Sean Bradley, Staff

This year marks the 95^th anniversary of Disney’s Steamboat Willie, which is often touted as the first sound cartoon. However, it also marks the same for an equally important but under discussed cartoon released a month before Steamboat Willie, titled Dinner Time.

Dinner Time was produced in the summer of 1928 in New York City by cartoonists Paul Terry (who later went on to found Terrytoons and produce Mighty Mouse) and John Foster for film producer Amedee J. Van Beuren. Premiering in August 1928, it was released by Pathé as an entry in Terry’s popular Aesop’s Film Fables series and features Terry’s first star character, Farmer Alfalfa, who in this cartoon is a butcher fending off packs of pesky, hungry dogs. The film was publicly released on Oct. 14, 1928, and was also one of the first sound-on-film cartoons, using the RCA Photophone system.

Previously, from 1924 to 1927, cartoonist and film producer Max Fleischer (who later went on to produce Betty Boop and Popeye the Sailor) produced a series of sing-along cartoons using the Phonofilm sound-on-film process titled Song Car-Tunes. Of the 47 Song Car-Tunes produced, about 16 Song Car-Tunes were produced with sound.

While Dinner Time was not the first sound cartoon, it did play a small but pivotal role in the creation of Steamboat Willie. In the fall of 1928, Walt Disney was in New York City, looking for a studio to record a soundtrack for the completed animation of Steamboat Willie. While there, he saw Dinner Time. Let’s say he wasn’t too impressed. As, Disney, who was a fan of Aesop’s Film Fables, called it “one of the rottenest Fables I believe that I ever saw. And I should know, because I have seen almost all of them!” To some degree, Disney was right because at times, the sound is out of sync with the action and there is no attempt at dialogue. After seeing the cartoon, Walt was convinced to produce a better sound cartoon. After two attempts of recording the film’s soundtrack and completing the film, Steamboat Willie first premiered at the Colony Theatre in New York City on Nov. 18, 1928, and forever changed the world of animation by showing how animation and sound could be masterfully synched with one another.

Despite the cartoon’s soundtrack not being great, there are still things to appreciate about Dinner Time. For one thing, the animation (which is mainly handled by Jesse “Vet” Anderson and John Foster), despite being primitive, is still charming to watch and the gags are fast-paced and chaotic. Additionally, the soundtrack’s music, which was scored by Josiah Zuro, features public domain standards, like “How Dry I Am”, as well as 1920s hits, like “I Just Roll Along (Havin’ My Ups and Downs)” by Peter DeRose.

While Steamboat Willie remains an important film, it is important to acknowledge and remember Dinner Time and other the sound films that predate Steamboat Willie and their significance in animation history.