Howdy, dolly! Hardly a day has passed since Disney’s original copyright on Mickey Mouse ran out when two brand-new independent horror movies starring the lovable mouse have been revealed.
Ninety-five years after its first release, Steamboat Willie, the first Disney film starring Mickey, became public domain on Monday according to US law. This implies that everyone can now freely duplicate, distribute, repurpose, and modify the rudimentary, early forms of the characters that show up in the movie, such as Mickey and his fiancée Minnie.
Disney had warned that it would protect its most famous figure, but sly filmmakers had been anticipated to move fast to reveal their own unofficial remakes and adaptations, and they did not let anyone down. A masked assassin dressed like Mickey will chase a group of young friends through an amusement arcade in Mickey’s Mouse Trap, while an untitled horror-comedy will depict a nasty mouse torturing gullible ferry passengers.
In a YouTube clip for Mickey’s Mouse Trap, director Jamie Bailey stated, “We just wanted to have fun with it all.” “Steamboat Willie’s Mickey Mouse is killing people, really. It’s absurd. We took it and ran with it, and I believe it shows.” March is when the low-budget horror-comedy is scheduled to premiere.
In the meantime, Steven LaMorte, the director of The Mean One, a 2022 slasher comedy loosely based on The Grinch, is developing his own “twisted take” on Mickey. “Steamboat Willie has brought joy to generations, but beneath that cheerful exterior lies a potential for pure, unhinged terror,” he stated in a news release.
The film’s untitled production is scheduled to start this spring. Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, a low-budget slasher movie that made headlines last year after the copyright on the first A. A. Milne novels expired, is similar to both projects.
According to analysts, Disney will be constantly monitoring the situation and might bring in the attorneys if someone walks across the line. Mickey from subsequent Disney films, such as Fantasia, is not in the public domain; only the original black-and-white version of the character is. Furthermore, due to trademark rights, any movie or anything that might trick viewers into believing it was created by Disney might be held accountable.
“We will, of course, continue to protect our rights in the more modern versions of Mickey Mouse and other works that remain subject to copyright, and we will work to safeguard against consumer confusion caused by unauthorized uses of Mickey and our other iconic characters,” stated a statement from Disney.
LaMorte, however, told Variety that he was unconcerned. “We are doing our due diligence to make sure there’s no question or confusion of what we’re up to,” he stated. “This is our version of a public domain character.”
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