Steamboat Willie

Steamboat Willie
File:Steamboat-willie-title2.jpg Title card, featuring Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse
Directed by	Walt Disney
Produced by	Walt Disney
Animation by	Ub Iwerks
Production company	Walt Disney Productions
Distributed by	Celebrity Productions, Columbia Pictures
Running time	7 minutes (one reel)
Country	Template:Film US
Language	English

Steamboat Willie (1928) is an animated short released on November 18, 1928. It was the third Mickey Mouse cartoon to be produced and the first to be released. Disney used Pat Powers' Cinephone system, created by Powers using Lee De Forest's Phonofilm system without giving De Forest any credit. Steamboat Willie premiered at B. S. Moss's Colony Theater in New York, and played ahead of the independent feature film Gang War. Steamboat Willie was an immediate hit while Gang War is all but forgotten today. Columbia Pictures distributed the cartoon nationally.

The cartoon was directed, produced and voiced by Walt Disney. The title is a parody of the Buster Keaton film Steamboat Bill Jr. Music for Steamboat Willie was put together by Wilfred Jackson, one of Disney's animators—not, as sometimes reported, by Carl Stalling—and comprises popular melodies including "Steamboat Bill" and "Turkey in the Straw".

It is noted in the history books as the first animated short feature film with a completely post-produced soundtrack of music, dialogue, and sound effects, although other cartoons with synchronized soundtracks had been exhibited before, notably by Max Fleischer's series Song Car-Tunes made in DeForest Phonofilm starting in May 1924, including My Old Kentucky Home (1926), and Paul Terry's Dinner Time (released September 1, 1928).

The film has been the center of a variety of controversies regarding copyright. 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 selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, maintained by the Library of Congress. In 1994, it was voted #13 of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field.

Plot

Mickey is serving aboard Steamboat Willie under Captain Peg-Leg Pete (a longtime Disney villain). He is first seen piloting the steamboat while whistling, suggesting he himself is the captain (This scene is re-used for the opening logo of Walt Disney Animation Studios). Pete then arrives to take the helm and throws him off the bridge, biting into tobacco and spitting it out of his mouth. His spit hits the captain's bell. Pete then laughs and attempts to spit again but does it unsuccessfully. They soon have to stop at Podunk Landing for cargo. One of the animals waiting to be picked up there is the as-of-then unnamed and non-anthropomorphic Clarabelle Cow, who is so thin that Mickey had to feed her a ton of hay in order to lift her into the ship due to problems in tightening a belt around her. Almost as soon as they set off again, Minnie arrives, too late to board. Mickey manages to pick her up from the river shore. Minnie accidentally drops her sheet music for the popular folk song "Turkey in the Straw", which is eaten by a goat. Mickey and Minnie use its tail to turn it into a phonograph, which plays the tune. Mickey uses various other animals as musical instruments, disturbing Captain Pete, who puts him back to work. Mickey is reduced to peeling potatoes for the rest of the trip. A parrot attempts to make fun of him, but Mickey strikes him with a potato, knocking him into the river. The short ends with Mickey laughing at the bird struggling in the water.

Mickey Mouse, serving as helmsman before Peg-Leg Pete boots him off the bridge, in Steamboat Willie (This image is now an official trademark of The Walt Disney Company).

Censorship

A full 30 seconds of scenes of what might be considered cruelty to animals have been removed from several versions of Steamboat Willie, 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 like an accordion keyboard, and using a duck as bagpipes. On or before October 2008 however, Disney seems to have moved toward honoring historical accuracy by showing the original, in its entirety, on the "Cartoon" channel offered in the rooms of Disney World resort hotels.

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 a few sound cartoons such as Steamboat Willie, The Gallopin' Gaucho, and Plane Crazy (all 1928) before Powers and Disney had a falling-out over money—and over Powers hiring away Disney animator Ub Iwerks—in 1930.

Copyright

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 United States several times. Each time, copyright protection in the United States 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 change of the law.

Many people have claimed that these extensions were a response by the U.S. Congress to extensive lobbying by Disney. 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 the public domain in the United States 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.

DVD release

Steamboat Willie has been released uncut as part of the Walt Disney Treasures DVD collections twice:

• On disc one of Mickey Mouse in Black and White
• On disc two of The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, as part of a tribute to animator Ub Iwerks

The short was also release on the following optical media:

• On a DVD titled Vintage Mickey which is a small collection of black and white Mickey cartoons
• On disc two of the Blu-ray disc Diamond Edition of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, as an example of how sound was first produced, with the short being presented in HD

• It was also a painting along with Plutopia, Clock Cleaners, The Sorcerer's Apprentice and other cartoons in the Noah Byrd movie at the AristoCats's Sunday school on Saturday when Noah is painting various Mickey Mouse cartoons,

Trivia

In the 1998 film Saving Private Ryan, set in 1944, a character mentions Steamboat Willie (and is named after the cartoon).

See also

• Mickey Mouse: Addition of sound to the series
• The Golden Age of American animation
• Song Car-Tunes
• Dinner Time

External links

• Steamboat Willie on YouTube (official posting by Walt Disney Animation Studios)
• Steamboat Willie at The Encyclopedia of Disney Animated Shorts
• Steamboat Willie at IMDb
• The Test Screening of Steamboat Willie