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
Mickey Mouse being they were still employed by Disney. This short would be the last they animated under this somewhat awkward situation. Mickey was first seen in a test screening of the cartoon short "Plane Crazy", on May 15, 1928, but it failed to impress the audience and, to add insult to injury, Walt could not find a distributor. Though understandably disappointed, Walt went on to produce a second Mickey short, "The Gallopin' Gaucho", which was also not released for lack of a distributor. "Steamboat Willie" was first released on November 18, 1928, in New York. It was co-directed by Walt Disney