Mickey Mouse’s Debut Wasn't in 'Steamboat Willie' — It Was in This

Ask either a layman or a diehard Disney fan what movie Mickey Mouse made his onscreen debut in, and they will probably respond with Steamboat Willie, the short black-and-white cartoon that premiered at the Universal Colony Theater ahead of the film Gang War in 1928. While this conventional response is accurate in the sense that Steamboat Willie was the first time Mickey appeared before a wide scale audience, the famous Mouse actually had a single onscreen outing preceding Willie, in a different short film shown to a small, select group — Plane Crazy.

Disney, Iwerks, and the Origins of Mickey Mouse

Walt Disney and fellow animator Ub Iwerks began developing Mickey Mouse in 1927. Up until that time, they were working at Universal Studios, developing Oswald The Lucky Rabbit as a similarly charismatic cartoon character. After they left the studio due to disputes with partner Charles Mintz, though, Disney and Iwerks lost the rights to Oswald and had to create a replacement for their new, private company.

The eventual result was a small, puckish looking mouse that Iwerks sketched for Disney. Like Oswald before him, the mouse was cute, smiley, and endearingly simple in its inkblot design. Disney liked the concept and decided to call the character Mortimer Mouse, although some claim that Disney's name and concept preceded Iwerk's drawing. Also allegedly, it was Walt's wife, Lillian, who disliked the name Mortimer and suggested it be changed to Mickey.

With this fresh, alliteratively titled character developed, Disney and Iwerks began preparing Mickey Mouse for his animated debut. The inaugural project, however, was not Steamboat Willie. In fact, the duo—along with several other uncredited animators—finished two Mickey Mouse cartoons before releasing Willie, but only the first ever saw an audience. It was a six-minute silent short called Plane Crazy.

Mickey & Minnie Both Make Their Debuts in 'Plane Crazy'

Like so many Mickey Mouse cartoons and Disney Silly Symphonies to come, Plane Crazy opens with a group of farm animals behaving anthropomorphically. Through the crowded, fluidly animated screen emerges Mickey, looking much like the Steamboat Willie version save a slightly stockier build and larger, dinner-plate style eyes. He flips through a book titled "How To Fly" and stops on a page featuring aviator Charles Lindbergh. Inspired by the hotshot pilot, Mickey ruffles up his hair and proceeds to try flying a makeshift airplane

His first attempt involves using a wiener dog as his engine. He winds up the hound like a rubber band to get the propeller going, but the vehicle just swerves at a low altitude before crashing into a tree. On his second try, Mickey modifies a tractor into a far more sophisticated plane. Before he gets going, though, along comes Minnie Mouse (making Plane Crazy her first onscreen appearance as well). Mickey invites Minnie to join him in his flight, and the two take off together.

After some low-lying tribulation causes a ruckus around the farm, the plane eventually gets into the sky. Once up there, Mickey decides to get flirtatious with Minnie, but she does not reciprocate the feeling and jumps out of the aircraft. Luckily, her bloomers double as a makeshift parachute, and she floats down to the ground easily. Meanwhile, Mickey loses control of the plane and crashes down to the earth. After a nasty, tossing fall, he lands next to Minnie and laughs at her bloomers. Minnie struts away and a disgruntled Mickey throws a horseshoe in frustration, only for it to boomerang back and knock him out in the final frame.

'Plane Crazy' Showcases the Early Magic of Disney Animation

Plane Crazy includes many of the staples that would make Steamboat Willie and all of Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoons such enormous hits. It endorses a keen use of physical comedy, especially among the farm setting, where each creature has a personality and design that seems to serve more than one purpose throughout the film. Even Mickey and Minnie appear as their refined characters. They are a lovable couple from the beginning, but Mickey certainly toes a fine line between innocent and mischievous.

The film also demonstrates the technical prowess of Disney, Iwerks, and their blossoming cartoon company. Plane Crazy's animation is smooth and snappy. Even at ninety-five years old, it is a visual feast of crisply drawn, dexterous moving parts. It was also a technical triumph in its time, as the first cartoon to use a moving camera. This is especially pronounced in the film's point-of-view shots from the airplane's nose, which zip the viewer around in a sequence that was likely thrilling for its 1928 audience. Why then, did it fail to capture the imagination of its first audience, and why is it so overlooked as the first Mickey Mouse cartoon as opposed to the legendary Steamboat Willie?

'Plane Crazy's Test Screening Left Out a Staple of the Mickey Mouse Cartoon

Not much is known about the inaugural Plane Crazy showing that first introduced Mickey Mouse to the screen. It happened on May 15th, 1928, and It likely took place in Los Angeles, as Disney and Iwerks were setting up shop there. Not a public screening, the event was a test meant to gauge audience interest in the project and pick up potential distributors. Among the viewers was a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayor executive, who Walt probably hoped would acquire the project. However, the screening came and went without any offers. While its unclear why, it's likely because the first Plane Crazy showing lacked a key ingredient to what would make Mickey Mouse so impactful.

Sound is a crucial part of cartoons. Even animated films like Plane Crazy or Steamboat Willie that lacked dialogue can still be made all the more immersive and enthralling through sound effects. The sonic queues in Mickey Mouse cartoons specifically—which Walt synchronized with the images for added effect—would become so revolutionary that the process of pairing audio and action is still referred to as Mickey-Mousing in film analyses. Unfortunately, sound was not yet implemented in Plane Crazy when it made its test debut. Instead, it was a silent film, and while the visuals are enough to intrigue an audience, without the accompaniment of sound, Mickey Mouse was still a few notes shy of becoming a worldwide sensation.

The same lack of sound impaired Disney and Iwerks' second Mickey Mouse cartoon, The Gallopin' Goucho, which they completed in August of 1928, but never screened before an audience. The third time was the charm, however, and after some tests with live sound and a long process of producing a synchronized soundtrack using the Cinephone system, Steamboat Willie premiered to a large, public audience in November of that year. The rest is history.

'Crazy Plane' Is Still Available, and It Deserves Overdue Praise

Luckily, neither Plane Crazy nor The Gallopin' Goucho became lost media. With the advent of sound, both films received retroactive soundtracks and were rereleased with music and effects a few months after Steamboat Willie's opening. Film composer Carl W. Stalling created the music and sound for the films—with help from audio engineer George Loweree—and both are widely available on YouTube and on several classic Mickey Mouse cartoon collections today.

Ultimately, it might seem unfair to strip Steamboat Willie of its title as the first Mickey Mouse film. After all, it was the first widely released and completed cartoon featuring the mouse. Nevertheless, even if Plane Crazy saw a much smaller audience and received far less fanfare for its silent draft, it was still Mickey's first appearance on screen, and it presciently showcased Disney's ability for telling a fun, witty, wordless story in just six minutes. For that, it deserves recognition, and if one wants to watch it in its original form, one just has to turn off the volume.