It’s Mickey, but not as you’ve ever seen him before.
A trailer for a slasher film, featuring a masked killer dressed as Mickey Mouse, was released on 1 January, the day that Disney’s copyright on the earliest versions of the cartoon character expired in the US.
“We wanted the polar opposite of what exists,” the movie’s producer said.
A new Mickey-inspired horror game, showing the rodent covered with blood stains, also dropped on the same day.
Steamboat Willie, a 1928 short film featuring early non-speaking versions of Mickey and Minnie, entered the public domain in the US on New Year’s Day.
It means cartoonists, novelists and filmmakers can now rework and use the earliest versions of Mickey and Minnie.
But the landscape has also changed. If people were still buying physical media in large numbers or significantly buying digital media rather than relying on streaming services, Disney would have more money in the game to lose. But no one stands to make money from just trying to sell Steamboat Willie as-is.
Also, Disney is vicious about defending their trademarks. I think they care about Mickey a hell of a lot more than you think and they will be watching very closely for anything that steps out of line into trademark violation territory regarding Steamboat Willie.
To clarify, I meant that don’t care about fighting to extend the copyright. I see how my wording implies they don’t care about Steamboat Willie so I’ll edit my comment
Definitely agree with you here
Ok, I get you now. I think both your and my factors probably play a part. I’m just glad there’s no major corporation out there left trying to extend copyright law even longer than the ridiculous 70 years after the author’s death that it is now.
For much of the 20th century, copyright in the U.S. was 19 years with an option to extend for another 19 when that expired. And it should have stayed that way.
Disney really fucked with our laws. Megacorps are a bane on society