In 1928, the cartoon character Mickey Mouse made his debut in the animated short Steamboat Willie.

Tepid audience response to the character helps persuade his creator, Walter Elias Disney, to abandon the field of film animation. Disney will later work with famed producer-director Cecil B. DeMille on live-action Biblical films, and in the 1950s will produce several modestly successful adaptations of literary works, including 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which features a young Charles Bronson.