It's a huge year for Disney. Earlier this year, the Disney Magic turned 20 years old, and yesterday, Mickey Mouse turned 90 years old! I can't believe how excited people are about a cartoon mouse.
90 years ago, the short cartoon Steamboat Willie gave the world a new favorite rodent. It was the first Disney cartoon with synchronized sound. Synchronized sound was a new technology where the sound in the cartoon matched up with the picture. This made sound effects possible, and added a new level of immersion to cartoons. It's much more entertaining than a silent film, but probably took longer and cost more to make. Instead of explaining any more, just watch the cartoon here.
I think it's really cool to see how far animation has come in almost a century. This was groundbreaking in the 1920s. It's funny how weird the cartoon gets, a goat eats music and becomes an instrument.
Makes sense, right?
A cow's teeth become a xylophone.
Definitely accurate.
An anthropomorphic mouse is the captain of a boat.
I guess this is where Disney Cruise Line started.
I'd give it an A+ for creativity. That's the best part of cartoons and animation, you can make anything happen. It doesn't matter if it makes sense or not. The less it makes sense, the funnier it is. None of this would have been possible without imagination, and Walt Disney had an amazing imagination, and an even better work ethic. He turned a drawing into a celebrity! If only he was still alive to see how popular his mouse still is. Everywhere I go, I see people in Mickey Mouse shirts (myself included). Millions of people go to the Disney theme parks, and cruise ships, to see Mickey. Today, Mickey Mouse isn't just a mouse. He's a legendary mouse.
