“Steamboat Willie” Enters The Public Domain

On January 1, 2024, the original Walt Disney theatrical short titled Steamboat Willie officially entered the public domain in the good ol’ U.S. of A.

Because of this, the original 1928 short film iterations of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, in their black & white rubber hose animation style, can now be adapted into a variety of various story telling mediums without the permission of their original creator/owner. In this case, The Walt Disney Company.

However, this does come with some major caveats. The biggest being that it must be how the characters originally looked on film in 1928, so you can’t use the more modern style of Mickey Mouse that many people are familiar with today. And if you want to have Mickey’s signature white gloves, you’re going to have to wait until next year to add them. If you’re curious to learn more about what you can and cannot do with Mickey and Minnie Mouse, click this article here.

Several projects have already been announced to capitalize on this event, including two horror themed movies (Mickey’s Mouse Trap and Steamboat Willie respectively) and a horror video game called Infestation: Origins at the time of this writing, with more announcements coming down the river bend.

Creators on YouTube and elsewhere have been having a field day with Mickey so far, along with another beloved childhood character: Winnie The Pooh. The lovable honey bear created by English author A. A. Milne and illustrated by E. H. Shepard entered the Public Domain on January 1, 2022. Since then, the infamously panned horror slasher film Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood and Honey made use of Pooh and his buddy Piglet as savage killers seeking revenge on their childhood friend Christopher Robin for leaving them. And with the sequel planning to introduce Tigger (as he too is now in the public domain this year) it’s only going to get even crazier. Heck, Pooh has even graced a Kickstarter comic book campaign titled Winnie the Pooh: Demon Hunter by creator Nicholas Mueller.

It’s going to be a very interesting 2024 for sure, and personally I am curious how people will adapt 1928’s version of Mickey and Minnie Mouse moving forward.

I’ll even offer my own personal pitch: a Film Noir styled tale starring Mickey as a down on his luck private detective who gets roped into a murder mystery aboard the Steamboat Willie.

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