Movies - Steamboat Willie

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	Movies - Steamboat Willie

Steamboat Willie, released on November 18, 1928, is an animated cartoon featuring Mickey Mouse. Contrary to claims by some sources it was not the first cartoon produced to feature Mickey (previous Mickey films were Plane Crazy
and The Gallopin' Gaucho
). But it was the first cartoon released with him in it, and the one that made Mickey Mouse famous. Steamboat Willie was also the first sound cartoon to attract widespread notice and popularity.

The cartoon was written and directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks; 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 (and not, as sometimes reported, by Carl Stalling). It comprises popular melodies including "Steamboat Bill" and "Turkey in the Straw".

It has been (and continues to be) in the history books as the first animated short 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 My Old Kentucky Home (1926) and Paul Terry's Dinner Time
(1928).

The film has been the center of some attention regarding the 1998 Sonny Bono 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. Many people have claimed that these extensions were a response by the U.S. Congress to extensive lobbying by Disney. However, the copyright extensions that Congress has passed in recent decades have followed extensions in international copyright conventions to which the United States is a signatory. (See U.S. copyright law, Universal Copyright Convention, and Berne Convention.) The U.S. copyright on Steamboat Willie will be in effect through until 2023 unless there is another change of the law. However, it is now public domain in Canada and Australia.

The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Synopsis

Mickey is serving aboard Steamboat Willie under Captain Pete (a longtime Disney villain). He is first seen piloting the steamboat while whistling. Pete arrives to take the helm and angrily throws him off the bridge. They soon have to stop for cargo. 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.

Video games

A Steamboat Willie-themed world named Timeless River is featured in the Disney/Square Enix video game Kingdom Hearts II. In this world, everything is grayscale, and Sora, whose character model has been simplified (making him look more like a 1920s' cartoon character), Goofy, and Donald Duck look like they looked when they first appeared in Disney Cartoons and the world's Pete (who appears alongside the current yet black-and-white Pete) looks like how he looked in the original cartoon. The world's Mickey (who's actually far closer to the actual character than the Kingdom Hearts incarnation of Mickey) however, unlike in Steamboat Willie, wears gloves.

Steamboat Willie was also one of the levels in the Mickey Mouse game, Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse (for Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis and Sega CD).

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Steamboat Willie ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Steamboat Willie; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Movies - Steamboat Willie

Synopsis

Video games

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