Steamboat Willie
Encyclopedia
Steamboat Willie is a 1928 American animated short film directed by Walt Disney
and Ub Iwerks
. It was produced in black-and-white by The Walt Disney Studio and released by Celebrity Productions. The cartoon is considered the debut of Mickey Mouse
, and as his girlfriend Minnie
, but the characters had both appeared several months earlier in test screenings. Steamboat Willie was the third of Mickey's films to be produced, but was the first to be distributed
.
The film is also notable for being one of the first cartoons with synchronized sound
. More precisely, it was the first cartoon to feature a fully post-produced soundtrack which distinguished it from earlier sound cartoons such as Inkwell Studios' Song Car-Tunes (1924-1927) and Van Beuren Studios' Dinner Time (1928). Also distinguishing Steamboat Willie from earlier sound cartoons was the level of popularity.
Music for Steamboat Willie was arranged by Wilfred Jackson
and Bert Lewis, and included the songs "Steamboat Bill," a 1911 Arthur Collins composition, and "Turkey in the Straw
." The title of the film is a parody of the Buster Keaton
film Steamboat Bill Jr.
(1928), itself a reference to the song by Collins. Walt Disney performed all of the voices in the film, although there is little intelligible dialogue.
While the film has received some criticism due to humorous depiction of cruelty to animals
, it has also received wide critical acclaim, not only for introducing one of the world's most popular cartoon characters, but for the inovation. In 1994 members of the animation field voted Steamboat Willie 13th in the book The 50 Greatest Cartoons
, which listed the greatest cartoons of all time. In 1998 the film was selected for preservation in the United States' National Film Registry
for being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Mickey Mouse
pilots a river steamboat
, suggesting that he himself is the captain. He cheerfully whistles "Steamboat Bill" and sounds the boat's three whistles. Soon the real captain appears (Pete) and angrily orders Mickey off the bridge. Mickey blows a raspberry
at Pete, but he falls down the stairs and slips on a bar of soap on the boat's deck. A parrot makes fun of him, but Mickey throws a bucket of water over the bird.
Now piloting the steamboat himself, Pete bites off some chewing tobacco
and spits into the wind. The spit flies backward and rings the boat's bell. Amused by this Pete spits again, but it hits him in the face.
The steamboat makes a stop at "Podunk Landing" to pick up a cargo of various livestock. Just as they set off again, Minnie 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 and Mickey takes her on board using the cargo crane.
Landing on deck, Minnie accidentally drops a guitar and some sheet music for the song "Turkey in the Straw
" which are eaten by a goat. The two mice use the goat's body as a phonograph
which they play by turning the animal's tail like a crank. Mickey uses various objects on the boat as percussion accompaniment and "plays" the animals like musical instruments.
Finally an unamused Captain Pete appears and puts Mickey Mouse to work peeling potatoes. In the potato bin, the same parrot from before appears in the port hole and mocks Mickey again. The mouse throws a potato at him, knocking him into the river below. The film ends with Mickey laughing at the bird struggling in the water.
, Walt Disney was inspired to create a sound cartoon after watching The Jazz Singer
(1927). Disney had intended for Mickey Mouse to be the new star character to replace Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
after he lost the rights to the character to Charles Mintz. However the first two Mickey Mouse films produced, silent versions of Plane Crazy
and The Gallopin' Gaucho
, had failed to impress audiences and gain a distributor
. Disney believed that adding sound to a cartoon would greatly increase its appeal.
Steamboat Willie was not the first cartoon with synchronized sound. Dave
and Max Fleischer's
Inkwell Studios
had earlier produced seven sound cartoons, part of the Song Car-Tunes which starting in May 1924. However the Song Car-Tunes failed to keep the sound fully synchronized, while Steamboat Willie was produced using a click track
to keep his musicians on the beat. As little as two months before Steamboat Willie was released, Paul Terry's
produced Dinner Time
which also used a soundtrack, but Dinner Time was not a financial success.
In June 1927, producer Pat Powers made an unsuccessful takeover bid for Lee DeForest's Phonofilm 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, DeForest was in too weak a financial position to mount a legal challenge against Powers for patent infringement. Powers convinced Disney to use Cinephone for Steamboat Willie before Powers and Disney had a falling-out over money, and over Powers hiring away Disney animator Ub Iwerks
in 1930.
The production of Steamboat Willie took place between July and September 1928 with an estimated budget of $4,986. 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. This screening took place on July 29 with Steamboat Willie only partly finished. The audience sat in a room adjoining Walt's office. Roy placed the movie projector outdoors and the film was projected through a window so that the sound of the projector would not interfere with the live sound. Ub Iwerks
set up a bed sheet 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 bed sheet. Wilfred Jackson
played the music on a mouth organ
, Ub Iwerks banged on pots and pans for the percussion segment, Johnny Cannon provided sound effects with various devices including slide whistle
s and spittoon
s for bells. Walt himself provided what little dialogue there was to the film, mostly grunts, laughs, and squawks. After several practices, they were ready for the audience which consisted of Disney employees and their wives.
The response of the audience was extremely positive, and it gave Walt the confidence to move forward and complete the film. He said later in recalling 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."
Walt traveled to New York City to hire a company to produce the sound system. He eventually settled on Pat Powers's Cinephone system, created by Powers using an updated version of Lee De Forest
's Phonofilm
system without giving De Forest any credit, a decision he would later regret.
The music in the final soundtrack was performed by the Green Brothers Novelty Band and was conducted by Carl Edouarde
. The brothers 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 was a disaster. Disney had to sell his Moon roadster
in order to finance a second recording. This was a success with the addition of a filmed bouncing ball
to keep the tempo.
Steamboat Willie premiered at Universal's Colony Theater
in New York City on November 18, 1928. The film was distributed by Celebrity Productions and its initial run lasted two weeks. Disney was paid $500 a week which was considered a large amount at the time. It played ahead of the independent feature film Gang War
. Steamboat Willie was an immediate hit while Gang War is all but forgotten today.
The success of Steamboat Willie not only led to international fame for Walt Disney, but for Mickey as well. On November 21, Variety magazine
published a review which read in part "Not the first animated cartoon to be synchronized with sound effects, but the first to attract favorable attention. [Steamboat Willie] represents a high order of cartoon ingenuity, cleverly combined with sound effects. The union brought laughs galore. Giggles came so fast at the Colony [Theater] they were stumbling over each other." The response led to the two previous Mickey films to be reproduced as sound cartoons and given wide theatrical releases.
, including Mickey pulling a cat's tail and then swinging the cat by the tail above his head, picking up a nursing sow
and "playing" her babies, and using a duck as bagpipes. The full version of the film was included on the "Walt Disney Treasures
" DVD set "Mickey Mouse in Black and White."
. The copyright of the film has been repeatedly extended by acts of the United States Congress
. However, recent evidence suggests that the film may be in the public domain
due to technicalities related to the original copyright notice.
The film has been the center of some attention regarding the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act
passed in the United States. Steamboat Willie has been close to entering the public domain in the U.S. several times. Each time, copyright protection has been extended. It could have entered public domain in 4 different years; first in 1956, renewed to 1984, then to 2003 by the Copyright Act of 1976
, and finally to the current public domain date of 2023 by the Copyright Term Extension Act (also known pejoratively as the "Mickey Mouse Protection Act") of 1998. The U.S. copyright on Steamboat Willie will be in effect through 2023 unless there is another extension of the law.
It has been claimed that these extensions were a response by the Congress to extensive lobbying by The Walt Disney Company. Others claim that the copyright extensions Congress has passed in recent decades have followed extensions in international copyright conventions to which the United States is a signatory. (See US Copyright Law, Universal Copyright Convention
, and Berne Convention
.)
In the 1990s, former Disney researcher Gregory S. Brown determined that the film was likely in U.S. public domain already due to errors in the original copyright formulation. In particular, the original film's copyright notice had two additional names between Disney and the copyright statement. Thus, under the rules of the Copyright Act of 1909
, all copyright claims would be null. Arizona State University
professor Dennis 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 Web in 1999. Disney later threatened to sue a Georgetown University
law student who wrote a paper confirming Brown's claims.
(2005), and Epic Mickey
(2010).
The fourth season episode of The Simpsons
, "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie
" features a short but nearly frame-for-frame parody of the opening scene of Steamboat Willie.
In the 1998 film Saving Private Ryan
, set in 1944, a German POW tries to win the sympathy of his American captors by mentioning Steamboat Willie, even mimicking the sound of the boat whistle from the film. The unnamed character appears in the credits as "Steamboat Willie".
Since the release of Meet the Robinsons
(2007), the scene of Mickey at the wheel of the steamboat whistling has been used in the production logo
for Walt Disney Animation Studios films. The scene was also depicted in the film poster (above right). The same scene is also depicted on the hologram on the spine of recent Disney DVD releases.
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
and Ub Iwerks
Ub Iwerks
Ub Iwerks, A.S.C. was a two-time Academy Award winning American animator, cartoonist, character designer, inventor, creator of Mickey Mouse, and special effects technician, who was famous for his work for Walt Disney....
. It was produced in black-and-white by The Walt Disney Studio and released by Celebrity Productions. The cartoon is considered the debut of Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...
, and as his girlfriend Minnie
Minnie Mouse
Minerva "Minnie" Mouse is an animated character created by Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney. The comic strip story "The Gleam" by Merrill De Maris and Floyd Gottfredson first gave her full name as Minerva Mouse. Minnie has since been a recurring alias for her. Minnie is currently voiced by actress Russi...
, but the characters had both appeared several months earlier in test screenings. Steamboat Willie was the third of Mickey's films to be produced, but was the first to be distributed
Film distribution
The distribution of a film is the process through which a movie is made available to watch for an audience by a film distributor...
.
The film is also notable for being one of the first cartoons with synchronized sound
Sound film
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially...
. More precisely, it was the first cartoon to feature a fully post-produced soundtrack which distinguished it from earlier sound cartoons such as Inkwell Studios' Song Car-Tunes (1924-1927) and Van Beuren Studios' Dinner Time (1928). Also distinguishing Steamboat Willie from earlier sound cartoons was the level of popularity.
Music for Steamboat Willie was arranged by Wilfred Jackson
Wilfred Jackson
Wilfred Jackson was an American animator, arranger, composer and director best known for his work on the Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies series of cartoons and the two segments Night on Bald Mountain and Ave Maria of Fantasia from The Walt Disney Company.Wilfred Jackson was born in Chicago,...
and Bert Lewis, and included the songs "Steamboat Bill," a 1911 Arthur Collins composition, and "Turkey in the Straw
Turkey in the Straw
"Turkey in the Straw" is a well-known American folk song dating from the early 19th century.The song's tune was first popularized in the late 1820s and early 1830s by blackface performers, notably George Washington Dixon, Bob Farrell and George Nichols. Another song, "Zip Coon", was sung to the...
." The title of the film is a parody of the Buster Keaton
Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...
film Steamboat Bill Jr.
Steamboat Bill Jr.
Steamboat Bill Jr. is a 1928 feature-length comedy silent film featuring Buster Keaton. Released by United Artists, the film is the last product of Keaton's independent production team and set of gag writers. It was not a box-office success and proved to be the last picture Keaton would make for...
(1928), itself a reference to the song by Collins. Walt Disney performed all of the voices in the film, although there is little intelligible dialogue.
While the film has received some criticism due to humorous depiction of cruelty to animals
Cruelty to animals
Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse or animal neglect, is the infliction of suffering or harm upon non-human animals, for purposes other than self-defense. More narrowly, it can be harm for specific gain, such as killing animals for food or for their fur, although opinions differ with...
, it has also received wide critical acclaim, not only for introducing one of the world's most popular cartoon characters, but for the inovation. In 1994 members of the animation field voted Steamboat Willie 13th in the book The 50 Greatest Cartoons
The 50 Greatest Cartoons
The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals is a 1994 book by animation historian Jerry Beck, consisting of articles about, and rankings of fifty highly-regarded animated short films made in North America, as well as many other notable cartoons. It generated a significant...
, which listed the greatest cartoons of all time. In 1998 the film was selected for preservation in the United States' National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
for being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Synopsis
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...
pilots a river steamboat
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
, suggesting that he himself is the captain. He cheerfully whistles "Steamboat Bill" and sounds the boat's three whistles. Soon the real captain appears (Pete) and angrily orders Mickey off the bridge. Mickey blows a raspberry
Blowing a raspberry
Blowing a raspberry or strawberry or making a Bronx cheer is to make a noise signifying derision, real or feigned. It is made by placing the tongue between the lips and blowing, making a sound redolent of flatulence. In the terminology of phonetics, this sound can be described as an unvoiced...
at Pete, but he falls down the stairs and slips on a bar of soap on the boat's deck. A parrot makes fun of him, but Mickey throws a bucket of water over the bird.
Now piloting the steamboat himself, Pete bites off some chewing tobacco
Chewing tobacco
Chewing tobacco Chewing tobacco Chewing tobacco (also known colloquially as hoobastank, backy, tobac, doogooos,Hogleg, chewpoos, chits, chewsky, chawsky, dip, flab, chowers, guy, or a wad, as well as referred to as dipsky, snuff, a pinch, a yopper, a Packing a bomb, a tobbackey or packing a...
and spits into the wind. The spit flies backward and rings the boat's bell. Amused by this Pete spits again, but it hits him in the face.
The steamboat makes a stop at "Podunk Landing" to pick up a cargo of various livestock. Just as they set off again, Minnie 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 and Mickey takes her on board using the cargo crane.
Landing on deck, Minnie accidentally drops a guitar and some sheet music for the song "Turkey in the Straw
Turkey in the Straw
"Turkey in the Straw" is a well-known American folk song dating from the early 19th century.The song's tune was first popularized in the late 1820s and early 1830s by blackface performers, notably George Washington Dixon, Bob Farrell and George Nichols. Another song, "Zip Coon", was sung to the...
" which are eaten by a goat. The two mice use the goat's body as a phonograph
Phonograph
The phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...
which they play by turning the animal's tail like a crank. Mickey uses various objects on the boat as percussion accompaniment and "plays" the animals like musical instruments.
Finally an unamused Captain Pete appears and puts Mickey Mouse to work peeling potatoes. In the potato bin, the same parrot from before appears in the port hole and mocks Mickey again. The mouse throws a potato at him, knocking him into the river below. The film ends with Mickey laughing at the bird struggling in the water.
Background
According to Roy O. DisneyRoy O. Disney
Roy Oliver Disney was, with his younger brother, Walt Disney, the co-founder of what is now The Walt Disney Company.-Early life:...
, Walt Disney was inspired to create a sound cartoon after watching The Jazz Singer
The Jazz Singer
The Jazz Singer may refer to:* The Jazz Singer , a 1925 Broadway play* The Jazz Singer , a film version of the play, and the first feature-length motion picture with talking sequences...
(1927). Disney had intended for Mickey Mouse to be the new star character to replace Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is an anthropomorphic rabbit and animated cartoon character created by Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney for films distributed by Universal Pictures in the 1920s and 1930s...
after he lost the rights to the character to Charles Mintz. However the first two Mickey Mouse films produced, silent versions of Plane Crazy
Plane Crazy
Plane Crazy is an American animated short film directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The cartoon, produced in 1928 by The Walt Disney Studio, was the first to feature the character Mickey Mouse. It was made as a silent film and given a test screening to a theater audience on May 15, 1928, but...
and The Gallopin' Gaucho
The Gallopin' Gaucho
The Gallopin' Gaucho was the second short film featuring Mickey Mouse to be produced, following Plane Crazy and preceding Steamboat Willie. The Walt Disney Company completed the silent version on August 2, 1928, but failed to distribute it widely...
, had failed to impress audiences and gain a distributor
Film distributor
A film distributor is a company or individual responsible for releasing films to the public either theatrically or for home viewing...
. Disney believed that adding sound to a cartoon would greatly increase its appeal.
Steamboat Willie was not the first cartoon with synchronized sound. Dave
Dave Fleischer
David "Dave" Fleischer was an American animator film director and film producer, best known as a co-owner of Fleischer Studios with his two older brothers Max Fleischer and Lou Fleischer...
and Max Fleischer's
Max Fleischer
Max Fleischer was an American animator. He was a pioneer in the development of the animated cartoon and served as the head of Fleischer Studios...
Inkwell Studios
Fleischer Studios
Fleischer Studios, Inc., was an American corporation which originated as an Animation studio located at 1600 Broadway, New York City, New York...
had earlier produced seven sound cartoons, part of the Song Car-Tunes which starting in May 1924. However the Song Car-Tunes failed to keep the sound fully synchronized, while Steamboat Willie was produced using a click track
Click track
A click track is a series of audio cues used to synchronize sound recordings, sometimes for synchronization to a moving image. The click track originated in early sound movies, where marks were made on the film itself to indicate exact timings for musicians to accompany the film...
to keep his musicians on the beat. As little as two months before Steamboat Willie was released, Paul Terry's
Paul Terry (cartoonist)
Paul Houlton Terry was an American cartoonist, screenwriter, film director and one of the most prolific film producers in history...
produced Dinner Time
Dinner Time
Dinner Time is an animated short subject produced and directed by Paul Terry, co-directed by John Foster, and produced at Van Beuren Studios...
which also used a soundtrack, but Dinner Time was not a financial success.
In June 1927, producer Pat Powers made an unsuccessful takeover bid for Lee DeForest's Phonofilm Corporation
Phonofilm
In 1919, Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patent on a sound-on-film process, DeForest Phonofilm, which recorded sound directly onto film as parallel lines. These parallel lines photographically recorded electrical waveforms from a microphone, which were translated back...
. 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, DeForest was in too weak a financial position to mount a legal challenge against Powers for patent infringement. Powers convinced Disney to use Cinephone for Steamboat Willie before Powers and Disney had a falling-out over money, and over Powers hiring away Disney animator Ub Iwerks
Ub Iwerks
Ub Iwerks, A.S.C. was a two-time Academy Award winning American animator, cartoonist, character designer, inventor, creator of Mickey Mouse, and special effects technician, who was famous for his work for Walt Disney....
in 1930.
Production
Ub Iwerks
Ub Iwerks, A.S.C. was a two-time Academy Award winning American animator, cartoonist, character designer, inventor, creator of Mickey Mouse, and special effects technician, who was famous for his work for Walt Disney....
set up a bed sheet 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 bed sheet. Wilfred Jackson
Wilfred Jackson
Wilfred Jackson was an American animator, arranger, composer and director best known for his work on the Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies series of cartoons and the two segments Night on Bald Mountain and Ave Maria of Fantasia from The Walt Disney Company.Wilfred Jackson was born in Chicago,...
played the music on a mouth organ
Mouth organ
A mouth organ is a generic term for free reed aerophone with one or more air chambers fitted with a free reed.Though it spans many traditions, it is played universally the same way by the musician placing their lips over a chamber or holes in the instrument, and blowing or sucking air to create a...
, Ub Iwerks banged on pots and pans for the percussion segment, Johnny Cannon provided sound effects with various devices including slide whistle
Slide whistle
A slide whistle is a wind instrument consisting of a fipple like a recorder's and a tube with a piston in it. Thus it has an air reed like some woodwinds, but varies the pitch with a slide. The construction is rather like a bicycle pump...
s and spittoon
Spittoon
A spittoon is a receptacle made for spitting into, especially by users of chewing and dipping tobacco. It is also known as a cuspidor , although that term is also used for a type of spitting sink used in dentistry."Spittoon" can also be slang American English...
s for bells. Walt himself provided what little dialogue there was to the film, mostly grunts, laughs, and squawks. After several practices, they were ready for the audience which consisted of Disney employees and their wives.
The response of the audience was extremely positive, and it gave Walt the confidence to move forward and complete the film. He said later in recalling 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."
Walt traveled to New York City to hire a company to produce the sound system. He eventually settled on Pat Powers's Cinephone system, created by Powers using an updated version of Lee De Forest
Lee De Forest
Lee De Forest was an American inventor with over 180 patents to his credit. De Forest invented the Audion, a vacuum tube that takes relatively weak electrical signals and amplifies them. De Forest is one of the fathers of the "electronic age", as the Audion helped to usher in the widespread use...
's Phonofilm
Phonofilm
In 1919, Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patent on a sound-on-film process, DeForest Phonofilm, which recorded sound directly onto film as parallel lines. These parallel lines photographically recorded electrical waveforms from a microphone, which were translated back...
system without giving De Forest any credit, a decision he would later regret.
The music in the final soundtrack was performed by the Green Brothers Novelty Band and was conducted by Carl Edouarde
Carl Edouarde
Carl Edouarde was an American composer of film music. He composed the background music to The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Private Life of Helen of Troy . He synchronized three films: A Close Call, Barnyard Melody and Tuning In, all three are from year 1929...
. The brothers 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 was a disaster. Disney had to sell his Moon roadster
Moon Motor Car
Moon Motor Car was a United States automobile company that was based in St. Louis, Missouri. The company had a venerable reputation among the buying public, as it was known for fully assembled, easily affordable mid-level cars using high-quality parts...
in order to finance a second recording. This was a success with the addition of a filmed bouncing ball
Bouncing ball
The bouncing ball is a device used in video recordings to visually indicate the rhythm of a song, helping audiences to sing along with live or prerecorded music...
to keep the tempo.
Release and reception
The Broadway Theatre
The Broadway Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 1681 Broadway in midtown-Manhattan....
in New York City on November 18, 1928. The film was distributed by Celebrity Productions and its initial run lasted two weeks. Disney was paid $500 a week which was considered a large amount at the time. It played ahead of the independent feature film Gang War
Gang War
Gang War is a 1928 gangster film, best known for being the main feature attached to Steamboat Willie, the debut of Mickey Mouse in sound. The film starred Jack Pickford in his last major role, as "Clyde", a saxophone player whose love for a dancer named Flowers traps him in the middle of a gang war...
. Steamboat Willie was an immediate hit while Gang War is all but forgotten today.
The success of Steamboat Willie not only led to international fame for Walt Disney, but for Mickey as well. On November 21, Variety magazine
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
published a review which read in part "Not the first animated cartoon to be synchronized with sound effects, but the first to attract favorable attention. [Steamboat Willie] represents a high order of cartoon ingenuity, cleverly combined with sound effects. The union brought laughs galore. Giggles came so fast at the Colony [Theater] they were stumbling over each other." The response led to the two previous Mickey films to be reproduced as sound cartoons and given wide theatrical releases.
Censorship
A full 30 seconds was removed from some versions of Steamboat Willie because they might be considered cruelty to animalsCruelty to animals
Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse or animal neglect, is the infliction of suffering or harm upon non-human animals, for purposes other than self-defense. More narrowly, it can be harm for specific gain, such as killing animals for food or for their fur, although opinions differ with...
, including Mickey pulling a cat's tail and then swinging the cat by the tail above his head, picking up a nursing sow
Pig
A pig is any of the animals in the genus Sus, within the Suidae family of even-toed ungulates. Pigs include the domestic pig, its ancestor the wild boar, and several other wild relatives...
and "playing" her babies, and using a duck as bagpipes. The full version of the film was included on the "Walt Disney Treasures
Walt Disney Treasures
The Walt Disney Treasures is a two-disc DVD set of classic Disney works. They cover work from the studio's earliest days to their more recent work...
" DVD set "Mickey Mouse in Black and White."
Copyright status
The film has been the center of a variety of controversies regarding copyrightCopyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
. The copyright of the film has been repeatedly extended by acts of the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
. However, recent evidence suggests that the film may be in the public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
due to technicalities related to the original copyright notice.
The film has been the center of some attention regarding the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act
Copyright Term Extension Act
The Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 extended copyright terms in the United States by 20 years. Since the Copyright Act of 1976, copyright would last for the life of the author plus 50 years, or 75 years for a work of corporate authorship...
passed in the United States. Steamboat Willie has been close to entering the public domain in the U.S. several times. Each time, copyright protection has been extended. It could have entered public domain in 4 different years; first in 1956, renewed to 1984, then to 2003 by the Copyright Act of 1976
Copyright Act of 1976
The Copyright Act of 1976 is a United States copyright law and remains the primary basis of copyright law in the United States, as amended by several later enacted copyright provisions...
, and finally to the current public domain date of 2023 by the Copyright Term Extension Act (also known pejoratively as the "Mickey Mouse Protection Act") of 1998. The U.S. copyright on Steamboat Willie will be in effect through 2023 unless there is another extension of the law.
It has been claimed that these extensions were a response by the Congress to extensive lobbying by The Walt Disney Company. Others claim that the copyright extensions Congress has passed in recent decades have followed extensions in international copyright conventions to which the United States is a signatory. (See US Copyright Law, Universal Copyright Convention
Universal Copyright Convention
The Universal Copyright Convention , adopted at Geneva in 1952, is one of the two principal international conventions protecting copyright; the other is the Berne Convention....
, and Berne Convention
Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, is an international agreement governing copyright, which was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland in 1886.- Content :...
.)
In the 1990s, former Disney researcher Gregory S. Brown determined that the film was likely in U.S. public domain already due to errors in the original copyright formulation. In particular, the original film's copyright notice had two additional names between Disney and the copyright statement. Thus, under the rules of the Copyright Act of 1909
Copyright Act of 1909
The Copyright Act of 1909 was a landmark statute in United States statutory copyright law. It became Public Law number 60-349 on March 4, 1909 by the 60th United States Congress, and it went into effect on July 1, 1909...
, all copyright claims would be null. Arizona State University
Arizona State University
Arizona State University is a public research university located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of the State of Arizona...
professor Dennis 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 Web in 1999. Disney later threatened to sue a Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
law student who wrote a paper confirming Brown's claims.
In other media
Steamboat Willie themed levels are featured in the video games Mickey Mania (1994), Kingdom Hearts IIKingdom Hearts II
is an action role-playing game developed by Square Enix and published by Buena Vista Games and Square Enix in 2005 for the Sony PlayStation 2 video game console...
(2005), and Epic Mickey
Epic Mickey
Epic Mickey is a 2010 Mickey Mouse action-adventure platforming video game designed by Warren Spector and developed by Junction Point Studios for the Wii console...
(2010).
The fourth season episode of The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie
Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie
"Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie" is the sixth episode of The Simpsons fourth season and first aired on November 3, 1992. The plot follows Bart continually getting in trouble, and how Homer is unable to give him any suitable punishment. Marge gets Homer to agree to make a punishment stick, and he...
" features a short but nearly frame-for-frame parody of the opening scene of Steamboat Willie.
In the 1998 film Saving Private Ryan
Saving Private Ryan
Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 American war film set during the invasion of Normandy in World War II. It was directed by Steven Spielberg, with a screenplay by Robert Rodat. The film is notable for the intensity of its opening 27 minutes, which depicts the Omaha Beach assault of June 6, 1944....
, set in 1944, a German POW tries to win the sympathy of his American captors by mentioning Steamboat Willie, even mimicking the sound of the boat whistle from the film. The unnamed character appears in the credits as "Steamboat Willie".
Since the release of Meet the Robinsons
Meet the Robinsons
Meet the Robinsons is a 2007 American computer-animated family film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures on March 30, 2007. The forty-seventh animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics, the film was released in both the United States and the...
(2007), the scene of Mickey at the wheel of the steamboat whistling has been used in the production logo
Production logo
A production logo, vanity card, vanity plate, vanity logo or vogo is a logo used by movie studios and television production companies to brand what they produce. Vanity logos are usually seen at the beginning of a theatrical movie , or at the end of a television program or TV movie...
for Walt Disney Animation Studios films. The scene was also depicted in the film poster (above right). The same scene is also depicted on the hologram on the spine of recent Disney DVD releases.
Release history
- 1928 July – First test screening
- 1928 November – Original theatrical release
- 1984 – "Cartoon Classics: Limited Gold Editions: Mickey" (VHS)
- 1990s – Mickey's Mouse TracksMickey's Mouse TracksMickey's Mouse Tracks was a television series on the Disney Channel which featured Disney cartoons and animated short films, dating from before the advent of Disney Channel. A similar show was Donald's Quack Attack. The show premiered in 1992 and was made to replace Good Morning, Mickey!...
, episode #45 (TV) - 1997 – Ink & Paint Club, episode #2 "Mickey Landmarks" (TV)
- 1997 – "The Spirit of Mickey" (VHS)
- 2001 – "The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story" (VHS)
- 2002 – "Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Black and White" (DVD)
- 2005 – "Vintage Mickey" (DVD)
- 2007 – "Walt Disney Treasures: The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit" (DVD)
- 2009 – Snow White and the Seven DwarfsSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American animated film based on Snow White, a German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It was the first full-length cel-animated feature in motion picture history, as well as the first animated feature film produced in America, the first produced in full...
(Blu-ray) - 2009 – YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
(Online video, link) - Ongoing – Main Street CinemaMain Street Cinema-Disneyland:The Main Street Cinema is a small movie theater located on Main Street, U.S.A. at Disneyland. The theater plays Disney shorts on six different screens while a recorded musical accompaniment plays. Five of the six shorts are played without sound; these shorts are changed from time to time...
at Disneyland
External links
(official posting by Walt Disney Animation Studios)- Steamboat Willie at The Encyclopedia of Disney Animated Shorts
- Steamboat Willie at the Big Cartoon DataBaseBig Cartoon DataBaseThe Big Cartoon DataBase is an online database of information about animated cartoons, animated feature films, animated television shows and cartoon shorts....
- The Test Screening of Steamboat Willie