According to Walt Disney's older brother Roy O. Disney, Disney was inspired to create a sound cartoon after viewing the 1927 film 'The Jazz Singer', the first feature-length motion picture with synchronized dialogue sequences, which heralded the commercial ascendance of the "talkies" and the decline of the silent film era.

Walt Disney

After losing the rights to the character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit to Charles Mintz, Walt Disney wanted to make Mickey Mouse his new star character. Disney believed that adding sound to a cartoon would greatly increase its appeal after Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho, the first two Mickey Mouse films produced as silent films failed to impress audiences and gain a distributor.

Although animation filmmakers Dave and Max Fleischer's Inkwell Studios had already produced seven sound cartoons, part of the Song Car-Tunes which started in May 1924, failed to keep the sound fully synchronized. 'Steamboat Willie' was produced using a click track to keep his musicians on the beat. The click track was sufficiently useful as a synchronization tool as optical marks were made on the film to indicate precise timings for musical accompaniment.