Credit: DisneyThe first reactions are in for a new film in which Mickey Mouse is depicted chopping off someone’s genitalia and committing mass murder.
In early 2024, the copyright for Steamboat Willie—the 1928 animated short that first introduced Mickey Mouse—entered the public domain, stripping The Walt Disney Company of its exclusive rights to that early version of the character. The landmark change marked the first time Mickey Mouse, albeit in his original form, became fair game for artists, filmmakers, and companies to reinterpret without Disney’s permission, sparking a wave of speculation over how the famously protected icon might be used.
One of the first filmmakers to seize the opportunity was Jamie Bailey, who released The Mouse Trap, a short horror film depicting a twisted version of Mickey stalking victims inside an amusement arcade. Though modest in scale, the film quickly racked up a wealth of negative reviews and joined a growing subgenre of public-domain horror.
Screamboat Hits Theaters
The latest of these projects to hit theaters is Screamboat. Announced a day after Steamboat Willie hit the public domain, the film follows a group of New Yorkers who are terrorized by a monstrous mouse named – you guessed it – Steamboat Willie.
Now, the first reviews are in – and they’re actually slightly more positive than you’d think.
To clarify, Screamboat isn’t going to make a billion dollars any time soon, and it’s certainly not award-season material. However, critics seem slightly less horrified by the film than The Mouse Trap or its predecessor, Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey (2023), with some going as far as to claim that it’s… Fun?
Warning: spoilers ahead.
“There is a weirdly undeniable charm to the shlockiness of Screamboat, especially when writer-director Steven LaMorte is peppering the audience with constant Disney references, both of the cheap-and-easy variety and some which are a little cleverer,” the Metro said in a 2.5-star review. It also claimed that some of the film’s most horrifying moments include Mickey Mouse – sorry, Steamboat Willie – cutting off a penis and ripping off someone’s nose. Lovely.
Meanwhile, Variety said: “The murders may be grisly, but they’re played almost entirely for laughs, as are the tossed-off references to any number of Disney movies.” However, it also noted that the acting wasn’t exactly stellar. “‘Screamboat’ is most taxing when it tries to be serious, testing the rest of the cast’s limited acting talents,” it said. “For example, the best that can be said about Amy Schumacher, who plays Amber the on-board medic, is that she knows her lines.”
For the most part, critics seemed to agree that the film at least knows what it’s doing – and is perfectly comfortable with its position as a subpar silly slasher. “It’s hard to imagine anyone stumbling into ‘Screamboat’ without being aware of its intentions,” explained RogerEbert.com. “It’s not something people buy a ticket to when their arthouse movie of choice isn’t available. On that level, it almost works enough to recommend even to those not clamoring to see it. It could be funnier. It could be a lot smarter. It could look better. But it also could have been significantly worse, working as much as it does because it knows that you don’t need to be great if you’re this Goofy.”
“‘Screamboat’ is, for better and worse, the epitome of ‘Dumb Fun,'” said IGN. “It’s leagues above the competition in the widening sea of public-domain Steamboat Willie horror parodies.” It also admitted that while “Screamboat isn’t a good movie,” it is “an entertaining experience if you only care about indulgently bloody kill sequences. It’s hardly the worst Steamboat Willie parody to date, but it has a scrappy and unpolished feel – oftentimes to its detriment.”
But not everyone is quite as tolerant. The Guardian shared a more scathing review, in which it declared: “These tacky novelty films have been unlucky to land at a moment when mainstream horror has seriously raised its game, but something as cut-price, retrograde and reactionary as this really does deserve the damning label of Mickey Mouse fare.”
The CGI mouse, in particular, has divided opinions. With David Howard Thornton taking on the role of a genetic experiment gone wrong – fresh off playing the equally terrifying Art the Clown in the Terrifier trilogy – he’s in good horror-honed hands, but the effects are apparently hit-and-miss. As IGN said, “Thornton stars as LaMorte’s ‘Steamboat Willie,’ looking less like his animated inspiration and more like the midpoint of an Animorphs cover illustration.”
RogerEbert.com agreed. “The creature design of “Screamboat” is one of the film’s most notable flaws, rendering the villain as a sort of CGI cartoon that never really looks like it’s sharing the same physical space with the other characters, and burying the expressive Thornton under even more make-up than Art. It would have been wiser to create a giant, Thornton-sized Willie and allow him to unleash carnage in a more tactile way.”
For now, the film holds a 61% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 64% audience score. Those are pretty middling scores, but definitely not the worst we’ve seen – especially for a Disney parody horror film. Catch the film in theaters now for a limited time only.
Do you plan on seeing Screamboat?