Mickey Mouse (film series)
Mickey Mouse is a series of American animated comedy short films produced by Walt Disney Productions. The series started in 1928 with Steamboat Willie and ended in 2013 with Get a Horse!, taking a hiatus from 1953 to 1983. The series is notable for its innovation with sound synchronization and character animation, and also introduced well-known characters such as Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Pluto and Goofy.
Promotional poster for the series
Black-and-white introductory title of the short films between 1928 and 1929, also used for the 2013 short Get a Horse!. Pictured, Plane Crazy.
Steamboat Willie is a 1928 American animated short film directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. It was produced in black and white by Walt Disney Studio and was released by Pat Powers, under the name of Celebrity Productions. The cartoon is considered the debut of both Mickey and Minnie Mouse, although both characters appeared several months earlier in a test screening of Plane Crazy. Steamboat Willie was the third of Mickey's films to be produced, but it was the first to be distributed, because Disney, having seen The Jazz Singer, had committed himself to produce one of the first fully synchronized sound cartoons.
Pete (left) confronts Mickey (right) on the bridge of the steamboat
The Broadway Theatre in New York, seen in 2007, where Steamboat Willie was first shown in 1928; the venue was known as "Universal's Colony Theatre" at the time
A 2024 illustration of Steamboat Willie entering the public domain
A segment of film cut from a Steamboat Willie reel by a 1930s cinema