"I heard stories... 'bout a monster that lurked in the underbelly of the ferry... After 90 years... he's actually out in the public... Steamboat Willie!"
Screamboat is a horror comedy Slasher Movie co-written, produced, and directed by Steven LaMorte, the director of The Mean One, based on Mickey Mouse's short Steamboat Willie. It was announced on January 2, 2024, just one day after the mouse's 1928 incarnations became Public Domain and fellow Mickey slasher film The Mouse Trap (2024) was advertised.
According to LaMorte himself, the movie is about "the story of a late-night ferry ride in New York City where commuters and deckhands and all the usual passengers are attacked by a murderous and mischievous mouse who is mean, tiny, and loves getting up to no good".
The film was theatrically released on April 2nd, 2025.
In October 2025, a sequel was announced to be in production.
This movie contains examples of:
- Corrupted Character Copy: Steamboat Willie is a murderous psycho of a mouse instead of the jerkish, yet still not evil Mickey from the 30s.
- Covers Always Lie: The silhouette on one of the covers (shown above) has proportions closer to the actual Steamboat Willie animation, with a large head, smaller body, and spindly arms and legs. In the movie, Willie is played by a man in a suit, and is therefore far more humanoid, bulkier and less cartoonish.
- Mocky Mouse: Steamboat Willie is an evil mutant mouse that looks like Mickey Mouse.
- Mr. Alt Disney: Captain Walt is Walt Disney, if he was the captain of a ship instead of a cartoonist.
- Mythology Gag: With the film being a horror parody of Disney cartoons, expect there to be a ton of references in the film.
- Willie's Sinister Whistling is (of course) the same "Steamboat Bill" tune Mickey whistles in the original short.
- When Barry tells the survivors about the story of Steamboat Willie, it's revealed Willie was a science experiment and the scientist experimenting on him is The Mad Doctor from the 1933 short film "The Mad Doctor" and a sketch drawing of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit can also be seen. The flashbacks themselves are designed in the style of 1920s - 1930s black-and-white cartoons.
- And there is Pete being an obvious Shout-Out to Peg Leg Pete, but is a human instead of an anthropomorphic cat and became captain later in the film.
- Skewed Priorities: What's the first mate's reaction to finding the captain decapitated and the walls painted with blood? To declare himself the new captain, make Pete his first mate, and fantasize about being a hero.
- Too Dumb to Live: The party girls are so incredibly stupid that their deaths end up just funny as a result.
- Two of them are trying to take a selfie of themselves doing the ahegao face and manage to not even notice a forklift driving right at them, impaling them through the mouths.
- One looks through a window, sees a big group of people being electrocuted to death, thinks it's a dance, and grabs the metal door handle to go in and join them. Guess how that turns out.
- The birthday girl ignores everyone's warnings to stay quiet, wanders off alone, and after managing to escape Willie by pure luck, proceeds to lean against the glass window of the door she just went through. Sure enough, Willie stabs her through the glass with a harpoon.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Captain Walt was imaginative, joyous, kind-hearted, and gave Steamboat Willie his freedom, his dignity, and his purpose, but tragically drowned in a storm before the events of the film.
- Tragic Keepsake: Steamboat Willie's hat used to belong to Captain Walt.
- Writing Around Trademarks: This film's antagonist is named "Steamboat Willie" instead of "Mickey Mouse", due to the mouse's canonical full name still being trademarked by The Walt Disney Company.