A 1928 short film called Steamboat Willie, which stars early silent versions of Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, is commonly regarded as the pivotal moment that changed Disney’s trajectory and cemented its place in movie history. However, both characters are now available to the public for use.
As per the US copyright law, the protection of copyright work expires after 95 years. Therefore, the original Micky Mouse and Minnie Mouse became available to the public domain on Monday, January 1, 2024, which allows anyone to share, preform, use or sample the work without any permission or cost.
Initially the characters were expected to lose copyright protection in 1984, however Congress extended copyright protection by 20 years, this process was again repeated in 2004. Disney’s continuous efforts to protect its characters has even led to the law being dubbed as the “Mickey Mouse Protection Act”, but now the copyright has finally expired.
However, Disney have warned the public that only the characters in the 1928 Steamboat Willie film are available to the public, the modern-day Micky Mouse and Minnie Mouse are still under copyright protection. Additionally, Disney still hold the trade mark on Mickey Mouse as a brand and a corporate mascot which means that there are still some restrictions on how the public can use the images of the characters.
Creators have already started taking advantage of the copyright expiration as recently it has been announced that Micky Mouse will be starring in a slasher horror film as the trailer for the film was released on 1 January 2024. The movie producer said that he wanted to portray Mickey Mouse as “the polar opposite of what already exists”. In addition to the film, game studio Nightmare Forge Games announced that in their upcoming survival horror game that Mickey Mouse will be the antagonist. It should be noted that Mickey Mouse is not the first childhood character that has been given the horror theme treatment, as when the copyright protection expired for Winne the Pooh, it led to the childhood character being turned into a killer bear in a horror film.
Disney believe that even with the copyright expiring on their two iconic cartoon characters, there are enough safeguards in place to prevent consumer confusion. Disney have trademarked versions of the characters in Steamboat Wille merchandise, new animated shorts and even in Disney’s theatrical logos.
As stated, modern day versions of Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse are still protected and remain unaffected by the copyright expiration of Steamboat Willie. Both Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse will still have huge roles as global ambassadors for Disney. However, it will be interesting to see what the public creates with the cartoon characters after the copyright expiration.
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