Who's the riffing trio that just mocked Steamboat Willie?
N-E-L-S-O-N, Bill, and Kev Murphy!
When the 1929 cartoon that put Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse on the map, "Steamboat Willie", fell into public domain just after New Year's Day, the mouse found himself in odd places.
He was in an Adult Swim promo, a few video games, and plans for a horror movie just like Winnie the Pooh.
Then, out of the blue, Rifftrax decided to mock the short that led to amusement parks, animation. media dominance and singing teens with odd hats (more than once).
It showed some respect but not too much. It's famous because it was the first sound cartoon, but it's basically gags you'd see in silent animation. One of the first reactions came from Bill: "So, a century-old evil empire was based on this, huh?"
There was a lot of comments on how Mickey would play "Turkey in the Straw" and turn all the animals into instruments. That included a goat that ate a ukelele, followed by a pig, a cat and a goose. Mike described it as "what happens on a Disney cruise", which would get him to buy a ticket.
There's also how Minnie is brought to the boat via a hook (with "sexy" results), and how Music Goat became so beloved.
There were also riffs on Dubuque, IA, Charlotte's Web, a certain Marvel movie and Bugs Bunny.
The big news is that Rifftrax saw an opportunity and took it. If they do this to other Disney shorts in the future ("Plane Crazy", for example), there's a chance it'll do that.
It's also getting attention from the new GrimTrax spinoff, featuring really depressing shorts. The first series includes a lonely old woman, a boy who dies yet no one cares (that's the real horror) and one on job safety that should be called "Have An Orgy With Danger". It's on the Rifftrax website.
