Studio: Disney Cartoons
Distributor: Celebrity Productions
Short Synopsis
Mickey is a deckhand on a river steamboat, cheerfully steering and whistling until the real captain, Pete, throws him off the bridge. At a stop to load livestock, Minnie Mouse runs to catch the departing boat, and Mickey hauls her aboard with a crane. A goat eats her sheet music and her guitar; Minnie cranks the goat's tail so that the swallowed notes play "Turkey in the Straw" out of its mouth. Mickey joins in, turning the boat's animals into instruments: he plays a cat's tail, squeezes a duck, pumps a pig's teats like an accordion and drums on a cow's teeth. Pete catches him at it and sets him to work peeling potatoes in the galley. In the final shot a parrot mocks him, and Mickey throws a potato that knocks it into the river.
Why It Matters
- The animal orchestra is the scene to watch, every gag timed precisely to the music. This was not sound added to a cartoon, but a cartoon built around its soundtrack, and the comedy of a goat turned into a phonograph still works because the picture and the sound are completely in step.
- It was the first Mickey Mouse film released and one of the first cartoons with a fully synchronised, post-produced soundtrack. It made Mickey a star and Disney the leading cartoon studio, and it was selected for the National Film Registry in 1998. It entered the U.S. public domain on 1 January 2024.
Notes and Trivia
- Walt Disney decided to make a sound cartoon after seeing The Jazz Singer (1927). The music was timed by Wilfred Jackson with a metronome, and the soundtrack was recorded in New York using Pat Powers' Cinephone system.
- The title parodies Buster Keaton's Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928).
- The opening shot of Mickey whistling at the wheel became the Walt Disney Animation Studios logo.
- See also: Plane Crazy (1928), The Gallopin' Gaucho (1928).