Steamboat Itchy is a cartoon starring Itchy & Scratchy. It was created in either 1928 or 1929, and was the first cartoon to star both Itchy and Scratchy together.
Plot[]
It is essentially a parody of Disney's Steamboat Willie. Itchy (in the role of Mickey Mouse) whistles on a steamboat. Then Scratchy (as Pete) also whistles, in the same way as his previous known appearance. Itchy then shoots Scratchy's legs off at the knees using a Tommy Gun and shoves his head into the furnace. The short ends with Itchy, holding Scratchy's burnt head, saying "oh me, oh my."
Trivia[]
- Whilst drawing the Steamboat Itchy sequence, the animators jokingly referred to it as "Steamboat Lawsuit". David Silverman explained that he did not know "why [they] weren't sued because there's a shot right out of Steamboat Willie in [the episode]."[1]
- This version of Itchy is among the spectators who laugh at young Mr. Burns in Monty Burns' Fleeing Circus.
- The cartoon made a cameo at the Springfield Drive-In in The Simpsons Road Rage.
- According to Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie, the short was copyrighted and released in 1929, one year after That Happy Cat.[2][3] However, in The Day the Violence Died, it was released and copyrighted in 1928. [4]
- The short enters the Public Domain in either 2024 or 2025.
Citations[]
- ↑ Sheila Roberts. The Simpsons Movie Interviews. Movies Online. Retrieved on 2007-08-02.
- ↑ Itchy and Scratchy: The Movie. Kent Brockman: But first, let's take a look back at the year 1928, a year when you might've seen Al Capone dancing the Charleston on top of the flagpole. It was also the year of the very first Scratchy cartoon, entitled "That Happy Cat." The film did very poorly. But the following year, Scratchy was teamed up with a psychotic young mouse named Itchy, and cartoon history was made. Here's their first cartoon together, "Steamboat Itchy."
- ↑ Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie. "Copyright MCMXXIX; Made in the USA; Passed by Nationwide Board of Review."
- ↑ The Day the Violence Died. Blue-Haired Lawyer: Exhibit A: Steamboat Itchy, dated 1928. The very first first Itchy and Scratchy cartoon, and the credits clearly state, "written, directed and created by Roger Meyers. Music by Roger Meyers and George Gershwin, produced by Roger Meyers and Joseph P. Kennedy, copyright 1928 by Roger Meyers."