With the earliest incarnation of Mickey Mouse now officially in the public domain, 95 years since the debut of Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks’ black-and-white cartoon Steamboat Willie, artists and content creators are taking full advantage. A couple more prominent projects that have surfaced since 12:01 a.m., January 1, include two live-action slasher movies — as well as an unconnected horror game — and a spiff-up of the original film.
ROKiT Studios and Windy Tales Animation have launched a new revamped Steamboat Willie on the ROKiT Flix platform (rokitstudios.com/rokit-flix | App Store). The update features new music and colorization for the nearly century-old short (released November 18, 1928 in New York City’s Colony Theater).
“We are delighted to have been able to revamp the iconic Steamboat Willie movie with newly-added color, now the copyright has expired, and relaunch this masterpiece for a new audience on our ROKiT Flix streaming platform globally, free of charge,” said Jonathan Kendrick, Chairman & Founder of the ROKiT Group. “We offer this as a homage to the genius of Walt Disney and we hope our audiences not only love watching it but also appreciate the historical importance of this seminal film.”
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On the less reverent end of the spectrum, the Mickey’s Mouse Trap trailer peeks a live-action horror spectacle featuring a killer who wears a Mickey mask stalking a group of young people around an arcade. The logline 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.”
After the buzz created by Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey at the beginning of 2023, it was inevitable that Mickey would get his own gorefest. (B&H is ripe for a sequel, with Pooh’s pal Tigger also entering public domain this year.) Tagged #TheMouseIsOut, the project is an Into Frame Productions presentation of a Bailey Philips production, directed by Jamie Bailey.
Following the Mickey’s Mouse Trap trailer, filmmaker Steven LaMorte (The Mean One, Bury Me Twice) announced an as-yet-untitled movie project of his own inspired more directly by Steamboat Willie. The horror-comedy will unfold as a late-night boat ride turns into a fight for survival in New York City as a hapless group of tourists are tormented by a monster-fied version of the iconic mouse.
LaMorte directs and produces; producers also include Amy Schumacher and Martine Melloul (The Mean One), Steven Della Salla and Micahel Leavy (Terrifier 2).
The video game contingent has also offered a much darker alternative to Mickey’s Kingdom Hearts adventures. The evocatively named Nightmare Forge Games announced the one- to four-player survival horror co-op Infestation 88, now in development for PC. The title is available to wishlist on Steam.
Here’s the description: “In the year 1988, what was thought to be an outbreak of rodents in various locations morphed into something far more sinister.” Players must work together as a team of exterminators, laying traps and evading the squeaky hordes.
Reiterating the company’s statement at the end of the year, Mickey Mouse rights holder The Walt Disney Company stated through a spokesperson, “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 … 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, and we will work to safeguard against consumer confusion caused by unauthorized uses of Mickey and our other iconic characters.”
