Steamboat Willie Review

Steamboat Willie is a 1928 Disney short film featuring Mickey Mouse. It is the first in the series and the first ever sound animated film.

Now obviously this is a very important film in the history of cinema, but it is so much more than that as it is just a plain good, respectable film in its own right. I loved the boat setting which was so well utilized and the only problem is that the ending came sort of abrupt and Pete did not get what was coming to him. But other than that, the film is great as it features terrific animation and very memorable Mickey as well as Minnie.

The highlight is seeing all those animals used as musical instruments. Mickey was pretty brutal in those scenes and the action can be read nowadays as animal cruelty, but it was hilarious nonetheless and the film is truly funny because of those scenes. The scenes succeed because the sound is just so good. Apart from a couple of small moments, you cannot really notice that this is a 1928 film as the sounds sound great, realistic and the musical score is particularly strong. The sound here is much better than any live-action films’ sound during this era and they surely knew how to incorporate it into the story itself.

Steamboat Willie succeeds as a wonderful first Mickey Mouse short and a great first sound cartoon with terrific sound quality, good character moments and excellent humor.