Mickey Mouse starred in a short film called Steamboat Willie in 1928 and became a legend. The mouse character was not Walt Disney's first popular character, nor even his first anthropomorphized critter rendered in rubber hose animation, but something about him resonated with audiences so much that he became the symbol of Disney for the next 95 years. In fact, Steamboat Willie wasn't even Mickey's first cartoon! As we celebrate the mouse entering the public domain this year (at least the original version), it might do to look back and try to figure out what made Steamboat Willie such a special cartoon. After all, Mickey was just another of the many cartoon characters of the era that looked pretty much the same. Phil Edwards takes us back to 1928 to show us how it wasn't the character that was a breakthrough, but the technical wizardry of the short itself, helped by some serious public relations work. (via Digg)