The Walt Disney Company and starred in several Disney produced films. Ub Iwerks refined Disney's initial design of Mickey Mouse. Disney's first sound film "Steamboat Willie", a cartoon starring Mickey, was released on November 18, 1928 through Pat Powers' distribution company. It was the first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon released, but the third to be created, behind "Plane Crazy" and "The Gallopin' Gaucho". "Steamboat Willie" was an immediate smash hit, and its initial success was attributed not just to Mickey's appeal as a character, but to the fact that it was the first cartoon to feature synchronized sound. Disney used Pat Powers' Cinephone system,
The Art of Walt Disney after when Walt decided to leave the Kansas City Film Ad Company to start another one of his own, called Laugh-O-Gram Films, where he created his first popular cartoon called Alice’s Wonderland, which turned into a series called Alice Comedies. Unfortunately for Walt, not enough money was coming in, which lead to many of his employees quitting his company, and forcing him to declare bankruptcy. In 1927, Walt created a new character called "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit", which also became popular. However, the distributor he was working with at the time, Charles Mintz, hired all of Walt’s animation employees and