Eighty years ago, one of the world’s most beloved stars was born as Mickey Mouse whistled his way onto the silver screen with the cinema debut of Steamboat Willie at the Colony theatre in New York. That day, November 18, 1928, is widely considered the iconic mouse's official birthday, but months before, Walt Disney had dreamt up the cartoon character and featured it in the short animated film Plane Crazy. Mickey Mouse was created almost by accident: Oswald the lucky rabbit was Walt Disney's first cartoon character, but when Disney lost the rights to Oswald in 1927, he returned to the drawing board. He came up with ‘Mortimer the Mouse’. Popular legend has it that his wife preferred the name Mickey and Walt Disney deferred to her choice. Steamboat Willie has flimsy politically incorrect storyline and features little, if any, comprehensible dialogue. But the cartoon marked an animation landmark with its synchronized sound track where Mickey whistle and blows raspberries at the irascible ship’s captain ,a large tobacco-chewing cat called captain Pete .Only Charlie Chaplin came close to Mickey Mouse in terms of global super-stardom.Eighty years ago, one of the world’s most beloved stars was born as Mickey Mouse whistled his way onto the silver screen with the cinema debut of Steamboat Willie at the Colony theatre in New York. That day, November 18, 1928, is widely considered the iconic mouse's official birthday, but months before, Walt Disney had dreamt up the cartoon character and featured it in the short animated film Plane Crazy. Mickey Mouse was created almost by accident: Oswald the lucky rabbit was Walt Disney's first cartoon character, but when Disney lost the rights to Oswald in 1927, he returned to the drawing board. He came up with ‘Mortimer the Mouse’. Popular legend has it that his wife preferred the name Mickey and Walt Disney deferred to her choice. Steamboat Willie has flimsy politically incorrect storyline and features little, if any, comprehensible dialogue. But the cartoon marked an animation landmark with its synchronized sound track where Mickey whistle and blows raspberries at the irascible ship’s captain ,a large tobacco-chewing cat called captain Pete .Only Charlie Chaplin came close to Mickey Mouse in terms of global super-stardom.
