it included the songs "Steamboat Bill", a composition popularized by baritoneArthur Collins during the 1910s, and the popular 19th-century folk song "Turkey in the Straw".[7] The film's title may be a parody of theBuster Keaton filmSteamboat Bill, Jr. (1928),[8] which is a reference to the song by Collins. Disney performed all of the voices in the film's little intelligible dialogue.[a]
Steamboat Willie became the most popular cartoon of its time. It has received wide critical acclaim, for introducing one of the world's most popular cartoon characters and for its technical innovation. It is often considered one of the most influential cartoons ever made. Animators voted it the 13th-greatest cartoon of all time in the 1994 bookThe 50 Greatest Cartoons, and in 1998, the film was selected by the United StatesLibrary of Congress for preservation in theNational Film Registry.[10] The cartoon entered thepublic domain in the United States on January 1, 2024, alongside other works published in 1928.
Mickey Mouse was created as a replacement forOswald the Lucky Rabbit, an earlier character originated by the Disney studio but owned at the time byUniversal Pictures.[11] The first twoMickey Mouse films produced, silent versions ofPlane Crazy andThe Gallopin' Gaucho, had failed to gain adistributor. According toRoy O. Disney, Walt Disney was inspired to create a sound cartoon to greatly increase its appeal, after watchingThe Jazz Singer (1927).[12] The character ofPete predatesSteamboat Willie by multiple years, having appeared as the villain to both Oswald and Disney's first ever cartoon hero,Julius the Cat (an unlicensed derivative character ofFelix the Cat) starting withAlice Solves the Puzzle (1925), though he was originally depicted as a bear.
Steamboat Willie became widely recognized as the first cartoon with synchronized sound, but it is not.[13] From May 1924 to September 1926,Dave andMax Fleischer'sInkwell Studios produced 19 sound cartoons, part of theSong Car-Tunes series, using thePhonofilm sound-on-film process. However, theSong Car-Tunes failed to keep the sound fully synchronized, whereasSteamboat Willie was produced using aclick track to keep his musicians on the beat.[14] Only one month beforeSteamboat Willie was released,Paul Terry releasedDinner Time, which has a soundtrack but was not a financial success.
In June 1927, producerPat Powers made an unsuccessful takeover bid forLee de Forest'sPhonofilm Corporation. In the aftermath, Powers hired a former DeForest technician, William Garrity, to produce a cloned version of the Phonofilm system, which Powers dubbed "Powers Cinephone". By then, de Forest was in too weak a financial position to mount a legal challenge against Powers for patent infringement. Powers convinced Disney to use Cinephone forSteamboat Willie. Their business relationship lasted until 1930 when Powers and Disney had a falling-out over money, and Powers hired away Disney's lead animator,Ub Iwerks.[citation needed]
Mickey Mouse is piloting a side-wheelerpaddle steamer, cheerfully whistling "Steamboat Bill" and sounding the boat's three whistles. Soon, captainPete appears and orders Mickey off of thebridge. Annoyed, Mickeyblows a raspberry at Pete who attempts to kick him, but Mickey rushes away in time and Pete accidentally kicks himself in the rear. Mickey falls down the stairs, slips on a bar of soap on the boat's deck, and lands in a bucket of water. A parrot laughs at him and Mickey throws the bucket on its head.
Pete has been watching the occurrence, and pilots the steamboat himself. He bites off somechewing tobacco and spits into the wind. The spit flies backward and rings the boat's bell. Amused, Pete spits again, but this time the spit hits him in the face, to his dismay.
The steamboat makes a stop at "Podunk Landing" to pick up a cargo of variouslivestock. Mickey has trouble getting one of the slimmer cows with aFOB tag onto the boat attached to a harness. To solve this, Mickey fills the cow's stomach up with hay to fatten the slim cow into the harness. Just as they set off again,Minnie Mouse appears, running to catch the boat before it leaves. Mickey does not see her in time, but she runs after the boat along the shore calling out Mickey's name. Mickey hears Minnie's calls and he takes her on board by hooking the cargo crane to herbloomers.
Landing on deck, Minnie accidentally drops aukulele and sheet music for the song "Turkey in the Straw", which are eaten by a goat. After a brief tug of war with the goat over the partially eaten ukulele, Mickey loses his grip and it lands inside the goat. The force from the ukulele makes the goat begin to play musical notes. Mickey is interested, and orders Minnie to begin using the goat's body as a phonograph by turning its tail like a crank. Music begins to play which delights the two mice. Mickey uses various objects on the boat as percussion accompaniment, and later on begins to "play" the animals like musical instruments via pulling the tail of a cat, stretching a goose's throat,tugging on the tails of a nursing sow's piglets and using the sow as an accordion, and using a cow's teeth and tongue as axylophone to play the song.[15][16][17]
Captain Pete is unamused by the musical act and puts Mickey to work peeling potatoes as a punishment. Out of spite, Mickey uses a knife to peel the potatoes wastefully, discarding most of the potato along with the skin. In the potato bin, the same parrot that laughed at him earlier appears in the porthole and laughs at him again. Fed up with the bird's heckling, Mickey throws a half-peeled potato at it, knocking it back into the river below. Mickey then laughs as he sits next to the potatoes and hears the parrot squawking.
Mickey, Minnie, and Pete perform in near-pantomime, with growls and squeaks but no intelligible dialogue. The only true dialogue in the film is spoken by the ship's parrot. When Mickey falls into a bucket of soapy water, the bird says, "Hope you don't feel hurt, big boy! Ha ha ha ha ha!".[18] After Mickey throws the bucket onto the parrot's head, it cries "Help! Help! Man overboard!". It repeats the phase at the end of the short, after Mickey throws a potato onto the parrot and it falls into the water.[19]
The production ofSteamboat Willie was between July and September 1928, which according to Roy O. Disney's personal notes had a budget ofUS$4,986.69 (equivalent to about $91,000 in 2024), including the prints for movie theaters.[20] There was initially some doubt among the animators that a sound cartoon would appear believable enough, so before a soundtrack was produced, Disney arranged for a screening of the film to a test audience with live sound to accompany it.[21] This screening took place on July 29, withSteamboat Willie only partly finished. The audience sat in a room adjoining Walt Disney's office. His brotherRoy projected the film from outdoors and through a window, to hide the projector's mechanical sound.Ub Iwerks hung a bedsheet behind the movie screen, behind which he placed a microphone connected to speakers where the audience would sit. The live sound was produced from behind the bedsheet.Wilfred Jackson played the music on amouth organ, Ub Iwerks banged on pots and pans for the percussion segment, and Johnny Cannon provided sound effects with various devices, includingslide whistles andspittoons for bells. Walt Disney provided the short's little dialogue, mostly grunts, laughs, and squawks. After several practices, they were ready for the performance for Disney employees and their wives.
The audience's response was extremely positive, and it gave Walt Disney the confidence to move forward and complete the film. He recalled this first viewing: "The effect on our little audience was nothing less than electric. They responded almost instinctively to this union of sound and motion. I thought they were kidding me. So they put me in the audience and ran the action again. It was terrible, but it was wonderful! And it was something new!" Iwerks said: "I've never been so thrilled in my life. Nothing since has ever equaled it."[22]
Walt Disney traveled to New York City to hire a company to produce the soundtrack, since no such facilities existed in Los Angeles. He eventually settled onPat Powers'sCinephone system,[23] created by Powers using an updated version of Lee De Forest's Phonofilm system, without giving De Forest any credit.[24]
The music in the final soundtrack was performed by theGreen Brothers Novelty Band and was conducted byCarl Edouarde. Joe and Lew Green from the band also assisted in timing the music to the film. The first attempt to synchronize the recording with the film, done on September 15, 1928, was a disaster.[25] Disney had to sell hisMoon roadster in order to finance a second recording. This was a success, with the addition of a filmedbouncing ball to keep the tempo.[26]
Steamboat Willie premiered atUniversal's Colony Theater in New York City on November 18, 1928.[27] The film was distributed by Celebrity Productions,[26] and its initial run was played five times daily[28] for two weeks. Disney was paid$500 (equivalent to about $9,000 in 2024) per week.[26] It played ahead of the independent feature filmGang War.[4]Steamboat Willie was an immediate hit, butGang War became alost film.
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The success ofSteamboat Willie led to international fame for Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse.
Variety magazine's issue on November 21, 1928, said:
Not the first animated cartoon to be synchronized with sound effects, but the first to attract favorable attention. This one represents a high order of cartoon ingenuity, cleverly combined with sound effects. The union brought forth laughs galore. Giggles came so fast at the Colony [Theater] they were stumbling over each other. It's a peach of a synchronization job all the way, bright, snappy, and fit the situation perfectly. Cartoonist, Walter Disney. With most of the animated cartoons qualifying as a pain in the neck, it's a signal tribute to this particular one. If the same combination of talent can turn out a series as good asSteamboat Willie they should find a wide market if the interchangeability angle does not interfere. Recommended unreservedly for all wired houses.[29]
The Film Daily on November 25, 1928, said:
This is whatSteamboat Willie has: First, a clever and amusing treatment; secondly, music and sound effects added via the Cinephone method. The result is a real tidbit of diversion. The maximum has been gotten from the sound effects. Worthy of bookings in any house wired to reproduce sound-on-film. Incidentally, this is the first Cinephone-recorded subject to get a public exhibition and at the Colony [Theater], New York, is being shown over Western Electric equipment.[30]
In 1994, members of the animation field votedSteamboat Willie 13th in the bookThe 50 Greatest Cartoons, which listed the greatest cartoons of all time.[31] In 1998, the short was selected for preservation in the United StatesNational Film Registry by theLibrary of Congress as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[32] The AustralianPerth Mint released a 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) gold coin in honor ofSteamboat Willie in 2015.[33]
Prior to its entrance into thepublic domain on January 1, 2024, the film had been the center of a variety of general controversies regarding copyright. Its copyright was extended by multiple acts of theUnited States Congress. Since the copyright was filed in 1928, three days after its initial release,[34] it was repeatedly extended for nearly a century.[35]
Steamboat Willie could have entered the public domain in four different years: first in 1955,[36] at which point it was renewed to 1986,[37] then extended to 2003 by theCopyright Act of 1976,[38] and finally to 2023 by the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 (also known pejoratively as the "Mickey Mouse Protection Act").[39] It has been claimed that these extensions were a response by Congress to extensive lobbying by The Walt Disney Company.[40]
In the 1990s, former Disney researcher Gregory S. Brown determined that the film was likely in the U.S. public domain already due to errors in the original copyright formulation.[41] In particular, the original film's copyright notice had two additional names between Disney and the copyright statement. Thus, under the rules of theCopyright Act of 1909, all copyright claims would be null.[42][41]Arizona State University professorDennis Karjala suggested that one of his law school students look into Brown's claim as a class project. Lauren Vanpelt took up the challenge and produced a paper agreeing with Brown's claim. She posted her project on the Internet in 1999.[43] Disney later threatened to sue aGeorgetown University law student who wrote a paper confirming Brown's claims,[44] alleging that publishing the paper could beslander of title, but Disney chose not to sue after its publication.[45]
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Beginning in 2022, severalRepublican lawmakers vowed to oppose any future attempt to extend the copyright term due to Disney's opposition of theFlorida Parental Rights in Education Act. Legal experts noted that later versions of Mickey Mouse created afterSteamboat Willie will remain copyrighted, and Disney's use of theSteamboat Willie versionas a logo in its films since 2007 may allow the company to claim protection for the 1928 version undertrademark law, because active trademarks can be renewed in perpetuity if the owner can prove ongoing usage.[47][48]
In April 2023,John Oliver announced his intention to use theSteamboat Willie version of Mickey Mouseas the new mascot forLast Week Tonight with John Oliver as soon as the cartoon entered the public domain in 2024, and debuted the "brand new character".[49]
Not affectingtrademark status,[50]Steamboat Willie entered the US public domain on January 1, 2024, more than 95 years after its release.[51][52]
Although it was believed that only theblack-and-white depiction of Mickey Mouse (lacking the red shorts and gloves) would enter the public domain, it has been pointed out that a promotional poster created in 1928 features Mickey Mouse wearing red shorts and yellow gloves, meaning those attributes might also have entered the public domain.[53][54] However, though the poster was created in 1928, it is unclear whether it was published that year; thus, its copyright status is unknown, and Mickey Mouse's red shorts and yellow gloves are not definitively in the public domain.[51]
The copyright status ofSteamboat Willie has been more complicated in Japan. Many people believed that the copyright expired in May 1989, based on the regular copyright term of 50 years after publication plus the wartime extension of 10 years and 5 months. In 2003, Japan extended the copyright length for films to 70 years, but it did not revive already expired copyrights. However, films released before 1971 remain under copyright until 38 years after the director dies if it is longer than 70 years after publication.[55] Ub Iwerks, the last surviving director, died in 1971, and counting from 38 years after his death plus the wartime extension, Mickey Mouse entered the public domain in Japan in May 2020. Still, some people[who?] alleged that Mickey Mouse would remain protected until 2052 due to the complex nature of the protection for films.[56]
However, according to the Copyright Act of Japan, once the cinematographic work's copyright expires, the original work also loses copyright protection, and the protection for the author's life plus 70 years does not apply to anonymous, corporate or cinematographic works,[57] so it is most likely that the film entered the public domain in May 2020.
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The fourth-season 1992 episode ofThe Simpsons "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie" features a short parody of the opening scene ofSteamboat Willie, titledSteamboat Itchy.[58]
In the 1998 filmSaving Private Ryan, set in 1944, a German prisoner of war, nicknamed "Steamboat Willie", tries to win the sympathy of his American captors by talking about Mickey Mouse.[59]
In the 2008 film spinoffThe Beast with a Billion Backs from the TV seriesFuturama, the opening is a parody ofSteamboat Willie.[60]
As part of its 100-year anniversary, in July 2023, Disney released aThe Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse special and series finale titledSteamboat Silly featuring multiple copies of vintage Mickey.[61][62]
The first cinematic adaptation ofSteamboat Willie since its entry to public domain is the live-action art filmSocial Imagineering by multidisciplinary artist Sweætshops released at midnight on January 1, 2024, which was filmed on thePSWaverley paddle steamer.[63]
Steamboat Willie–themed levels are featured in the video gamesMickey Mania (1994),[64]Kingdom Hearts II (2005),[65] andEpic Mickey (2010).[66] An alternateSteamboat Willie-themed costume ofKingdom Hearts'Sora is featured inSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018).[67] TheSteamboat Willie versions of Mickey Mouse and Pete are featured as playable racers inDisney Speedstorm (2023).[68][69]
In 1993, to coincide with the opening ofMickey's Toontown inDisneyland, a shortened cover of the cartoon's music was arranged to be featured in the land's background ambiance.[70]
In 2007, aSteamboat Willie clip of Mickey whistling started being used in theproduction logo of Walt Disney Animation Studios.[71][72]
In 2019,Lego released an officialSteamboat Willie set to commemorate the 90th anniversary of Mickey Mouse.[73]
The whistle in the film has been used to make sound, and the ship's wheel is a prop,[74][75] in theMickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway attraction, which opened atDisneyland in January 2023.[76]
Following the cartoon entering the public domain, several unofficial media were announced, including survival horror gameInfestation: Origins.[77]
Several film adaptations were announced.[78]The Mouse Trap (2024) is aslasher film where a mass murderer in a Mickey Mouse mask hunts down a group of teenagers inside an amusement arcade,[79] andScreamboat (2025)[80] is acomedy horror film where Mickey Mouse turns into a mutated creature that starts a murderous rampage on a ferry.[79]Screamboat was directed by Steven LaMorte, who previously worked on the 2022Grinchslasher filmThe Mean One.[81]
Media compared both films toWinnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey which was enabled byWinnie-the-Pooh entering the public domain the previous year.[78][81]
In the 1950s, Disney removed a scene in which Mickey tugs on the tails of the baby pigs, and then picks up the mother and kicks them off her teats, and plays her like an accordion, because television distributors deemed it inappropriate.[82] A variant of this censored version is featured on the 1998 VHS/Laserdisc compilation specialThe Spirit of Mickey, where the first part of the scene with Mickey pulling on the piglets' tails is reinstated. Since then, the full version of the film was included on theWalt Disney Treasures DVD set "Mickey Mouse in Black and White", and onDisney+ and the Disney website,[83]
Buster Keaton's...'last great film' which inspired Mickey Mouse's first cartoon in sound,Steamboat Willie.
The most notable film that played there in the early years was Walt Disney'sSteamboat Willie which opened in 1928, and introduced American audiences to an adorable rodent named Mickey Mouse.
163 Steamboat Willie / R162021 (1955)
Disney warned him that publishing his research could be seen as 'slander of title' suggesting that he was inviting a lawsuit. He still published and Disney did not sue.
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