Trivia for
Steamboat Willie (1928) More at IMDbPro »

• Is actually *not* the first synchronized sound cartoon. Walt Disney's rival Max Fleischer had produced a series of sound Bouncing Ball "Song Car-Tunes", which featured synchronized dialogue and music starting in 1924, the first of which to be released was Come Take a Trip in My Airship (1924). The first to actually be produced was My Old Kentucky Home (1926), but that was not was released until June 1926.
  
  
• The second Mickey Mouse cartoon to be released, and the first in the series to be made with a synchronized soundtrack.
  
  
• One scene that was planned but never animated was at the loading dock. After Mickey loaded the cow onto the boat, he was to have loaded the sow and her piglets as well.
  
  
• Walt Disney's brother, Roy O. Disney, was the one who suggested putting a soundtrack into his next Mickey Mouse cartoon.
  
  
• Before the copyright for "Steamboat Willie" expired in 1998, Disney lobbied the US Congress successfully for an extension of copyright protection by twenty years. Because of this law, "Steamboat Willie" will not enter the public domain until 2018.
  
  
• This is one of six cartoons that plays in the Main Street Cinema at Disneyland.
  
  

Related Links