"Well, you know, the more Mickey, the more wonderful the world."
—Minnie Mouse
"Steamboat Silly" is the twenty-fifth and final episode of The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse.
Mickey attempts to watch old home movies with his friends, but a mishap accidentally releases hundreds of versions of him from Steamboat Willie, who escape and begin to cause mayhem all over town.
Tropes:
- Bowdlerization: When the version of Mickey from Two-Gun Mickey appears, his gun holsters are empty, essentially making him no-gun Mickey.
- The Cameo: Three of the skeletons from The Skeleton Dance, as well as Dumbo and Timothy Mouse, cameo during the Steamboat Willie Mickeys' romp around town.
- Continuity Cavalcade: The opening scene has Mickey pull out a box of items from across his history, including the Sorcerer's hat from Fantasia, his conductor's coat and hat from The Band Concert, and Mouse ear hats from The Mickey Mouse Club, his straw hat from The Nifty Nineties, and contact lenses representing his updated post-1940s appearance. In the final scene, Mickey accidentally releases versions of him from across his history, including Plane Crazy, The Band Concert, Thru the Mirror, Lonesome Ghosts, Fantasia, Fun and Fancy Free, and The Prince and the Pauper.
- Creative Closing Credits: The credits depict storyboards for deleted scenes, finishing with Mickey and the gang watching the end of Steamboat Willie and laughing the way Mickey does in the short.
- Easter Egg: A113, the classroom at CalArts that teaches graphic design and character animation and often used in Pixar's films, is seen on the hospital room.
- Era-Specific Personality: The series spotlights that the original version of Mickey Mouse could be very chaotic and destructive, a contrast to his modern-day kindhearted everyman persona.
- Grand Finale: It is both the final episode of The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse, and possibly the final installment for this continuity of Mickey Mouse.
- Here We Go Again!: After managing to contain the Steamboat Willie Mickeys, Mickey decides to put his home movies back into the attic, only to accidentally release the Mickeys from ALL of the film reels.
- I Hate Past Me: Mickey initially loves hanging out with his Steamboat Willie-era duplicates and even joins their antics for a little while, but he eventually realizes that they're causing too much trouble to handle, and he's just as relieved as everyone else when they're back in the film reel.Mickey: [with an exasperated expression] I hate me.
- Meet Your Early-Installment Weirdness: The story plays on the difference between early Mickey and modern Mickey, which are great enough that it works even though Wonderful World Mickey is something of a throwback to that era anyway.
- Mickey Mousing: The Trope Namers themselves the Steamboat Willie Mickeys cause trouble while dancing to the tune of a jaunty jazz tune in the vein of the classic era of Mickey shorts. Mickey and the gang exploit this by playing The Mickey Mouse March to get the other Mickeys to follow them back home without any trouble.
- Mythology Gag:
- The title itself is a play on Steamboat Willie, and the first Steamboat Willie Mickey plays Goofy and Donald as musical instruments in the same way he does the cow and the duck in the original cartoon. A
deleted scene/alternative ending shown in the credits has Mickey and his friends laughing in the same way Steamboat Willie Mickey does at the end of Steamboat Willie. - Some of the Steamboat Willie Mickeys cause skeletons to jump out of people and do The Skeleton Dance.
- The Mickeys recreate the Pink Elephant scene from Dumbo.
- The music store that Mickey and his friends are sent crashing into is called the Make Mine Music Store.
- Mickey and his friends get the duplicates to follow them by having them march along to the Mickey Mouse March, and they put the duplicates back into the film reel by using the trampoline from the show's opening. As a bonus, Goofy is seen as a one-man band just like in the opening sequence, although without the trombone.
- The title itself is a play on Steamboat Willie, and the first Steamboat Willie Mickey plays Goofy and Donald as musical instruments in the same way he does the cow and the duck in the original cartoon. A
- Reality Warping: As the Steamboat Willie-era Mickeys spread out around town, they cause Toon Physics-style chaos all over the city — such as causing buildings to wobble like jello, or a surgery patient's organs to sprout limbs and eyes and dance around the operating room as the electrocardiogram beeps out the tune of "Steamboat Bill".
- Rubber-Hose Limbs: The Steamboat Willie-era Mickeys embody this animation style to an even greater degree than the main cast — having come from the Inkblot Cartoon Style era — and can freely stretch their limbs as part of their wacky hi-jinx.
- Self-Deprecation: The short's beginning subtly jabs at Mickey's modern appearance, with him explaining having normal-looking eyes as contact lenses and struggling to close his eyes as he puts them in.
- Theme Music Power-Up: A diegetic example, as Mickey finally gets the Steamboat Willie Mickeys to behave by playing the Mickey Mouse March.
- This Is Gonna Suck: When a Steamboat Willie Mickey drops down a manhole and starts spinning the valves like he did the steamboat's steering wheel, modern-era Mickey — stuck on top of the spinning manhole cover — looks at the camera and grumbles "I hate me." before being launched into the air on a geyser.
- Title Drop: At the end, after Mickey accidentally releases many more Mickeys, Minnie responds "Well, you know: the more Mickey, the more wonderful the world!"
