Steamboat Willie: How Walt Disney came back from ruin

Next year, a piece of movie history will enter the public domain. Disney is going to lose copyright protection of its 1928 animated short Steamboat Willie, featuring the original version of its most iconic character, Mickey Mouse.

The animated short not only marked the debut of a global cultural icon, it set the path for Walt Disney's entire empire and was a pivotal moment in the development of cinema, introducing synchronised sound to animated cartoons.