Mickey Mouse horror film unveiled as copyright ends

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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 just wanted to have fun with it," the movie's director 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.

In fact, anyone can use those versions without permission or cost.

Creatives have been quick to take advantage of the new rules, with a trailer (contains violent scenes) for a Mickey horror film dropping on the same day.

In the horror comedy thriller, called Mickey's Mouse Trap, a young woman is thrown a surprise birthday party in an amusement arcade - but things quickly take a turn for the worse when she and her friends encounter a knife-wielding murderer in a Mickey costume.

"A place for fun, a place for friends, a place for hunting. The mouse is out," the trailer screams in red text.

"I mean it's Steamboat Willie's Mickey Mouse murdering people. It's ridiculous," film director Jamie Bailey said.

"We ran with it and had fun doing it and I think it shows."

The film itself does not have a confirmed release date but is expected to be out this March.

Not to be outdone, a new video game has been unveiled, also featuring the 1928 version of Mickey.

Game studio Nightmare Forge Games said the game, titled Infestation 88, is a survival horror game in which an outbreak of vermin turns into something more sinister.

At the start of the trailer, a man is heard saying nervously: "I thought it was just rodents, but there's something else in here."

A huge, blood splattered Mickey then pops up on screen, while mice scurry around him.

In the game description, it says players - who take on the roles of exterminators - are tasked with treating "mysterious infestations caused by twisted versions of classic characters and urban legends".

Mickey's not the first childhood character to be given the horror movie treatment.

When Winnie the Pooh entered the public domain, the loveable bear was turned into the R-rated horror film Blood and Honey, which was one of last year's worst-rated films.

US copyright law says the rights to characters can be held for 95 years, which means the characters in Steamboat Willie entered the public domain on 1 January 2024.

Disney has faced losing the copyright over its original cartoons several times in the past.

The characters were first expected to go into the public domain in 1984, but Congress extended the term by 20 years.

Before the next expiry date came up in 2004, another 20-year extension was passed.

Disney's efforts to protect its characters have even led to the law being dubbed "the Mickey Mouse Protection Act". But the moment finally came, and was hailed as being "deeply symbolic" by experts.

The company still separately holds a trademark on Mickey as a brand identifier and a corporate mascot. That means there are still limits on how the public can use these images.

And Disney has insisted that more modern versions of Mickey are still covered by copyright.

"We will, of course, continue to protect our rights in the more modern versions of Mickey Mouse and other works that remain subject to copyright," the company said.

BBC News
 
Why is it always horror? I like horror, but jeez, have some imagination people, you have free reign over the character now, and you choose to make a generic slasher/average tier survival horror game.
Where's the proper subversion, the comedies, the parodies etc.
If you're gonna go the horror route, at least make it full on, do something eldritch or really out there, don't just slap Mickey's face onto a generic plot and call it a day.
 
Why is it always horror? I like horror, but jeez, have some imagination people, you have free reign over the character now, and you choose to make a generic slasher/average tier survival horror game.
Where's the proper subversion, the comedies, the parodies etc.
If you're gonna go the horror route, at least make it full on, do something eldritch or really out there, don't just slap Mickey's face onto a generic plot and call it a day.
Well... look at the internet what's most popular right now?, Analog horror.
 
Mickey Mouse is also still a trademark, anyone using him outside posting the public domain shorts on youtube are playing with fire.

Also reason for horror, if you use Mickey Mouse in something that looks like disney themselves would make, they would have a far easier time suing you, however with horror can make the case that is not something Disney themselves would make thus no confusion on who made it.

Here is where it gets tricky: Disney also holds trademarks on its characters, including the “Steamboat Willie” version of Mickey Mouse, and trademarks never expire as long as companies keep submitting the proper paperwork. A copyright covers a specific creation (unauthorized copying), but trademarks are designed to protect against consumer confusion — to provide consumers assurance about the source and quality of a creation.

Boiled down, any public domain use of the original Mickey cannot be perceived as coming from Disney, Ms. Ginsburg explained. This protection is strong, she added, because the character, even in his early form, has such close association with the company. People glance at those ears and smile and “automatically associate it with Disney,” she said.

Still I would never risk it, Disney could pull out the unused concept art of Epic Mickey which is very horror like to say they are overstepping
 
Why is it always horror? I like horror, but jeez, have some imagination people, you have free reign over the character now, and you choose to make a generic slasher/average tier survival horror game.
Where's the proper subversion, the comedies, the parodies etc.
If you're gonna go the horror route, at least make it full on, do something eldritch or really out there, don't just slap Mickey's face onto a generic plot and call it a day.
Because they don't actually have anything meaningful or substantive to say with the characters, so they just go for the shock route of "wow, look at this children's character going around murdering people" for attention. It's puerile. A part of me almost believes the people behind these movies (like that Winnie the Pooh one from the other year) are being paid by Disney to try and decrease support for characters entering public domain - "Why shouldn't copyright be extended? After all, we've seen the garbage people make when it expires".
 
Why is it always horror? I like horror, but jeez, have some imagination people, you have free reign over the character now, and you choose to make a generic slasher/average tier survival horror game.
Where's the proper subversion, the comedies, the parodies etc.
If you're gonna go the horror route, at least make it full on, do something eldritch or really out there, don't just slap Mickey's face onto a generic plot and call it a day.
Its either horror or porn
 
Why is it always horror? I like horror, but jeez, have some imagination people, you have free reign over the character now, and you choose to make a generic slasher/average tier survival horror game.
Because basic slasher horror is really cheap to make and therefore almost always profitable.
Where's the proper subversion, the comedies, the parodies etc.
If you're gonna go the horror route, at least make it full on, do something eldritch or really out there, don't just slap Mickey's face onto a generic plot and call it a day.
Thing about horror is that even when you make a bad one, it can still be enjoyed by laughing at it.
There is nothing worse in fiction than a bad comedy because it's not funny and not entertaining.
Eldritch thing doesn't have mass appeal and is also hard to write well.
 
Why is it always horror? I like horror, but jeez, have some imagination people, you have free reign over the character now, and you choose to make a generic slasher/average tier survival horror game.
Where's the proper subversion, the comedies, the parodies etc.
If you're gonna go the horror route, at least make it full on, do something eldritch or really out there, don't just slap Mickey's face onto a generic plot and call it a day.
Horror is cheap and fast to produce. Plus all the satire has already done to death because that's the one area that's relatively protected from copyright.
 
Only Steamboat Willie is in public domain, should use that. Also an opportunity to make it take place on a boat, ala Jason Takes Manhattan only better. Should call it, The Steamboat Slasher.
 
Disney's legal team is making mad overtime for the foreseeable future.....its gonna drain the remaining funds after every recent woke disaster.
 
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