Photo: Kim Kulish / The Image Bank Unreleased / Getty Images
On the very same day that the “Steamboat Willie” incarnation of Mickey Mouse went into the public domain, a new horror film featuring the classic character was announced.
It's described as “the first-ever live-action Mickey Mouse comedy-horror feature film,” called “Mickey’s Mouse Trap” and the trailer was released on YouTube on Monday (1/1/2024).
While The Walt Disney Company still owns the modern versions of Mickey, two 1928 cartoon shorts featuring Mickey Mouse, “Steamboat Willie” and “Plane Crazy” went into the public domain this week.
That means that members of the public can now freely share, adapt, or remix the character's image, hence the film’s announcement.
In the trailer, clips from “Steamboat Willie” play as a killer who wears a black-and-white Mickey Mouse mask is on the loose.
The movie's IMDb page describes the plot: "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."
But this isn’t the first time someone's turned a classic character into a killer, as a Winnie the Pooh horror movie was released after the character was put into the public domain in 2022.