Jumping on the bandwagon of the news that the Steamboat Willie Mickey Mouse copyright has expired a brand new Mickey Mouse horror movie trailer has been released for an upcoming movie titled Mickey’s Mouse Trap.
It’s Alex’s 21st Birthday, but she’s stuck at the amusement arcade on a late shift so her friends decide to surprise her, but a masked killer dressed as Mickey Mouse decides to play a game of his own with them which she must survive.
The press release we received not only came with the announcement but with a pre-made poster and trailer which shows that this has been a project in the works for some time before the official copyright expiry of the character as the entire movie has already been shot and is awaiting an early 2024 release date.
As far as horror movie trailers go it doesn’t look too terrible and in fact, given the quick turnaround of the project, I was expecting something far lower in quality than what has been released.
The film’s Director Jamie Bailey states:
We just wanted to have fun with it all.I mean it’s Steamboat Willie’s Mickey Mouse murdering people. It’s ridiculous. We ran with it and had fun doing it and I think it shows
The film stars Sophie McIntosh, Callum Sywyk, Allegra Nocita, Ben Harris, Damir Kovic, Mackenzie Mills, Nick Biskupek and Simon Phillips. Music scored by Darren Morze.
It was produced by Paul Whitney, Mark Popejoy, Alexander Gausman and Andrew Agopsowicz and the Co-Producer is Filmcore’s Mem Ferda.
The film itself is still awaiting a confirmed release date – but is expected in March 2024.
With the expiry of the Steamboat Willie character there have been numerous horror movies, NFT’s and more that have entered the public domain but how did such an iconic character end up being available within the public domain?
Steamboat Willie Public Domain
Disney certainly hasn’t painted itself in a good light when it comes to their Mickey Mouse copyright but you can certainly see both sides of the coin here.
On one side you have people getting a bit loose and free with someone else’s work and a company determined to protect their most prized asset.
The lines blur a little when certain cases of copyright have been chased up by the large corporation such as asking a Florida childcare centre to remove an unofficial Minnie Mouse Mural and warning a stonemason not to carve a Winnie-the-Pooh into a child’s gravestone both of which are disgusting to me.
Nevertheless, Disney has lost control over its earliest iteration of Mickey Mouse as the 1928 short film Steamboat Willie has reached the end of its copyright shelf life and went into the public domain on January 1st, 2024.
The company has protected its mouse for decades and the original animated short copyright was initially due to expire in 1984 but Disney lobbied the fact and the copyright laws were changed as a result to extend Steamboat Willie’s copyright expiry until 2003.
1998 came around and Disney won again to have its copyright on Steamboat Willie extended until the end of 2023.
Other 1928 works have also lost their protections such as JM Barrie’s Peter Pan, Tigger from Winnie-the-Pooh and Virginia Woolf’s Orlando.
Winnie the Pooh lost its copyright in 2022 and as a result, a Winnie the Pooh horror movie was made just like the Mickey one has in this case.
What confuses me though however is that the character of Mickey Mouse is still a copyrighted Disney product and the trailer (along with other iterations since the public domain of Steamboat Willie went live) doesn’t look anything even close to the Steamboat Willie version.
Could creators be getting themselves into a bit of a mess?
Let’s dive into what people can (and can’t) get away with as per our research.
Mickey Mouse Copyright Rules
First and foremost please don’t take anything I say below as legal advice as in all honesty, I haven’t got a clue about the intricacies of it all but from doing a little digging I have come to the following conclusion.
Just because Mickey Mouse is in the public domain doesn’t mean that you can instantly start using it in a variety of money-making ways for profit.
The 1928 movie has entered the public domain which means that anyone can adapt, share (on YouTube for example) or remix the character portrayed in the cartoon only but many stipulations go along with this newfound creative license.
If you are to recreate the Steamboat Willie Mickey then you have to create or adapt to that character and that character only.
Mickey has small black ovals for eyes and wears no gloves in Steamboat Willie whereas later versions of Mickey have large white ovals and gloves. The character must stay black and white as was the case in the original movie.
Later versions of Mickey are still under copyright but not all features of Mickey are under Disney copyright as far as copyright goes it seems to me as though as long as Mickey stays black and white in his attire and has the attributes as close to the Steamboat Willie version as possible you’re for the most part, copyright free.
The lines blur somewhat if you were to colourise Mickey’s outfit or add gloves or similar so if you’re going to create something then I’d certainly do more digging regarding the legalities of the character.
Any misleading of a movie or product to make it look as though Disney created it themselves also opens a can of worms when it comes to legal issues. When this happens it falls under Trademark law and not copyright and as Mickey is still a trademarked character you may end up in murky waters. Set a disclaimer that your work has nothing to do with Disney and you should evade such issues.
Mickey’s Mouse Trap Horror Movie
Whilst the trailer (see below) is about as cheesy as it gets the actual quality of how the film is shot is much more professional than anything I was expecting.
Naturally, the trailer and the story about the film (along with other Mickey Mouse-inspired horror films) have gone viral and caused quite a stir but one thing is for sure people are going to watch it in their droves and that’s exactly what the filmmakers want at the end of the day.
In a world full of zombie strippers, Sharknados and more it’s films like these that capture the ‘so bad it’s good’ market and naturally just like the Winnie the Pooh flick this Mickey Mouse horror movie will gain a cult following as a result.
We all love a cheesy horror movie and seeing Mickey slaughtering teens instead of entertaining them will be quite a 180 on the character arc of Mickey’s loveable do-no-harm character.
I do hope there’s no red tape from the house of mouse when it comes to this particular film and I do hope it’s released so we can enjoy all of its craziness.
The second we’re sent a screener you can be sure that we will bring you our full thoughts and review on Back to the Movies as soon as possible.
Check out the official trailer for Mickey’s Mouse Trap below. What are your thoughts on this Mickey Mouse horror movie?
