Disney Animations

Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie (1928).Steamboat Willie was first released on November 18, 1928. It was co-directed by Walt Disney 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 has been cited 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.


The cartoon was not the first cartoon to feature a soundtrack connected to the action. Fleischer Studios, headed by brothers Dave and Max Fleischer, had already released a number of sound cartoons using the DeForest system in the mid-1920s. However, these cartoons did not keep the sound synchronized throughout the film. For Willie, Disney had the sound recorded with a click track that kept the musicians on the beat. This precise timing is apparent during the "Turkey in the Straw" sequence, when Mickey's actions exactly match the accompanying instruments. Animation historians have long debated who had served as the composer for the film's original music. This role has been variously attributed to Wilfred Jackson, Carl Stalling and Bert Lewis, but identification remains uncertain. Walt Disney himself was voice actor for both Mickey and Minnie.

This is stated on you tube as the first animation of Walt Disney but it's actually the third, the first two were 'Plane crazy' and 'The Gallopin Gaucho' but these two did not have sound added to them. This was his third animation which had added sound which is probably why it's the most well known of Walt Disney's animations of Mickey Mouse.

For my Critical Perspective Essay i am looking into the practices and issues around the work of Walt Disney and amongst my research i found several animations which i just thought were superb and use the principles of animation we have been looking at in our Applied Design lessons.