Steamboat Willie (1928) on Netflix
Mickey Mouse pilots a paddle steamer, whistling, until Captain Pete orders him off the bridge. The boat stops for livestock, and Minnie Mouse runs along the shore to catch it.
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- Netflix4.4/5
- IMDb7.4/1012,900 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
Mickey Mouse is a deckhand on a side-wheeler paddle steamer, whistling as he pilots it, until the boat's captain, Pete, arrives on the bridge and sends him away. Pete takes the wheel himself and steers to Podunk Landing, where the crew loads a cargo of livestock. Filling a thin cow with hay gets it into its harness. Minnie Mouse arrives on the shore just as the steamer pulls out, calling after Mickey, and he swings the cargo crane out to scoop her up and set her on the deck. A goat eats her ukulele and the sheet music for "Turkey in the Straw", then begins to make music of its own.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Steamboat Willie (1928)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- For a July 29, 1928 test screening, with the film only partly finished, Roy Disney projected Steamboat Willie from outdoors through a window to hide the projector's mechanical sound, and Ub Iwerks hung a bedsheet as a screen with a microphone hidden behind it.
- The first attempt to synchronize the recording with the film, on September 15, 1928, was a disaster; Disney had to sell his Moon roadster to finance a second recording, which succeeded once a filmed bouncing ball was added to keep tempo.
- In the 1950s Disney removed a scene in which Mickey tugs the baby pigs' tails and plays the mother sow like an accordion, because television distributors deemed it inappropriate; the 1998 VHS The Spirit of Mickey restored only the piglet-tail part.
- Steamboat Willie could have entered the public domain in 1955, but was renewed to 1986, then extended to 2003 and finally to 2023 by the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act, nicknamed the Mickey Mouse Protection Act and claimed to be a response to Disney lobbying.
- After producer Pat Powers's June 1927 takeover bid for Lee de Forest's Phonofilm Corporation failed, he hired former DeForest technician William Garrity to clone the system as Powers Cinephone; de Forest was too weak financially to sue for patent infringement, and Powers convinced Disney to use it.
- In April 2023, John Oliver announced he would use the Steamboat Willie version of Mickey Mouse as the new mascot of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver as soon as the cartoon entered the public domain in 2024, and debuted the character.
