Ah, Walt Disney Pictures, the company responsible for capturing the hearts of many with their beloved movies and very marketable IPs. Lately, the company has been in a kind of downward spiral with nearly all of their properties losing money here and there, but that’s a story for another time. Right now, the focus is on their most beloved and profitable mascot, who’s time behind the copyright shields is running out: Mickey Mouse.
Made by Walt Disney himself and debuting in 1928, Mickey made a big impact in the animation industry. His first appearance was in the cartoon, Plane Crazy, but it wasn’t until the famous Steamboat Willie that the crowd began paying attention to him, and now, he’s free 95 years later.
As expected, the public went wild, with opinions here and there. In fact, fellow teacher Ms. Rojas explains how she feels about the public domain situation. “I think what Disney does in the sense of copyright law is actually pretty smart. They always change the image which is important because it becomes public domain – part of our society.”
According to basic copyright laws, if 95 years have passed since an IP’s publication, that creation will enter the public domain. The same applies if 70 years have passed since the creator. In this case, Walt Disney kicks the bucket; whichever comes first. In a nutshell, the public can now do whatever they want with the character and even make a profit, all while Disney can’t do jack squat.
Well, there are still some limitations. Only the first version of Mickey Mouse is in the public domain while every other version after – all the way down to today’ – is still protected by Disney. Like Ms. Rojas says, “I think the way they try to combat the public domain by changing Mickey’s image for example, is smart on their part.”
If anyone wants to make money off of Mickey, they’ll have to change a couple of things like the font and logo. Those things are unique and still
owned by Disney since it’s protected by trademark. Still though, that’s what I’ve found out thanks to the internet so don’t quote me on that if anyone ever ends up in court and take all this with a grain of salt.
Naturally though, that hasn’t stopped anyone from doing the weirdest things with the mouse himself. The day that Mickey entered the public domain, a trailer for a slasher horror movie called Mickey’s Mouse Trap was released as well as a teaser for a game called Infestation: Origins, featuring guess who? Mickey Mouse himself. And he’s not the only one that has had this happen to him.
Winnie the Pooh got his own slasher movie in 2023, with a sequel releasing soon, and Bambi: The Reckoning, is another low budget horror movie that’s also in progress.
I really feel like I could rip into these cash grabs. Mainly, Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey because I regrettably watched it and wasted almost 2 hours of life that I can never get back, but I won’t. Instead, here’s one last statement from Ms. Rojas regarding these cash grabs. “It’s not that bad of a thing. It’s something creative and I feel like there could be more creativity coming from that. People enjoy different things and they can incorporate it into different parts of their life.”
