Toons In the Parks: Disneyland's Main Street Cinema

Ahhh, Disneyland. As I was strolling down Main Street USA the other day, a thought occurred to me that concerns this blog. Part of what I love about The Happiest Place On Earth (and all the Disney parks) is the fact that they sometimes take inspiration from beloved Disney movies...and sometimes cartoons. Therefore, I thought this blog would be the perfect place to debut a series I call Toons In the Parks in which I'll catalogue the many different cartoon influences within Disneyland and the other Disney parks. Since Mickey Mouse Follies: Black and White is all about Mickey's earliest cartoons, all the theme park influences posted here will also deal with those same films.


The Main Street Cinema is a place I remember visiting whenever I went to Disneyland as a child. As the years passed, I went there less and less, but I recently re-discovered its charm and its importance to MMF.


The Main Street Cinema continuously runs 6 Mickey Mouse cartoons, all in black and white. Though none of the toons were released as silent films, they all are projected without their soundtracks except Steamboat Willie. What follows are pictures of the posters advertising the different cartoons in the lobby of the cinema.

1928's Steamboat Willie is the only toon projected with its soundtrack. It's very satisfying to hear small children and even adults giggle at Mickey's early personality and antics. I find it interesting that jokes meant to crack up audiences 80 years ago still manage to delight the audiences of today.

1931's Traffic Troubles is the toon where Mickey plays a cab driver who gets into all sorts of mischief.



1931's The Moose Hunt stars Mickey and Pluto and is the cartoon in which Pluto utters his first words.

1936's Mickey's Polo Team is one of my favorites because it contains so many celebrity caricatures. Although this toon was originally released in color, it is projected in black and white.

1928's Plane Crazy was originally intended as a silent film though it was released with a full soundtrack. Ironic that it can be seen daily as it was once intended.

1934's The Dognapper is Mickey's second-to-last black and white film appearance. Next to most of the other films presented in the Cinema, this toon looks extremely advanced animation-wise.

Disneyland's Main Street Cinema is unique because it so far has not suffered the same fate as its sister cinema located in the Magic Kingdom. That area unfortuantely was recently turned into a shop, something I would hate to see happen over here in California. So next time you visit Disneyland, take a break in the Cinema and watch a toon or two.

Storyboard To Screen: Steamboat Willie

Storyboard To Screen is a series of posts which will compare actual storyboard sequences created for various toons to their screen counterparts. These posts are meant as pure galleries, as there is really nothing I can comment on that you can't already see for yourself.


As you scan these images, you'll notice that in most cases, besides the crude character sketches vs. the refined film versions, the screen mirrors its storyboard; however other cases are a bit different. Some storyboards show slightly different staging compared to their final screen appearances while others are drastically different.


Today's post compares the storyboards for Steamboat Willie to that film's finalized screen version. All pictures are shown in sequential order, and you can always click on them to view a larger size.

Steamboat Willie - November 18, 1928

Steamboat Willie has long been known as the quintissential Mickey cartoon, and for very good reason. It was this toon which caught the interest of audiences all over America and sent the lovable mouse on his journey to mega-stardom.

The film is also a historical work of art for its use of sound. 1927's The Jazz Singer was the first film ever to use a soundtrack, yet the process was still seen as a novelty. Truth be told, Steamboat Willie was not the first cartoon to have sound; in fact popular animator Max Fleischer (creator of Popeye and Betty Boop) experimented with sound effects in seven of his films before 1928. These cartoons were mostly silent except for a few sounds placed here and there. Needless to say, they were not well-received.

It wasn't until 1928 that Walt Disney decided to try creating a cartoon with a synchronized soundtrack throughout the entire film, a first of its kind. What came out of this idea was Steamboat Willie.

Ah yes, the iconic black and white image of Mickey Mouse as captain. So much of Mickey's personality is shown is just this opening scene. Here we have a lovable character that is very relatable. His design has changed from his appearance in Plane Crazy. Besides gaining shoes (yet still gloveless), Mickey's eyes have turned to oval buttons.

Deciding to change Mickey's eyes to pupil-less buttons was an interesting choice animator Ub Iwerks made. From listening to animators like South Park's Matt Stone and Trey Parker and The Simpsons' Matt Groening, one of the most important features of an animated character is its eyes. Notice how Homer, Marge, Cartman, and Stan all have very large round eyes. This helps the character to express much more emotionally, which is a characteristic that became troublesome for Mickey in later years; in fact, it is the reason why he eventually regains his pupils for 1940's Fantasia. While this early Mickey can certainly evoke happiness, sadness, and other simple emotions, it must have been a challenge for the Disney animators to create a confused, worried, or thinking look.

Steamboat Willie also sees the first appearance of Mickey and Pete together onscreen. Though this toon is Pete's first appearance in a Mickey Mouse film, the character had previously been introduced in the Alice Comedies of the 1920s. In this toon Pete is the captain of the steamboat and curiously has no interest in Minnie at all. His villainous role further cements Mickey as the character worth rooting for and the true star of the film.

Minnie is introduced as a maiden trying to catch the boat before it leaves the dock. Here we see a revised design of the character. She gained her shoes as Mickey did in The Gallopin' Gaucho, but for this toon she is given her trademark flowered hat.

The last character of importance seen in this toon is the parrot. While he never becomes a star in his own right, he does appear in several other Mickey shorts down the road.

Steamboat Willie is another Mickey cartoon which isn't up to Disney's present, family-friendly standards, though it's important to note that it was perfectly fine in 1928. While it is void of any racial stereotypes, it does have a scene featuring tabacco chewing.

Minnie and especially Mickey are also showcased in a rascally light. Whether it be cranking on a goat's tail...


...defiling an innocent cat....

....torturing a nearby goose...

...using a cow's teeth as a xylophone...

...or terrorizing both a group of piglets and their mother, Mickey was certainly a devilish character.

Steamboat Willie remains one of the most important cartoons in animation history today. It was voted #13 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of All Time and was even selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. It's not the greatest Mickey cartoon ever made, but it is very entertaining.