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
The Opry House by Walt Disney Productions. It appears in black and white, and the audio was recorded using Pat Powers's cinephone system. It was animated mostly by Ub Iwerks, Walt Disney's first employee who later became known as a “Disney Legend”. The short became the most expensive early Disney short, its negative cost being almost $2,500 more than the "Steamboat Willie" cartoon produced just a year prior. This short is an early example of how the Disney studio's animated shorts became more sophisticated than previous ones. The short shows more realistic animating. The early Disney cartoons, like "Steamboat Willie" show many similarities