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Tag: Steamboat Willie

  • Disney Is Getting Sued Over Just How Much Mickey Mouse Counts as Public Domain

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    Last year, Mickey Mouse’s appearance in Steamboat Willie became public domain, ushering in tons of horror parodies of Disney’s iconic mascot. The Walt Disney Company gave films such as the David Howard Thornton-starring Screamboat a pass, but apparently, it thinks there’s a limit on just how much other companies can get away with using Mickey’s iconic nautical depiction.

    Disney has found itself in lawsuits after enforcing its intellectual property rights to its characters in Steamboat Willie against two companies seeking to utilize Mickey for marketing and retail purposes. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Morgan & Morgan, a U.S.-based personal injury law firm, attempted to use Steamboat Willie in a commercial, which Disney met with resistance. THR further reports that a jewelry company, Satéur, attempted to pass off merch with Steamboat Willie as official—which is where the legality gets all murky in Disney’s eyes.

    Disney stands firm that despite the short being public domain, that doesn’t mean competitors can infringe on trademarks that protect its brands, which it maintains include various representations of Mickey Mouse, as the character has been iterated on for almost a century since Steamboat Willie‘s release. The lawsuit states that Disney has a history of “aggressive enforcement of intellectual property rights,” exemplified in the company’s “refusal to disclaim an intent to engage in enforcement against” Morgan & Morgan and Satéur.

    Kelly Klaus, a lawyer for the complaint, was quoted in the complaint as clarifying that these companies, Satéur in particular, “infringe Disney’s continuing rights over its trademarks that identify Disney as the source of goods and services and to profit off the goodwill that Disney has built with the public over decades,” and “As Disney has stated publicly, while copyright expired on the Steamboat Willie motion picture, Mickey Mouse will continue to play a leading role as a global ambassador for Disney.”

    Morgan & Morgan used the Steamboat versions of Mickey and Minnie Mouse in an advert that sees Mickey crash a steamboat into Minnie’s car, prompting her to call the injury firm, and at the very least discloses that the video is not associated or endorsed by Disney. Its use along with horror movies using the character in parody is one thing, but it’s another when companies attempt to pass off the character as endorsing their goods and services. Satéur, on the other hand, seems to fall into the latter category, as the THR story reports that multiple complaints by consumers have been filed to the Better Business Bureau for the shoddy accessories they were misled into buying, thinking they were official Disney products.

    Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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    Sabina Graves

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  • Mickey Mouse Game Changes Name After Antisemitic Accusations

    Mickey Mouse Game Changes Name After Antisemitic Accusations

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    Image: Nightmare Forge Games

    If you haven’t heard, the Steamboat Willie version of Mickey Mouse is officially in the public domain, and Nightmare Forge Games wasted no time announcing a horror game starring that version of Disney’s mascot called Infestation 88. However, upon announcement, the team was met with immediate pushback regarding the game’s title and premise, with folks specifically accusing it of being an antisemitic dog whistle.

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    For those that don’t know, “88” is code for “HH,” or “Heil Hitler” within the Nazi movement as H is the eighth letter in the alphabet. The game focuses on killing a monster version of Mickey and dealing with a rat infestation by using gas, and the Nazi movement has used rats as a stand-in for Jewish people in its propaganda. All of this threw up too many red flags, and Infestation 88 was immediately met with suspicion that what looked like a horror game capitalizing on Mickey’s public domain status was actually hiding something much more insidious.

    In response to the criticism, Nightmare Forge Games has announced it’s changing the name to Infestation: Origins, claiming ignorance of the historical context of its name and imagery.

    Prior to this announcement, the studio explained to Kotaku that 88 was initially meant to represent the game’s 1988 setting and create a symmetrical design in the logo. The studio’s statement claimed “no additional connotations are intended,” but that it was open to changing the name rather than just tweaking the logo, and it looks like that’s the direction it decided to go. It’s a very serious matter, and it’s up to each person individually to decide whether they’re satisfied with these statements, but the entire project and controversy also draw attention to a common thread among games using classic characters who enter the public domain: the opportunistic use of those characters as a way to attract attention for a shallow, schlocky premise.

    Steamboat Willie Mickey hit the public domain this year and Winnie-the-Pooh entered it the year before, and it seems all anyone’s willing to put money into when these things happen is some jarring, culture-shock version of these typically wholesome characters in horror stories. If that’s as far as our imagination goes with these kinds of projects, what’s the good in giving these characters to the public in the first place?

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    Kenneth Shepard

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  • Trailer for Mickey Mouse Slasher Film Drops on Same Day ‘Steamboat Willie’ Character Enters Public Domain

    Trailer for Mickey Mouse Slasher Film Drops on Same Day ‘Steamboat Willie’ Character Enters Public Domain

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    Well that didn’t take long.

    On the first day that Disney‘s 1928 short Steamboat Willie entered the public domain, a trailer has dropped for a horror comedy film featuring none other than Mickey Mouse as the killer.

    The synopsis for the film, called Mickey’s Mouse Trap, reads: “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 trailer features, yep, a person in a Mickey Mouse costume, wearing what resembles a hockey jersey without the letters, attacking a victim and stalking others inside a Chuck E. Cheese-like place (reminiscent of last year’s horror hit Five Nights at Freddy’s). There also is Scream-like self-awareness about the horror genre, including one character predicting that another is going to get killed since he says, “I’ll be right back.”

    “Well, he’s dead. … If he was in a horror movie, you’d never say, I’ll be right back, because then you … don’t,” he explains.

    The trailer also features the words: “A place for fun, a place for friends, a place for hunting. The mouse is out.”

    The movie was directed by Jamie Bailey, who said in a statement: “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 and was produced by Paul Whitney, Mark Popejoy, Alexander Gausman and Andrew Agopsowicz, with Filmcore’s Mem Ferda co-producing.

    The film does not yet have a release date, but producers are aiming for March. It’s unclear if there is a distributor on board or what platform the producers are aiming for. The Hollywood Reporter has reached out for additional details.

    Mickey’s Mouse Trap follows last year’s horror film Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, which was made possible after A.A. Milne’s original Winnie the Pooh entered the public domain two years ago. Pooh’s friend Tigger also enters the public domain this year.

    Watch the trailer for Mickey’s Mouse Trap below.

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    Kimberly Nordyke

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  • Disney Cracks Down On Copyright Infringement For People Picturing Mickey Mouse While Masturbating

    Disney Cracks Down On Copyright Infringement For People Picturing Mickey Mouse While Masturbating

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    BURBANK, CA— Threatening legal action against those using its intellectual property without permission, Disney announced Friday that it would begin cracking down on copyright infringement by people who pictured Mickey Mouse while masturbating. “All erotic fantasies featuring Mickey Mouse, whether in his current iteration or as he appears in the classic short Steamboat Willie, must be expressly sanctioned by the Walt Disney Company, otherwise you will face litigation,” said Disney CEO Bob Iger, explaining that pleasuring oneself while envisioning the iconic mouse mascot was reserved for employees of Disney, such as the company’s Imagineers and Iger himself. “If you want to attain climax to the thought of popular cartoon imagery without paying our arousal licensing fee, make it to something in the public domain like Winnie the Pooh or Krazy Kat. You’re free to let loose your most depraved self-cest and insertion fantasies on them. But not with Mickey. He’s ours.” At press time, defense lawyers reportedly responded to Iger’s threats by arguing that laughing while masturbating to the thought of Mickey Mouse was protected under parody law.

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