Featured Image Credit: Bailey Phillips Production
Topics: TV and Film, US News
Joe Harker
The first iteration of Mickey Mouse has only just entered the public domain and there's already been a trailer released with him featuring in a slasher movie.
Buckle up kids, it's time to learn about public domain laws and copyright as the basic gist of it is that a character who is someone's intellectual property eventually enters the public domain, meaning anyone can use them.
It's why you can see characters created so many years ago appear in basically anything, they're public property and anyone can do what they like with them now.
Over in the US the limit is 95 years before a character created becomes public domain, and since Mickey Mouse was created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks in 1928 and featured in a cartoon that same year, he's fair game.
Advert
As it turns out, what people want to do with these characters when they go public is take them and make them the villain in a slasher movie.
It happened to Winnie the Pooh once he entered the public domain, with some filmmakers putting out Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey and there was not a thing Disney or the estate of A.A. Milne could do about it.
Now Disney's iconic mascot Mickey Mouse has entered the public domain, or more specifically the version of him that appeared in the 1928 cartoon Steamboat Willie has.
Since that specific version of Mickey Mouse is public he's fair game for anyone, and it seems like some folks have been waiting for this day.
Advert
Mere hours ago Bailey Phillips Production put out a trailer for Mickey's Mouse Trap, a slasher film where the baddie dresses up as Mickey Mouse.
The makers of the movie were clearly waiting for the mouse to go public as the trailer contains posters and flyers for Steamboat Willie, indicating they know which version of the Disney mascot they're allowed to use.
They've also stuck on a disclaimer saying they're only using Steamboat Willie's Mickey Mouse and their project has no connection to Disney in any way.
Anyhow, Mickey's Mouse Trap follows a girl working the late shift at an arcade before her friends decide to surprise her for her birthday.
Advert
Their good times and hijinks get hijacked when a murderer wearing a Mickey Mouse mask decides to crash the party and presumably sets about murdering them one by one, because judging by the trailer it appears to be that sort of movie.
Disney has long fought to extend the copyright period before characters enter the public domain.
Mickey Mouse was first supposed to go public in 1984, but Disney managed to get the US government to extend things by 20 years.
When this issue came up once more in 2004 they did the same again, but it seems like they couldn't put it off forever.