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
Golden age of American animation be the one to receive credit for the creation of Mickey Mouse. In 1928, "Plane Crazy" became the first entry into the Mickey Mouse series; however, it was not released because of a poor reaction from test screenings and failed to gain a distributor. The second Mickey Mouse cartoon "The Gallopin' Gaucho" also failed to gain attention of the audience and a distributor. Disney knew what was missing: sound. Sound film had been captivating audiences since 1927 with "The Jazz Singer" and Walt decided that the next cartoon "Steamboat Willie" would have sound. "Steamboat Willie" was not the first sound