The Beginning of Sound in Film
On November 18, 1928, Walt Disney Studio’s short film Steamboat Willie hit the screens for the first time at Universal’s Colony Theater in New York City. Directed by Walt Disney and American animator Ub Iwerks, the film features the debut of everyone’s favourite cartoon characters, Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
Although Mickey and Minnie were not anything new in the eyes of Disney or Iwerks, Steamboat Willie truly changed the game for cartoons at the time. This film is now known to be the first-ever cartoon to successfully integrate synchronized sound. The film features two songs: “Steamboat Bill” which was popular in the 1910s, and “Turkey in the Straw” which dates back to the 19th century. In order to truly synchronize the sound to the film, the trick was for musicians behind the screen to use a “click-track” (metronome) to keep in time. On top of this, Walt Disney himself also provided the (minimal, yet important) sound effects for various characters in the film.
In the end, Disney knew that ultimately, adding synchronized sound would be prominent in the future of filmmaking. While Steamboat Willie has always been praised for introducing one of the world’s most popular cartoon characters, it is important to thank Disney for the introduction of new sound technology in film.
Mickey’s Character Design
Mickey’s early character design was done by Ub Iwerks and heavily resembled that of another popular cartoon character at the time, Oswald the rabbit. Iwerks focussed primarily on making Mickey’s overall design simple by using circular shapes for his ears, head, and body. Supposedly, Mickey’s hands only consisting of three fingers and a thumb was mostly a financial decision, as the addition of an extra finger in each of the thousands of frames would cost millions of dollars. Finally, white gloves were given to the mouse mainly to give contrast from the rest of his dark body. In fact, because of Mickey Mouse, gloves are now a very popular character design choice among many other cartoon characters.
Sources: “Mickey Mouse.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 6 Dec. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Mouse. “Steamboat Willie.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 5 Dec. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steamboat_Willie. Images: https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/walt-disney-ub-iwerks-steamboat-willie-1928/ https://medium.com/@martidg/from-sound-to-music-5bdf62c16dbaImportant Mickey Mouse production drawings for sale at Heritage Auctionshttps://comics.ha.com/itm/animation-art/production-drawing/steamboat-willie-mickey-mouse-animation-drawing-walt-disney-1928-/a/7196-95012.s