Time lastly caught up with Disney in January of 2024. After a long time of hard-fought authorized battles, Mickey Mouse lastly entered the general public area.
Or a minimum of, he form of did. Put merely, the model of Mickey Mouse launched within the 1928 animated brief Steamboat Willie now belongs to the folks, however the effective print will get somewhat murky. Whereas enthusiastic opportunists are already gearing as much as make as a lot postmodern Mickey content material because the market can absorb, Disney’s attorneys have made it clear that they’ll be glad to take motion the second that authorized traces are crossed.
With that in thoughts, you’ll need to know what you may and may’t do earlier than you borrow cash out of your dad and mom to make your edgy “Fall of the Mouse of Usher” collection.
Can do: Present the Steamboat Willie model of Mickey Mouse sloshed on vodka gimlets, singing “Mack the Knife” in a seedy membership
First, the fundamentals. Only a few months in the past, making a cartoon of Nineteen Twenties-era Mickey Mouse singing “Mack the Knife” would’ve had Disney’s attorneys at your entrance door sooner than the Domino’s man. Now, you might – when you needed to – make an entire music video by which Mickey musically relays the risks of Europeans with cutlery.
That’s as a result of, together with Steamboat Willie, the 1928 musical number-turned-jazz normal, “Mack the Knife,” composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht, additionally entered the general public area in 2024. Different stuff that you might have Mickey do in your house films because of lately lapsed rights: Sing “Makin’ Whoopee,” learn All Quiet on the Western Entrance cowl to cowl, and reenact a French silent movie concerning the burning of Joan of Arc.
Can’t do: Present some other model of Mickey Mouse sloshed on vodka gimlets, singing “Mack the Knife” in a seedy membership
That is the place issues get difficult. Whereas the particular iteration of Mickey Mouse portrayed within the animated brief Steamboat Willie is honest sport, creatively talking, utilizing virtually some other model of the character will nonetheless get you steamrolled by probably the most magical authorized crew on Earth.
The argument that Disney has spent some huge cash defending is that Mickey Mouse isn’t only a single, nigh-on century-old character. He’s a spectrum of interpretations, each distinctive – actionably so. You’re technically protected when you present the Steamboat Willie model of Mickey Mouse dancing on a burning American flag. The model from Fantasia? Take pleasure in your C&D.
Can do: Make gimmicky Mickey Mouse horror films
In 2022, A.A. Milne’s Winnie-The-Pooh entered the general public area. Nearly instantly, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey entered pre-production, pupating right into a $100,000 indie slasher that was launched the next 12 months, making again greater than 50 occasions its funds.
The parallels have been apparent when a pair of Mickey Mouse-based horror movies have been introduced within the first few hours of 2023. Now you, your buddy Kyle, and whoever’s up for holding the growth mic could make your individual Steamboat Willie-impressed horror movies. Not less than two groups already are, with Mickey Mouse Lure and a second, yet-untitled thriller already introduced.
Can’t do: Make gimmicky horror film that includes any Mickey Mouse-adjacent characters
Whereas Mickey and Minnie Mouse are each up for grabs of their larval, pre-Nice Melancholy-era kinds, and may freely be depicted working as many unwary campers over as many desk saws as you may think about, displaying Donald Duck laughing and clapping within the nook can be taking issues too far. Legally talking.
That’s as a result of, once more, the one facet of Mickey and Minnie Mouse that’s entered the general public area is Steamboat Willie (together with two lesser-known cartoon shorts, The Gallopin’ Gaucho and a silent lower of Airplane Loopy). Ancillary characters like Goofy, Pluto, and Walt Disney’s cryogenically frozen head received’t belong to the general public till 2028, 2026, and every time the folks take again the tunnels underneath Disney World, respectively.
Can do: Draw the Steamboat Willie model of Mickey Mouse kissing Frankenstein’s Monster
This one goes out to a really particular subsection of society. You already know what you want, and now you may have it: All of the home made pictures you may draw of Mickey Mouse from the Nineteen Twenties kissing fellow public area inhabitant Frankenstein’s Monster proper on the mouth.
Can’t do: Title that drawing “Walt Disney Studios presents: Mickey Mouse kissing Frankenstein’s Monster”
Now, right here’s the place it will get further difficult. One of many stipulations of utilizing Mickey Mouse with out incurring the wrath of Walt Disney Studios: You may’t make it look like Disney has something to do with what you’ve created. Something that’s seen as damaging to the Disney model, or as misrepresenting their pursuits – I.E., placing Mickey Mouse in a industrial to your leisure weed dispensary, and having him say “Hoo, boy, Bob Iger says it’s best to get Bob Excessive-ger!” – will completely get you sued.
