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
Steamboat Willie "Kingdom Hearts II" (2005), and "Epic Mickey" (2010). Furthermore, in "" (2012), a "Steamboat Willie" outfit can be obtained for Mickey. The fourth-season episode of "The Simpsons", "" features a short but nearly frame-for-frame parody of the opening scene of Steamboat Willie entitled "Steamboat Itchy". In the 1998 film "Saving Private Ryan", set in 1944, a German POW tries to win the sympathy of his American captors by mentioning "Steamboat Willie", even mimicking the sound of the boat whistle from the film. The unnamed character appears in the credits as "Steamboat Willie". In the 2000 Mickey Mouse cartoon "April Fools'