Steamboat Willy (1928)

The huge success of the Jazz singer in early 1928 had opened prospect of talking pictures.

Steamboat Willy was the first cartoon created that had synchronized sound in the same years of 1928.

When the animation with the synchronized sound on top was first played for the audience, Walt Disney recalls: "The effect on our little audience was nothing less an electric... It was terrible, but it was wonderful! And it was something new!"

At that time this idea that moving fictional drawn characters could mimic life, that is, talk, make sounds at that time was understood as something magical and thrilling, The sound used was as unreal as the action all of which is evident in Steamboat Willy.

Watching the Animation one perhaps wouldn’t guess it was the first attempt in synchronizing the sound, since animations that followed took the same approach. On the other hand You’d become aware they are a bit jerky and ruff around the edges.

Nevertheless the sound definitely contributes to the grate impact of animation