Credit: DisneyWhile Mickey Mouse is seemingly free for use, one “Disney” horror film creator is warning others about how they create their content with Mickey Mouse now that he is in the public domain, as it seems he has noticed reckless behavior that may leave many of these creators with a lawsuit on their hands.
Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks collaborated to bring Mickey Mouse to life in 1928, serving as a replacement for Disney’s earlier character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, after losing the rights to it.
Mickey was crafted with a straightforward, easily recognizable silhouette that has become iconic for the company, featuring large ears and distinctive white gloves. His lively personality, characterized by a high-pitched voice (initially voiced by Walt Disney himself), along with expressive animation, quickly made him a hit in the original debut of the character during Steamboat Willie, the first ever film to have synchronized sounds, placing Walt as a pioneer of animation.
But, on January 1, that version of Mickey Mouse entered the public domain.
As the expiration of Mickey Mouse’s copyright neared in the late 1990s, The Walt Disney Company expressed increasing apprehension about relinquishing control over this iconic character. Lobbying initiatives and legislative adjustments, notably the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, prolonged copyright durations to the current life of the author plus 70 years (or 95 years for works for hire). This meant that Disney would have an extra 25 years of total control over Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, a copyright that was initially meant to end in 2004.
Before Mickey, we saw other characters enter the public domain that were not essentially created by Disney, but popularized by the company, such as Winnie the Pooh. Pooh entered public domain as of January 1, 2022, and in 2023, we saw the release of horror film Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey.
As we shared, “With the character becoming free-reign after losing its copyright, British filmmaker Rhys Frake-Waterfield was able to change the narrative into a slasher film which follows Pooh and Piglet, who have become feral and bloodthirsty murderers, as they terrorize a group of young university women and Christopher Robin when he returns to the Hundred Acre Wood many years later after leaving for college.”
Next, Waterfield is working to do the same with Bambi and Peter Pan, and will carry on with other fairytale characters as they become available.
On January 1, we saw Nightmare Forge Games released the first trailer (via IGN) for “Infestation 88,” a co-op survival horror game starring none other than Mickey Mouse himself.
Additionally, the trailer for a movie titled Mickey’s Mouse Trap was dropped, a slasher film using the beloved Disney iconic as the killer.
Rhys Frake-Waterfield, owner of Jagged Edge Productions, however, has stated that he will not touch Mickey as he is not looking to get sued. The director and producer sat down with Indiewire to explain his fears of the mouse.
“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,” Frake-Waterfield said. “There are things which we had to deal with 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.”
Frake-Waterfield says he’s “noticed some stuff” on a few of the Steamboat Willie projects that “they shouldn’t have done.” Best case: he expects those producers to get a cease and desist from Disney attorneys. Worst case: they’re getting shut down and sued.
“We didn’t want to go near that character,” he said.”
Rhys noted that he thinks it is “sketchy” to use Mickey Mouse, and that just because the character is in the public domain, does not mean he should be used. With so many versions of Mickey Mouse still locked under copyright, and with Disney’s legal team being so expansive, they will be looking for any way to remove a project that does not align with their version of the character when possible.
“I don’t know if any of them are going to, you know, try to make them good,” Frake-Waterfield said. “That getting repeated all the time, it won’t have the same kind of hit. It doesn’t have the same kind of longevity for 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.”
Disney has succumbed to no longer owning the Steamboat Willie version of Mickey on YouTube, as the Mouse House continued to enact copyright claims on videos with Steamboat Willie, and has since admitted defeat in that area, redacting the claims.
At the moment, Disney has seemingly “retired” the latest version of Mickey Mouse, with The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse coming to an end on Disney+.
Do you think Disney will stop and sue companies for using Mickey Mouse in their projects if possible?