Mickey Mouse and Ub Iwerks. Iwerks again served as the head animator, assisted by Johnny Cannon, Les Clark, Wilfred Jackson and Dick Lundy. This short was intended as a parody of Buster Keaton's "Steamboat Bill, Jr.", first released on May 12 of the same year. Although it was the third Mickey cartoon produced, it was the first to find a distributor, and thus is considered by The Disney Company as Mickey's debut. "Willie" featured changes to Mickey's appearance (in particular, simplifying his eyes to large dots) that established his look for later cartoons and in numerous Walt Disney films. The cartoon was
The Itchy & Scratchy Show films "" and "Alien". Chester J. Lampwick created Itchy for the now-lost silent cartoon "Manhattan Madness", in which the mouse brutally attacks and kills an Irishman and Theodore Roosevelt, in 1919 (the year of the first "Felix the Cat" cartoon). However, the character was later stolen by Roger Meyers. Scratchy starred in his first cartoon in 1928, titled "That Happy Cat". The film, a 13-second-long animation showing the cat whistling and tipping his hat, was a commercial failure. Later that year, Itchy and Scratchy starred in their first cartoon together, "Steamboat Itchy", a violent parody of Disney's "Steamboat Willie". Along