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
Disney Music Group used for their cartoons. With neither Walt Disney nor Roy O. Disney having any music industry experience, the studio had to rely on outside music publishers. In 1928, Walt Disney produced the third animated Mickey Mouse short, "Steamboat Willie", which had a soundtrack while previous efforts were silent films. Thus soundtracks are added to the previously two produced Mickey Mouse short films. In 1929, Walt Disney and Carl Stalling wrote "Minnie's Yoo-Hoo", the first song from The Walt Disney Studios, for "Mickey's Follies". On December 16, 1929, the Disney Film Recording Company, Limited was incorporated as a subsidiary of Walt