Steamboat Willie (1928)

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  TheMovieDiorama

  7 / 10

  Steamboat Willie chugs along with whistling musicality and mousy antics. This was it. The conceptualisation of Walt Disney's mascot. His greatest creation. His pioneering anthropomorphic mouse, Mickey. Excluding 'Plane Crazy', this was his first outing to be distributed on a large scale. With Disney and Iwerks sharing directing, producing, writing and animating duties, it was sure to be a success. Surprisingly, it still holds up well today. Mickey Mouse pretends to be a steamboat captain, however Pete arrives and ensures Mickey is performing his correct duties. From slicing potatoes to picking up livestock. The cartoon itself has aged beautifully, with the drawings still visually appealing and smooth as the reel continuously flips. The detailed environment and character features enabled plenty of colour to burst through, despite being black and white. This also being Disney's first sound synchronised cartoon, including both character sounds and a musical score. With that, Disney himself showcased the imaginative use of synchronised sound by including various scenes of musical improvisation. Mickey himself casually drums with some wooden spoons, whistles his infamous "Steamboat Bill" tune and flail a cat round by the tail. Blatant animal cruelty aside (it was a different time...), these scenes unfortunately detract from an actual plot and resort to random segments being stringed together just to experiment with sound effects. It does make the whole cartoon feel somewhat derivative and unmemorable. Minnie Mouse also seemed pointless, should've focused on the rivalry between Mickey and Pete. However, for a cartoon from 1928 that is a milestone in cinematic history, it holds up well. Brimming with personality and child-friendly humour. It's the conception of both Mickey Mouse and Walt Disney's fame as the animation giant to beat.

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