Mouse: Sound Film Test

Steamboat Willie, Walt Disney’s first synchronized sound cartoon, was the cartoon that raised the bar and made sound cartoons the new norm, and officially introduced the world to Mickey Mouse. During the production of Steamboat Willie, there were a good amount of test animations made with accompanying dummy tracks to eliminate any errors in synchronizing, since the recording would use a click track. As it turns out, Walt Disney Studios still has the original test reel deep within the “Vault”.

From rumors around the studio, the reel is labeled “Mouse - Sound Film Test” and the tests have been presumed to have been made in early 1928. The reel allegedly runs for 4 minutes and 15 seconds. Depending on who you ask, the contents of the reel can vary, but most sources can agree that half or even more of the test reel is short clips of sequences that would go on to be in Steamboat Willie, such as the sequence where Mickey swings a cat around or playing a cow’s teeth like a xylophone.

Other tellings of the rumor include instances of never-before-seen imagery mixed in with the normal clips. A few sources talk about a 10-second close up of Mickey’s face as he laughs, accompanied with the voice of Walt Disney doing his Mickey voice, synced to the movements of the chortling mouse. The laughing goes on for around 15 seconds before it the screen blanks out. Some people refer to the expression on Mickey’s face in this clip as slightly sinister in nature.

On top of this, rare claims of instances of unsettling content have been made, including a 20-second clip of Mickey walking down an empty street, past five or six buildings on loop with the only accompanying sound being random dissonant piano keys being banged on. The buildings look run down and abandoned, the asphalt street and concrete sidewalk cracked in countless places, resembling spider webs. Garbage is carelessly strewn about and a few rusty old-style cars litter the street, in a state of severe disrepair, pieces missing or dangling from the vehicles, becoming ghostly caricatures of what some have reported to be screaming faces. Mickey’s walking down this seemingly endless post-apocalyptic setting as he looks down in a depressed expression. For the whole 20 seconds, nothing happens except for walking.

No evidence has come to light of this actually existing, but it’s also rumored that during World War II, the US Department of War commissioned Walt Disney to produce an animation for use in interrogating Nazi prisoners held at P.O. Box 1142 in order to extract information from them by psychologically torturing ones who resisted threats of being handed over to the Soviets. What Disney allegedly presented them was an extended, 9 minute-long version of the above animation test, in the exact same style as Mickey’s original design.

Mickey walks through the apocalyptic ruin of a city for a couple of more minutes, all while the jumbled piano music still playing in the background, before the distant sound of a man sobbing loudly in pain can be heard mixed in with the piano. After a couple more minutes, the sound of an old radio dialing through stations too fast appears in the audio. Mickey’s walking begins to pick up a pace, like he’s in a hurry to get somewhere, while the sounds of the crying man and radio static begin to crescendo, growing louder and louder until all sound abruptly stops, and the film cuts to black. It remains black for a few seconds, just enough time for the viewer to think it’s over, before the video and audio jump-cuts back in. The audio is at its loudest point, with the piano sounding as if someone’s repeatedly laying their entire arms across as many keys as possible, layered with the sound of a woman screaming for her life.

The animation rapidly strobes between the cartoon and darkness as tight shot of Mickey’s face shows his eyes melting off and drifting down to the bottom of his chin as he smiles a crooked, tight-lipped smirk that slides upwards to one side of his liquefying face, his snout drooping downwards, his eyes now merged into one formless blob dangling from what’s left of his face. This all happens over the course of 30 seconds before the camera cuts back to the standard shot of Mickey walking quickly down the decaying street, his face still having been melted. The animation starts to warble and contort as if being viewed in a kaleidoscope as the screaming and piano banging continues in the background, now with the sound of an old music box faintly being played. After a couple more minutes of this display, the image and sound jump-cuts to the end card for all of the older Mickey shorts, with the usual happy-go-lucky music playing as the twisted cartoon draws to a close.

Whether this was ever used in P.O. Box 1142 is up for debate amongst believers of this rumor. If this were to exist and have been used of course, none of those involved would admit this existed, or that any of the prisoners were submitted to anything traumatic, and all records of what happened at the intelligence facility have been destroyed following the end of the war. It is also debated whether the film reel made for the War Department was kept or if it was destroyed as well.

Some believers will tell you that the short was uploaded to the internet by an anonymous Disney employee, whose fate is also unknown. They also say that there’s a chance you can find the morbid cartoon on the web if you dig enough. The title may vary, but they say it’s most often found under simply “Mouse” as the title. But of course, these are all just rumors. The topic is still discussed.