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For those of you that've been living under a rock these past 95 years, the copyright of the Walt Disney animation, Steamboat Willie, has finally expired; along with the copyright for two other cartoons, Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho, but Steamboat has gotten all the major coverage in the news cycle. Allegedly, the copyrights doesn't run out in the UK until 2027. I'm not entirely convinced that's the truth, but I'm gonna play it safe and not show any footage of the cartoons in question.

I wanted to give this a week to see what people would do, but it took less than 10 hours of the copyright expiring to get two different horror-based entities involving the now public domain mouse. At the time of editing this, a third one is on the way and yes, it’s another generic horror movie.

Joy (sarcasm).

I think it's worth pointing out the only thing people are allowed to use going forward is anything related to these original animations produced by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. You're not allowed to use the name, likeness, costumes, voice, side characters (besides Minnie and Pete) or anything pertaining to the modern depiction which is still under Disney lock and key. You're basically walking through a highly complex minefield if you dare to use these cartoons for any form of profit.

Also, good luck using the full title ‘Mickey Mouse’ for your future projects because that name (and many others) are still under trademark laws. What that means is that, while a copyright might expire, trademarks remain active as long as the parent company keeps using them. Why do you think Hasbro keeps pumping out brand new Bumblebee toys every year? They famously lost the trademark to the name ‘Bumblebee’ in the 90s, which led to the rise of his temporary replacement, Hotshot.

Let's get back to the mouse. I have to ask the question here: why is it when a beloved children's icon enters the public domain, people's first and only thought is: “I'm gonna turn this into a generic horror character!” I blame this on Five Nights at Freddy's now that I think about it, as the juxtaposition of cute family-friendly characters spliced with blood curdling horror does have a certain appeal. However, 10,000 FNAF games later and I'm officially sick of the idea; And don't even get me started on all those copycats, or those fucking terrible Sonic.exe games floating around the internet.

The first was called Infestation 88 which, on paper, does have a pretty solid premise. You work in a pest control business that's dealing with a mutated rat population in some sort of warehouse. Nice idea in concept but, let's be honest with ourselves, the only reason anyone is talking about this is because the now public domain Mickey Mouse is the main antagonist. If they just removed Mickey from this game, I'd actually might consider playing it. His presence alone just feels like a cheap marketing ploy to drum up interest. Yes, I realise it's worked because we're currently talking about it.

The game came underfire for the use of the number 88, which is used by [people obssessed with 1940s Germany] as their symbol. In response to this, the game has been renamed to "Infestation Origins." I'm giving the developer the benefit of the doubt here, in that they used the number 88 because the game was probably set in the year 1988 and not for any other malicious purposes.

The second is the predictable slop that I feared was on the horizon. Mickey's Mousetrap is essentially Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey part 2. A generic slasher movie about a bunch of Onlyfans rejects getting slit up by a fat guy in a poorly made Mickey Mouse costume. This is the kind of thing a 7-year-old does in the back of their maths book during a boring session at school. Is this really the height of creativity people have these days? Unfortunately, it seems all we're gonna get going forward is edgy, dark and horror-based versions of beloved IPs now.

Having some time to think about it, I've begun to understand the mindset and fixation on Mickey Mouse going into the public domain. I don't believe it's in any way intended to be a disrespect to Walt Disney's legacy or his iconic character. For years, Disney has abused lobbying tactics to get congress to extend copyright to almost indefinitely. Now that Mickey's original cartoon has expired from copyright, anyone can now make any version of it they desire. I just wish some people had a bit more "creativity" on the matter.

I also have this sneaking suspicion that Disney is going to invoke some loophole or find a way to shut a lot of these projects down. Because if anyone is going to be that bitter and spiteful about this, could you think of anyone more deserving?

There’s a silver lining to all of this. Blood & Honey was heavily panned by audiences and critics alike and, unless I am mistaken, there are no other horror movies or edgy video games based on Winnie the Pooh. That's sort of where I see this Mickey Mouse situation going as well. Oh sure, January will be filled with all these weird and edgy versions, but I think around March or April, all of this will have died down and we’ll stop hearing about it.

Personally, my idea is a steamboat riding a mouse. Something a little different, you know what I'm saying?

Description
For those of you that've been living under a rock these past 95 years, the copyright of the Walt Disney animation, Steamboat Willie, has finally expired; along with the copyright for two other cartoons, Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho, but Steamboat has gotten all the major coverage in the news cycle. Allegedly, the copyrights doesn't run out in the UK until 2027. I'm not entirely convinced that's the truth, but I'm gonna play it safe and not show any footage of the cartoons in question.

I wanted to give this a week to see what people would do, but it took less than 10 hours of the copyright expiring to get two different horror-based entities involving the now public domain mouse. At the time of editing this, a third one is on the way and yes, it’s another generic horror movie.

Joy (sarcasm).

I think it's worth pointing out the only thing people are allowed to use going forward is anything related to these original animations produced by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. You're not allowed to use the name, likeness, costumes, voice, side characters (besides Minnie and Pete) or anything pertaining to the modern depiction which is still under Disney lock and key. You're basically walking through a highly complex minefield if you dare to use these cartoons for any form of profit.

Also, good luck using the full title ‘Mickey Mouse’ for your future projects because that name (and many others) are still under trademark laws. What that means is that, while a copyright might expire, trademarks remain active as long as the parent company keeps using them. Why do you think Hasbro keeps pumping out brand new Bumblebee toys every year? They famously lost the trademark to the name ‘Bumblebee’ in the 90s, which led to the rise of his temporary replacement, Hotshot.

Let's get back to the mouse. I have to ask the question here: why is it when a beloved children's icon enters the public domain, people's first and only thought is: “I'm gonna turn this into a generic horror character!” I blame this on Five Nights at Freddy's now that I think about it, as the juxtaposition of cute family-friendly characters spliced with blood curdling horror does have a certain appeal. However, 10,000 FNAF games later and I'm officially sick of the idea; And don't even get me started on all those copycats, or those fucking terrible Sonic.exe games floating around the internet.

The first was called Infestation 88 which, on paper, does have a pretty solid premise. You work in a pest control business that's dealing with a mutated rat population in some sort of warehouse. Nice idea in concept but, let's be honest with ourselves, the only reason anyone is talking about this is because the now public domain Mickey Mouse is the main antagonist. If they just removed Mickey from this game, I'd actually might consider playing it. His presence alone just feels like a cheap marketing ploy to drum up interest. Yes, I realise it's worked because we're currently talking about it.

The game came underfire for the use of the number 88, which is used by [people obssessed with 1940s Germany] as their symbol. In response to this, the game has been renamed to "Infestation Origins." I'm giving the developer the benefit of the doubt here, in that they used the number 88 because the game was probably set in the year 1988 and not for any other malicious purposes.

The second is the predictable slop that I feared was on the horizon. Mickey's Mousetrap is essentially Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey part 2. A generic slasher movie about a bunch of Onlyfans rejects getting slit up by a fat guy in a poorly made Mickey Mouse costume. This is the kind of thing a 7-year-old does in the back of their maths book during a boring session at school. Is this really the height of creativity people have these days? Unfortunately, it seems all we're gonna get going forward is edgy, dark and horror-based versions of beloved IPs now.

Having some time to think about it, I've begun to understand the mindset and fixation on Mickey Mouse going into the public domain. I don't believe it's in any way intended to be a disrespect to Walt Disney's legacy or his iconic character. For years, Disney has abused lobbying tactics to get congress to extend copyright to almost indefinitely. Now that Mickey's original cartoon has expired from copyright, anyone can now make any version of it they desire. I just wish some people had a bit more "creativity" on the matter.

I also have this sneaking suspicion that Disney is going to invoke some loophole or find a way to shut a lot of these projects down. Because if anyone is going to be that bitter and spiteful about this, could you think of anyone more deserving?

There’s a silver lining to all of this. Blood & Honey was heavily panned by audiences and critics alike and, unless I am mistaken, there are no other horror movies or edgy video games based on Winnie the Pooh. That's sort of where I see this Mickey Mouse situation going as well. Oh sure, January will be filled with all these weird and edgy versions, but I think around March or April, all of this will have died down and we’ll stop hearing about it.

Personally, my idea is a steamboat riding a mouse. Something a little different, you know what I'm saying?