Steamboat Willie

 On this date in 1928, "Steamboat Willie" was released.

The cartoon is considered the debut of Mickey Mouse and his girlfriend Minnie, although both the characters appeared several months earlier in a test screening of "Plane Crazy." The film is also notable for being the first Disney cartoon with synchronized sound, as well as the first cartoon to feature a fully post-produced soundtrack which distinguished it from earlier sound cartoons such as Inkwell Studios' "Song Car-Tunes" (1924–1927) and Van Beuren Studios' "Dinner Time" (1928). Disney understood from early on that synchronized sound was the future of film. "Steamboat Willie" became the most popular cartoon of its day.

According to Roy O. Disney, Walt Disney was inspired to create a sound cartoon after watching "The Jazz Singer" (1927). Disney created cartoons starring Mickey Mouse in secret while he fulfilled his contract for another series, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

The success of "Steamboat Willie" not only led to international fame for Walt Disney, but for Mickey as well. On November 21, Variety magazine published a review which read in part "Not the first animated cartoon to be synchronized with sound effects, but the first to attract favorable attention. ['Steamboat Willie'] represents a high order of cartoon ingenuity, cleverly combined with sound effects. The union brought laughs galore. Giggles came so fast at the Colony [Theater] they were stumbling over each other." The response led to the two previous Mickey films being reproduced as sound cartoons and given wide theatrical releases.