Disney’s Mickey Mouse Copyright Expired. Now He’s On a Rampage.
Mickey Mouse, is that you holding a bloody knife? Slashing youngster’s necks? Looking tattered and blood stained? Disney’s most famous character is getting reworked. And it isn’t pretty. The company lost its copyright protection of an early version of Mickey Mouse this year, giving movie and videogame makers a chance to reimagine the family friendly rodent—mostly as killers.
These Mickeys wouldn’t be let through the gates of the Magic Kingdom. In “Mickey’s Mouse Trap," out in March, someone in a Mickey-like mask chases after young men and women with a knife. “He kills people," Jamie Bailey, the movie’s director, said about his mouse.
“He doesn’t have a personality beyond that." Bailey said the movie was filmed in eight days late last year, and takes place in an arcade where someone is having a 21st birthday. “It is not Shakespeare," said Bailey. “It’s just a fun campy movie." He waited until Jan.
1 to release the trailer, the day “Steamboat Willie," the first movie introduction of Mickey Mouse, went into the public domain. Another slasher flick was announced the same day. Steven LaMorte, a producer and director, said he’s working on an unnamed film that will be shot in New York City this spring and come out later this year.
It takes place on a boat with commuters being attacked by what LaMorte calls “a mysterious, mischievous and murderous mouse." Turning a Disney character into a murderer has happened before. The same month Winnie the Pooh, the cuddly, chubby, honey-loving bear, went into the public domain last year, the movie “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey" was released. Famous killers can help bring in an audience, said Rhys Frake-Waterfield, the director of “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey." The shock value
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