A new Mickey Mouse flick is on the way… but it’s definitely not family-friendly.
A new slasher flick featuring one of entertainment’s most iconic characters is on the way, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. The first trailer for the film, Mickey’s Mouse Trap, dropped on New Year’s Day. Here’s the synopsis:
“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.”
Yep, there’s a person in a Mickey Mouse costume, running down attacking and killing college-aged kids. And as if THAT wasn’t enough, another company is releasing a co-op video game featuring the character, titled Infestation 88. The trailer for the game also dropped on January 1.
https://twitter.com/DiscussingFilm/status/1741858189904109781
So now, you’re probably wondering if it’s legal to do this to America’s favorite mouse. The answer is yes… but there is a catch.
The Explanation
It was no coincidence that both trailers dropped on January 1, 2024. That’s because it is the very day that the earliest version of Mickey Mouse, featured in the 1928 short Steamboat Willie, entered the public domain. Disney no longer owns the copyright to that early version of Mickey (as well as the early version of Minnie Mouse, also featured in the short).
For the record, U.S. law allows a copyright to be held for 95 years.
Now that the copyright has expired, that opened the door for the creators of the horror flick and video game to use Mickey Mouse… but it HAS to be the Steamboat Willie version of the character, as Disney still holds the copyright to the modern version and all associated trademarks. Creators must also make sure that their creations are not presumed to be a Disney production.
In a statement, Mickey’s Mouse Trap director Jamie Bailey said, “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.”
Now, if this situation sounds familiar, that’s because the same thing happened last year, with the release of Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey. Filmmakers got away with the film by using the earliest version of A.A. Milne’s iconic character, which entered the public domain in 2022. (FYI: The earliest version of Pooh’s friend, Tigger, also enters the public domain this year.)
No word yet on when the film or the video game will be released…but of course, people are already talking! Take a look below!
