Steamboat Willie (1928) Walt Disney/Ub Iwerks



Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie is one of the first early animations to exhibit many of the qualities modern viewers expect in an animation. The movement was fluid, if not anatomically correct but the noodling of the joints and bodies are still done in modern animations and were a common animation technique of the time, which could easily be seen to have evolved from the earlier use of silhouettes and quickly drawn then re-drawn chalk techniques in common animators. With the addition of sound (and Disney's choice of it) it set the stage for the whimsical repeating cartoon antics of a main character and his opponent in this case Mickey Mouse and Pete (other examples; Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, Popeye and Bluto, etc). This basic story plot and two characters opposing each other would be the staple for animated shorts for decades to come. The animation is an excellent example of the silly cartoon violence that would eventually come under fire half a century later as promoting violent tendencies in children. While the whistling and predominant musical theme through out the short would become fairly standard for cartoons afterwards I feel they didn't originate with Disney's Steamboat Willie and the true original inspiration for that concept is Inkwell Studios with 19 of their series Song Car-Tunes being released prior to Steamboat Willie (the sound for them was NOT self synchronized and would often get off a bit from the animation).

Still images from Steamboat Willie showing  "noodling" of the character's body.


Steamboat Willie released in 1928 by Walt Disney Studios by Walt Disney and his long time coworker Ub Iwerks is probably the most well known (to the general public) early animations for many reason. Most think of it as the first Mickey Mouse animation, which it was not, there two prior Mickey Mouse cartoons, Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho, were silent had been all that popular with audiences. After watching the Jazz Singer Walt Disney felt that sound would greatly increase Mickey's appeal and decided to make a cartoon with synchronized sound (also previously done by Dave and Max Fleischer's Inkwell Studios with their 19 cartoon series Song Car-Tunes.)




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