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The first Mickey Mouse becomes public knowledge and already the first horror video game pops up.

182 View2024-01-09

Disney has lost the copyright on one of its most important works: the first world-famous Mickey Mouse short.

Disney is a company famous for being careful with its proprietary products, but in recent days the most famous animation studio ever has had one of its most important works ever, if not in some ways the most important of all, blown out from under its nose.

We are talking about the very first short starring Mickey Mouse, the historical mascot conceived by Walt Disney and who made the fortune of the entire company.

The first Mickey Mouse animated short is entitled "Steamboat Willie" and is practically a milestone in the world of Western animation.

To tell the truth, it is not really the first in chronological order starring the famous Mickey Mouse, but the third: despite this Steamboat Willie is considered by many to be the beginning of everything since it was the first to be released.

The short film runs just over 7 minutes, is in black and white, and shows one of the very first versions of Mickey Mouse with a completely pale face and completely black eyes.

The most famous scene is definitely the opening one with Mickey dancing and whistling while turning the helm of the steamboat, which also gives the work its name.

An over-the-top achievement for the technical means of the time that demonstrates the genius of Walt Disney.

It seems really strange to think that a company like Disney could lose the rights to the first distributed short starring its historic mascot, but apparently it did.

In fact, in November 2023, the short turned a whopping 95 years old, which meant that Steamboat Willie became public domain.

This does not mean that Disney has now lost all authorship of the product, but that the public can do pretty much whatever they want with it.

Most works, whether they are films, pictures, songs, drawings and more, are protected by copyrights that prevent someone from appropriating a work that is not his or her own, or from modifying at will a work conceived by another person.

When a product becomes public domain, however, what was said before no longer applies and anyone can use that work without asking permission from the authors.

Not everyone knows that copyright laws do not apply forever: copyright can expire 70 years after the author's death or 95 years after its creation.

Walt Disney died in 1966, thus 57 years ago, but as far as Steamboat Willie is concerned, the second criterion was triggered since it was precisely 95 years after its making.

This is certainly not the first time this has happened: works by Sherlock Holmes have also entered the public domain.

Steamboat Willie now goes into everyone's hands and can really become anything: one could make an amateur remake or modify it to include characters or graphic changes.

Apparently the web has already gone wild these days, and some amateur authors have made several alternative works based precisely on the first distributed Mickey Mouse short.

Clearly, only the Mickey and Minnie designs featured in the short can be used and not Mickey Mouse in general, otherwise Disney will not let them get away with it.

Disney, for its part, has no way to reacquire the rights to Steamboat Willie since the expiration date cannot be extended (unless they completely update the law).

Apparently, however, the company does not seem to be worried since it stated that from the very beginning it had appreciated other amateur authors using the first Mickey Mouse as the main character for their stories.

In less than 10 hours after the news of Steamboat Willie's transition to the public domain, the software house Nightmare Forge released a horror video game called Infestation 88.

The title has been described as an experience that combines fear and nostalgia and is a kind of spiritual sequel to Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, another horror title made after the public domain of the famous bear.

Infestation 88｜Mickey Mouse-inspired horror game announced

On the first day of 2024, The Walt Disney Company lost their Mickey Mouse. According to copyright laws, Disney's iconic character, the original version of Mickey from Steamboat Willie, expired on January 1, 2024, and entered the public domain, allowing creators to use it freely. Almost at the same time, a game development team revealed an upcoming horror game inspired by Mickey Mouse called Infestation 88, and it has already opened up for pre-orders on Steam.

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