Public Domain is when a copyrighted item gets released to the public for all uses, either by the author or when the time of the copyright expires. Today we have lost a love and charming character to the pits of hell in Public Domain, and that charming character is Steamboat Willie, also known as black and white Mickey Mouse. Steamboat Willie was released to the public on January 1st, 2024 where any person can use him for any usage without dealing with copyright. In case you didn’t know this was the same treatment from another loving character which is Winnie the Pooh without the red shirt, the red shirt Winnie the Pooh is still copyrighted. Now with Steamboat Willie, since he’s more popular among Winnie the Pooh he has gained more horrific actions done to him.
The first thing they did to Winnie the Pooh was make him a horror icon, so they decided to do that again except as a video game. Captain Willie is the first game on the list where you have to listen to Willie as he assigns you tasks, the more tasks you do the more creepy it gets, until a full-blown 80 teeth Willie creature attacks you. The second game on the list is Infestation: origin where you have to clean up a rat infestation while dealing with a 6-foot-tall rat that attacks you for hurting his kind. Now it pains me to say, but there is a third game called Mouse where you get assigned a task as a detective and have to shoot crooks and danger in the city in first person. This game won’t be released until 2025, but it’s understandable because the animation of the game is a Steamboat Willie-type cartoon.
Now for the most dangerous thing known to mankind the horror movie Steamboat Willie, lucky enough there are only two bad parts of all horror movies. The first one is Mickey’s Mouse Trap where a girl named Alex gets stuck at the amusement park on a late-night shift, so her friends decide to surprise her since it’s her 21st birthday. While Alex and her friends are stuck in the Amusement park they’re greeted by a masked killer dressed as the Mouse himself Mickey. Now the final movie as of now is The Return of Steamboat Willie, where after being locked away for 95 years Willie is now free and wants his steamboat back. We only have the teaser as of now, but the animation looks very well done and it’s creepy as well.
Before Public Domain and all the horror stuff they tried to involve Mickey in, Disney had done everything they could to avoid Mickey in Public Domain. Trust me for 95 years holding a copyright is the most risk they would do to their brand mostly because it’s expensive holding in a copyright. Disney does not like anyone who tries to use their brand’s copyright, cause they think it hurts the brand itself. Disney also sued a company in 1931 for using a fake similar mouse called Milton Mouse, where Walt Disney didn’t want money he just wanted it to stop. They also aren’t innocent as well as these horror movies cause around the 1930s they had a comic strip of Mickey trying to commit (a word I can not say due to the safety of others) and he tried several methods since Minnie left him for another rodent. At the end of the comic, he meets a bunch of squirrels that want to be his friend so he chooses to live since he has a purpose with the squirrels.
Overall this is just the same treatment with Winnie, but more horrible since Willie is more popular. I don’t like how they make horror icons out of them, but they only do it because of Winnie the Pooh. The horror movie was flat-out awful, but that’s what made it earn more money for them. They became a rumor and a definition of terrible their failed popularity made them more famous than before. Now that people know the outcome of Winnie they want to earn more for Steamboat Willie.
