Mickey Mouse Horror Projects Shot Down By 'Winnie The Pooh' Slasher Director

As more and more Mickey Mouse horror projects crop up, the creator of the public-domain horror genre doesn’t think they will achieve the same success.

Credit: Edited by Inside the Magic

The internet has been abuzz regarding Mickey Mouse entering the public domain, specifically, the version of Mickey Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks created for iconic shorts like Steamboat Willie (1928) and Plane Crazy (1928). Now, artists around the world want to take the face of Walt Disney World and the Disney Channel and turn it into something horrifying.

Already, three different horror projects are in the works, including Mickey’s Mousetrap (2024), another Steamboat Willie slasher by the same person who made the Grinch horror movie, and a horror video game starring this version of Mickey Mouse. Many people have already spoken out against this practice, including the filmmaker who arguably started the trend.

“Try To Make Them Good.” ‘Blood and Honey’ Director Calls Out Mickey Mouse Horror Projects

Winnie The Pooh blood and honey — Credit: Jagged Edge Productions

While there have been horror movie adaptations of characters and stories in the public domain before, nobody jumped at the opportunity quite like Rhys Frake-Waterfield, director and producer of Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey (2023). With a $100,000 budget, he transformed the “silly old bear” into a killing machine, reaching viral success and making over $5 million at the box office. However, he doesn’t think the Mickey Mouse projects will be as successful.

“People think it’s an easy thing to grasp and just grab hold of, but there are big issues which I think they’re not aware of,” said Frake-Waterfield. “There are things which we had to deal with Winnie the Pooh behind the scenes that were quite big, and I think [the Steamboat Willie projects] might get a bit of a shock soon.”

The poster for the Steamboat Willie horror movie — Credit: Sleight of Hand Productions

While Frake-Waterfield is already working on a sequel as well as other horror movies about other iconic characters like Bambi and Peter Pan, he has no urge to touch the mouse because he is a completely original Disney character, meaning the copyright and trademark laws are much trickier to move around even though it entered into the public domain.

He predicts that things will get “scary” and “quite costly” for these fledgling production companies. But if they are able to get through the Walt Disney Company’s powerful legal team, Frake-Waterfield says he just wants the movies to be good.

Mickey Mouse in front of the pool at Typhoon Lagoon — Credit: Disney

“I don’t know if any of them are going to, you know, try to make them good,” he elaborated. “That getting repeated all the time, it won’t have the same kind of hit. It doesn’t have the same kind of longevity as what we’re trying to do. I personally believe the only way that this becomes sustainable for us making films is to really focus on doing a select few, the ones we think are best, and making them have a really high quality.”

While some may scoff at his film, which has a rare 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, being called “high quality,” you cannot deny that his idea and the execution were relatively original and eye-catching. At this point, it doesn’t look like Mickey will get the same treatment.

Do you agree with what Frake-Waterfield is saying? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!