It’s Mickey, but not as you’ve ever seen him before.

A trailer for a slasher film, featuring a masked killer dressed as Mickey Mouse, was released on 1 January, the day that Disney’s copyright on the earliest versions of the cartoon character expired in the US.

“We wanted the polar opposite of what exists,” the movie’s producer said.

A new Mickey-inspired horror game, showing the rodent covered with blood stains, also dropped on the same day.

Steamboat Willie, a 1928 short film featuring early non-speaking versions of Mickey and Minnie, entered the public domain in the US on New Year’s Day.

It means cartoonists, novelists and filmmakers can now rework and use the earliest versions of Mickey and Minnie.

  • prole
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    11 months ago

    So is this just going to happen with every single character that goes into public domain? Someone just has to make a garbage horror movie about them?

    • @Khanzarate
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      2011 months ago

      Yeah.

      Just like how people are more likely to want to stay standing up after having to sit for 8 hours for work/school.

      There’s a social rubberbanding effect, just gotta get it out of our collective system so the tension is released, and then better content will come after that release.

    • @agitatedpotato
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      711 months ago

      If it’s the character thats the face of the organization that is the reason copyright law has been strengthened and enforced with iron rulings, then yes it damn well should happen. Disney is simply reaping what they sewed and they earend every last bit of it and more.