The first iterations of Mickey and Minnie Mouse have hit the public domain, with many wasting no time in appropriating the famous characters.
January 1 is Public Domain Day and the Disney character’s Steamboat Willie from the short film of the same name is now in the public domain, meaning people can use it for free in almost any way they see fit.
Mickey Mouse has come to define the entire Disney brand and made his first appearance in the 1928 cartoon Steamboat Willie, which has now entered the public domain 95 years after its release.
James Devaney/Getty Images North America
Now that Steamboat Willie is entering the public domain, Disney will no longer be able to prevent other artists or companies from using the likeness of the character as he appeared in that short.
People got straight onto reworking the Steamboat Willie campaign, imagining him in everything from an anime version to many people creating horror stories for the character. Others reimagined Willie in a sexual nature or a violent criminal carrying weapons such as knives and guns.
Emmy winning director, Jason Gallagher, claimed to be one of the first people to create something with the public domain Willie.
He made a montage of clips from the film with colored panels over the top and the images in sync with Cardi B’s hit rap song from 2020, “W.A.P.”
“It’s 2024 which means Mickey Mouse as the iconic Steamboat Willie is officially in the public domain. I believe this makes me the first person in the history of the world to legally reinterpret the character. Enjoy!” Gallagher wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
One person shared a short movie which was made just hours after Mickey’s Steamboat Willie hit the public domain.
“The haunting of Steamboat Willie hours after hitting the public domain is fast work. #Infestation88 gives Mickey Mouse and his House of Mouse a whole new meaning,” they wrote on X.
Steamboat Willie was the first-ever cartoon with synchronized sound and was a pioneering feat for modern animation when it was released. However, Mickey’s appearance in that movie is different from today’s version.
The more modern version of Mickey Mouse will not enter the public domain.
“Mickey Mouse as we know him, in color with gloves and shoes, will not enter the public domain,” lawyer Marc Jonas Block told Newsweek in 2022. “Later, including current designs of Mickey Mouse, will still be copyrighted until their terms end. Also, Disney protects Mickey Mouse under both copyright and trademark laws.”
Even though Mickey Mouse as Steamboat Willie is in the public, Daniel Mayeda from the UCLA School of Law warned people to be careful how they used his image.
“You can use the Mickey Mouse character as it was originally created to create your own Mickey Mouse stories or stories with this character,” he told The Guardian in 2022.
“But if you do so in a way that people will think of Disney—which is kind of likely because they have been investing in this character for so long—then, in theory, Disney could say you violated my trademark.”
Other titles to enter the public domain in the U.S. on January 1, 2024 included D.H Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne which first introduced the Tigger character, J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan; or the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and Agatha Christie’s The Mystery of the Blue Train.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.