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 giant turtle which carried the Vanishing Isle upon its back, came back out of the turtle's mouth in the steamboat from this film and was even in Mickey's form, whistling "Turkey in the Straw". In a 2008 movie of the TV series "Futurama" called "The Beast with a Billion Backs" the opening is a parody of "Steamboat Willie". The beginning of series 2 of the TV series "Alexei Sayle's Stuff" (1989) shows a black and white animation entitled "Steamboat Fatty", a parody of "Steamboat Willie". In the " "anime, one of the episodes "Steamboat Willies!", is a play on the