It was on this day in 1928 that Mickey Mouse first galloped into theaters aboard his trusty ostrich in The Gallopin’ Gaucho. Although Steamboat Willie was the first Mickey Mouse cartoon released in theaters, it was the third movie produced. The silent films Plane Crazy and The Gallopin’ Gaucho were the first two Mickey cartoon shorts produced respectively, both as silent films. When Walt Disney chose Steamboat Willie to become his first sound cartoon, he added audio to the already completed films and thus, The Gallopin’ Gaucho became the third Mickey film to be released. Viewers with a keen eye may notice that the design of Mickey changes from the beginning of the film, in which the mouse looks similar to his appearance in Plane Crazy, to the end of the film where he more closely resembles his Steamboat Willie self. In The Gallopin’ Gaucho, Mickey portrays a swashbuckling South American hero, reminiscent of Douglas Fairbanks, who had appeared the previous year in The Gaucho. As the film opens, Mickey is seen entering a cantina in Argentina where he smokes a cigarette and downs a frosty mug of beer. While today’s films are sensitive to what’s politically correct for their intended audience, these actions were not intended to be representative of Mickey’s true personality. Particularly in the earlier films, Mickey was quite the versatile actor, portraying all kinds of characters, from a dashing airplane pilot to a member of a prison chain gang.
