On January 1, 2024, the original incarnation of Mickey Mouse, Steamboat Willie, entered the public domain. Steamboat Willie, born in 1928, is the crown jewel of thousands of intellectual properties whose copyright has just expired. This also includes the original German version of “All Quiet in the West,” Virginia Woolf's “Orlando,” a reprise of Peter Pan and more.
Monday was circled on the calendars of many opportunistic filmmakers, and less than 48 hours after New Year's Eve became New Year's Day, several Steamboat Willie-inspired projects were announced – all an iteration of twisted slasher horror. This one has already released a trailer, this one (from the guy who made a horror parody of The Grinch) has released a press release, and this one is a horror video game based on Mickey – er, Willie – the most popular game based cartoon character in the world.
They're all hoping to repeat the viral success of 2023's “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey,” another slasher horror film based on a popular children's cartoon character that's now in the public domain. “Blood and Honey” was a real novelty, grossing $5 million at the box office; A sequel is already in the works and will be released in the spring. The sequel may now even include Tigger, who first appeared in print in 1928. Wonderful things.
Rhys Frake-Waterfield, the director and producer of Blood and Honey and its sequel, told IndieWire that he specifically stayed away from any Steamboat Willie project. He's not out here trying to get sued.
“People think it's easy to grasp and easy to take action on, but there are big issues that I don't think they realize,” Frake-Waterfield said. “There are things we had to deal with behind the scenes on 'Winnie the Pooh' that were pretty big, I think [the Steamboat Willie projects] might be in for a bit of a shock soon.”
Frake-Waterfield says he “noticed some things” on some Steamboat Willie projects that “they shouldn’t have done.” Best case scenario: He expects Disney lawyers to issue a cease-and-desist letter to these producers. In the worst case scenario, they get shut down and sued.
“We didn’t want to get close to this character,” he said.
Trailer for the horror film “Mickey’s Mousetrap”.
Frake-Waterfield has closely watched how intellectual property becomes publicly available. His production company, Jagged Edge Productions, is also making a Peter Pan movie, and Frake-Waterfield is working on a few other unannounced projects based on other newly public domain IPs. None of them deal with Disney characters, and that's by design.
But as with “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey,” Frake-Waterfield must continue to tread carefully. He worries that others haven't done the same. While the copyright for the specific character Steamboat Willie and his image may have entered the public domain, a trademark for a brand is a different matter – one that can easily supersede public domain rules. The big, cantankerous and wise Disney has tied Mickey Mouse closely to its brand and logos; and in anticipation of the looming public domain problem, Disney began using Steamboat Willie in the same way.
That wasn't the case with Winnie the Pooh, but Frake-Waterfield's company still consulted with lawyers to make sure they weren't infringing on Disney's version of the Pooh or Piglet characters. They considered the same “dos and don'ts” before adding Tigger to the “Blood and Honey” sequel, he said. Pooh, Piglet and Tigger may be Disney characters, but they were originally created by author AA Milne and licensed by Disney in 1961.
Some of these new, independent Steamboat Willie uses are “sketchy” at best, Frake-Waterfield said. “They think that just because something has entered the public domain, you can just invent a version of it and then put it out there and that’s totally fine.”
Any decent lawyer could have stopped some of these new slashers – now Disney probably will, he said. For some, it will be “pretty scary” and “extremely costly,” Frake-Waterfield predicted.
Infestation 88 video game trailer inspired by Steamboat Willie
In Waterfield's eyes, there's another problem with a Steamboat Willie horror film – it just plays out.
“Blood and Honey” wasn't exactly a critical darling, but Frake-Waterfield defends his film by saying it wasn't just a guy in a Pooh mask murdering teenagers in a cabin in the woods. In his version, the characters from the Hundred Acre Wood had gone wild and even devoured Eeyore. The devil, as you can see, is in the details. Frake-Waterfield's upcoming Peter Pan film will also be based on JM Barrie's original story – with a horror twist.
Stick to the formula, he advises Steamboat Willie.
“I don’t know if any of them are going to try to make them good,” Frake-Waterfield said. “If it's repeated over and over again, it won't have the same success. It doesn't have the same longevity as what we're trying to do. Personally, I believe that this will only become sustainable for us as filmmakers if we really focus on making a few that we think are the best and giving them a really high quality.”