I finally saw an important bit of film history...

Steamboat Willie (1928)
Starring: Walt Disney (as the voices of all characters)
Directors: Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Mickey and Minnie perform "Turkey in the Straw" using barnyard animals as instruments while on a riverboat.

Thanks to Disney Plus, I've finally seen "Steamboat Willie" (1928). If not for the place it holds in the history of animation and the film industry in general, I wonder if "Steamboat Willie" would be remembered at all. It's the first appearance of Mickey and Minnie Mouse... and it's first cartoon with sound. All those are, of course, enough to secure this film's place in history, but compared to other cartoons of the period, and certainly to ones that followed from Walt Disney's production house and his competitors, this is pretty unremarkable.

Maybe it's because I'm not a kid, or maybe because it's not 1928, but I found the story and the gags to be cute but not much more than than. My favorite bits were Mickey creatively using the crane to get Minnie aboard the boat, and the goat turning into a musical instrument after it eats some sheet music and a ukulele. The second incident  is the foundation for the second half of the film which is a performance of "Turkey in the Straw" on various items and animals. On the downside, though,, this part of the film became less amusing as it went on, because it's a festival of animal cruelty. By the end, I was happy to see Mickey get punished by the steamboat's angry cat captain.

On the other hand, I've had "Turkey in the Straw" lodged in my head since I watched "Steamboat Willie"... and I think after listening to this, it may be stuck there forever.

(It should be noted that for the Disney Plus release, "Steamboat Willie" has been restored to how it was when it was first released. It was edited in the 1950s for its theatrical re-release, removing part of the bit where piglets and a mother pig are used as instruments by Mickey. I also noticed that Disney has uploaded the restored version to their YouTube Channel. I've embedded it below, so you can check it out, in case you have a hole like mine in your film history knowledge.)