The ‘Steamboat Willie’ Mickey Mouse Situation, Explained

The original design of Mickey Mouse from the 1928 animated short Steamboat Willie officially entered the public domain on January 1st, triggering a flood of parodies and memes.

Not to mention, a handful of schlocky horror projects that paint the iconic cartoon character as a bloodthirsty killer (the same thing happened to poor Winnie-the-Pooh after he was released from copyright).

Ironically, Disney has lost control over its iconic character just after its 100th anniversary, as the company seems to be losing its hold over audiences; Disney has entered 2024 wounded by a string of high-profile box office flops and bogged down by tedious culture wars.

It seems strangely symbolic that Mickey has finally been released to the public, particularly when one considers how hard Disney has fought to keep the mouse in the house.

Disney Never Wanted To Lose Mickey Mouse

Over the decades, Disney has jealously guarded the rights to Mickey Mouse, leading lobbying efforts that have radically extended U.S. copyright law, granting them almost a century (95 years) of copyright protection after publication — Steamboat Willie was originally scheduled to enter the public domain back in 1984.

Thanks to the so-called “Mickey Mouse Protection Act” of 1998, Disney, along with other entertainment companies, permanently damaged the collective creative landscape by walling off the public domain.

The great irony, of course, is that Disney built its library of animated classics by adapting European fairy tales which exist in the public domain.

Despite Disney benefiting from the free use of old stories, the studio has never hesitated to take legal action to protect its most iconic character, several decades after Walt Disney created him.

In 1971, underground comic book artist Dan O’Neill dared to draw an edgy parody of Mickey Mouse in Air Pirates Funnies, which depicted Mickey as a generous lover, performing cunnilingus on Minnie.

Disney failed to see the funny side and sued O’Neill for copyright infringement. The case dragged on for eight years, with the comic book artist at the mercy of the entertainment giant.

To this day, O’Neill is still restricted from parodying Mickey Mouse, lest he provoke Disney’s wrath. In an interview with Variety, the 81-year-old O’Neill said: “If I draw a picture of Mickey Mouse, I owe Walt Disney a $190,000 fine, $10,000 more for legal fees, and a year in prison.”

Over the decades, Disney’s brutal copyright take-downs have become the stuff of legend; the litigious studio famously forced daycare centers to remove murals featuring Mickey and Minnie; for Disney, copyright law even applies to a child’s tombstone.

So, Mickey Mouse Is Now Free To Use?

Only the classic version of Mickey Mouse that appears in Steamboat Willie is free from copyright, with dot-eyes, no color and no gloves (however, some are disputing this, citing a Steamboat Willie poster that shows a more standardized Mickey design).

Interestingly, Mickey Mouse has a different personality during this time period, being far more destructive and mischievous. Over the years, Mickey’s edges were sanded away as he came to represent the brand, becoming less of a character and more of a logo.

Disney has also redesigned Mickey several times, with the mouse becoming progressively softer and rounder; and at one point, Mickey and Minnie were, rather unnervingly, given human skin tone, which many associate with their costumed counterparts at Disney theme parks.

All of those versions are still very much under copyright protection.

Every time Disney tweaks Mickey’s appearance, the new design grants them a copyright with a new term. Technically, they can hold on to Mickey Mouse forever, as long as they keep the evolutionary process going.

A recent design which serves as a throwback to classic Mickey was even used for a series of (surprisingly good) animated Disney shorts; it’s unclear if this design will complicate the public’s use of Steamboat Willie.

Ultimately, the line between classic and modern Mickey will be left to the courts (and Disney’s ravenous lawyers) to decide.

But satire is still legal, even if O’Neill’s costly nightmare scared cartoonists away from the mouse.

Be warned, however, that Disney will be watching.

“More modern versions of Mickey will remain unaffected by the expiration of the Steamboat Willie copyright, and Mickey will continue to play a leading role as a global ambassador for the Walt Disney Company in our storytelling, theme park attractions, and merchandise,” Disney said in a statement last week.

“We will, of course, continue to protect our rights in the more modern versions of Mickey Mouse and other works that remain subject to copyright.”

What Are People Doing With Mickey Mouse Right Now?

It’s become something of a cliche that cuddly, kid-friendly characters must be subverted into ferocious monsters and murderers. Slasher films are cheap to make and horror games are popular at the moment, so both were announced in the wake of the copyright being lifted.

Mickey’s Mouse Trap, a horror film in which a killer in a Mickey Mouse mask attacks a group of teenagers, follows in the bloodstained footprints of Blood and Honey, the Winnie-the-Pooh slasher flick.

Horror game Infestation: Origins sees a creepier version of Steamboat Willie Mickey stalk the player, while MOUSE is a first-person shooter starring a Mickey clone, set in a Cuphead-like world of black-and-white cartoons.

MOUSE looks fairly interesting and unique, but the knee-jerk response to turn Mickey into a monster already seems uninspired. Others remixed Mickey’s iconic Steamboat Willie whistle, or put a gun in Mickey’s hands, and made him swear.

Hopefully, someone will do something interesting to Mickey soon; the mouse is symbolic of a decades-long battle over the public domain, which the public lost.

Today, the battleground has shifted, as powerful corporations no longer view tight copyright protection as beneficial, thanks to the requirements of generative-AI.