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 a sound cartoon after watching "The Jazz Singer" (1927). Disney had intended for Mickey Mouse to be the new star character to replace Oswald the Lucky Rabbit after he lost the rights to the character to Charles Mintz. However, the first two "Mickey Mouse" films produced, silent versions of "Plane Crazy" and "The Gallopin' Gaucho", had failed to impress audiences and gain a distributor. Disney believed that adding sound to a cartoon would greatly increase its appeal. One theatre owner said to Walt, "Your stupid brain and your stupid mouse character can get out of my theatre." "Steamboat Willie" was