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More on Steamboat Willie

Watch online A little addition to my last post, although it doesnt have anything to do with Buster Keatons Steamboat Bill, Jr.. Heres another look at the scene where Black Pete kicks Mickey down the stairs to scrub the decks. The stretch and squash animation of Mickeys rubbery physique goes into extremes here, as Pete grabs poor old Mickey and mangles his little body pretty good.

This gag is actually a reworked joke from another cartoon short created in 1928. That cartoon was titled Tall Timber and starred Oswald The Lucky Rabbit. It actually says so on the original storyboards from Steamboat Willie. Have a look at them below, click to enlarge any of them. But first, heres the scene as it plays out in Willie.


Here are the original storyboards for scene #4 from Steamboat Willlie clearly mentioning their previous short Tall Timber (click to enlarge, it reads much better).



When Walt Disney started in the animation business, even before Mickey was born, his small studio created a successful series of cartoon shorts starring Oswald, the Lucky Rabbit. Because of its succes, distributor Charles Mintz, who owned the copyrights to the character, decided it would be more profitable for him to set up his own animation studio. Mintz not only took away the character from Disney, but also persuaded his entire team of animators to come and work for him. Ub Iwerks was the only artist that stayed with Walt. They both decided they wouldnt take it lying down, and started a new series of shorts with a new character of their own. Ub drew the first cartoon entirely by himself, drawing an amazing 700 frames each day. Their new character was Mickey (the) Mouse and their first short was called Plain Crazy.

From the scene below, taken from Oswalds Tall Timber, you can clearly see that Mickey was actually already there in the drawings back then. The similarity with the bear cub is simply amazing. Although Mintz and even Walter Lantz later on(who would became famous for his Woody Woodpecker cartoons) continued to create Oswald shorts for some time, a lot of cartoons from the Disney era are today still considered lost films. But theres hope for Oswald, in November 2011 one of his lost films, titled Hungry Hobos, was found in the vault of the British Huntley Film Archives in Herefordshire.

Below is a compilation of some frames from the related Bears sequence. Oswald wasnt so lucky in this scene. After almost drowning during a wild river trip in a canoe, and landing on the head of a Moose that hurls him into a canyon, Oswald manages to land safely, but is still chased by a huge rock. He slams into a tree and gets hit by the rock, which stretches and flattens him like a pancake.

A huge bear and two cubs are then introduced, who are hungry for some sugar sap from the maple trees. A gag plays out as the cubs feed from the tree, which has a tap on each side. The cubs then get into a fight over who gets to play with Oswald and jerk him around until he is back into his old proportions. Of course hes angry and chases the cubs, until he meets Mama bear and is chased himself.

For people who dont know Oswald, hes the guy on the ground with the huge ears! The funny thing is, although it isnt there in the storyboards, the bear cub sticking out his tongue at Oswald, was also incorporated into the scene with Black Pete in Steamboat Willie!