The decision to remove Mickey Mouse as Disney's official mascot is primarily due to legal issues. The copyright protection on Mickey Mouse is set to expire in January 2024. This means that Mickey Mouse will exist in the public domain and anyone can use him.
Any future iterations of Mickey Mouse – including any showing Mickey Mouse in color – are still under Disney's control. But the copyright on the Steamboat-Willie-version will run out in 2024 after 95 years. Initially, copyrights only lasted 28 years.
Several TikTokers discovered the trend by pointing to a page on the “List of Deaths” wiki that details the deaths of renowned Disney characters. Even though the character is not canonically deceased, the examination results were horrifying. One of them is that Mickey Mouse's heart ruptured, killing him.
The reason is that copyrights have limited lifespans under federal law and copyrights for works created by corporations (like Disney) are only protected for 95 years from the date of first publication. This is why the Mickey Mouse copyright is coming to an end.
According to US copyright law, the rights for a character expire 95 years after the publication of the original work. Disney will lose the Mickey Mouse copyright for Steamboat Willie in 2024, since the short animated film was produced and distributed in 1928.
No, Disney isn't removing Mickey Mouse as its official mascot
Why might Disney lose the rights to Mickey Mouse?
How could that happen? Isn't Mickey the intellectual property of The Walt Disney Company? Yes, however, once a copyrighted work is 94 years old, it loses its copyright and becomes accessible for public use (this is called 'public domain').
Mickey Mouse (originally known as Mickey Mouse Sound Cartoons) is a series of American animated comedy short films produced by Walt Disney Productions. The series started in 1928 with Steamboat Willie and ended in 2013 with Get a Horse!, taking a hiatus from 1953 to 1983.
Mickey Mouse celebrates 90th birthday this year it means by the 18 November 2028 Mickey will be 100 years old and it is time to release him from his bonds.
What was Mickey Mouse originally called? Walt Disney named his first iteration of the character Mortimer Mouse. However, at the urging of Lillian Disney, his wife, the character was renamed Mickey Mouse; reportedly, Lillian disliked the name Mortimer for the mouse and suggested Mickey.
The beloved mouse that is nearly a century old will soon enter public domain — the original Mickey Mouse's copyright expires in 2024. This anthropomorphic mouse is recognizable even by the silhouette of his ears and, in some ways, has been the face of The Walt Disney Co. since his 1928 creation.
While Disney may no longer have copyright protection for Winnie the Pooh, there are still opportunities for legal recourse that Disney can take. Disney still maintains the rights to the Winnie the Pooh characters created after 1926, including Tigger.
Mickey Mouse is a heroic cartoon character originating from the Disney production, created by the late Walt Disney. Despite Mickey being a hero, in some media he is shown to do villainous acts, mainly when he's being parodied or satirized in non-Disney media.
Fantasmagorie is considered to be the oldest cartoon in the world. The very short animation is one of the earliest examples of traditional hand-drawn animation. It was created in 1908 by French cartoonist Émile Cohl.
Mickey Mouse is clearly a huge fan of hot dogs. He chose to reveal that to the world in 1929 in his ninth film, “The Karnival Kid,” and even did a hot dog dance. Sure, he had laughed and squealed before, but he didn't show us he could utter words until this film.
As for the gloves, here's an explanation from Walt himself:'We didn't want him to have mouse hands, because he was supposed to be more human. So we gave him gloves. Five Fingers looked like too much on such a little figure, so we took one away. That was just one less finger to animate.
Pete is traditionally depicted as the villainous arch-nemesis of Mickey Mouse, and was made notorious for his repeated attempts to kidnap Minnie Mouse. Pete is the oldest continuing Disney character, having debuted in the cartoon Alice Solves the Puzzle in 1925.
The anniversary makes its way to Walt Disney World Resort from Sept. 22 to Dec. 31, 2023, with EPCOT (in the midst of its transformation) at the center of it all. The Disney 100 Celebration, which celebrates 100 years of the Walt Disney Company, kicked off in January at Disneyland Resort.
The copyright for the original version of Mickey Mouse in enter public domain on January 1, 2024. But the other rights associated with Mickey Mouse will remain in place for minor longer, and now, Mickey Mouse celebrating 100th Anniversary is coming in 2028.
Before Mickey Mouse, there was his predecessor: Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. For the first time, we're seeing footage of the first Disney character. The silent film in black and white dates back to 1928, when a young Walt Disney created Oswald.
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (also known as Oswald the Rabbit or Oswald Rabbit or just plain Oswald) is an animated cartoon character created in 1927 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks for Universal Pictures.
In truth, the earliest version of Mickey Mouse, which first appeared in the 1928 landmark animated short Steamboat Willie, will be entering the public domain when the film's copyright expires in 2024.
As per the US copyright law, the rights to characters expire 95 years after publication (for works published or registered before 1978). Thus, Disney, which is also called the House of Mouse due to the character, may lose the rights to the character.
EPS from continuing operations for the nine months ended July 1, 2023 decreased to $1.14 from $1.66 in the prior-year period. Excluding certain items(1), diluted EPS for the nine months ended July 1, 2023 decreased to $2.94 from $3.22 in the prior-year period.
It is the Mickey Mouse shorts that Walt Disney Studios created in 1928, such as Steamboat Willie, that will lose their copyright in 2024, but later shorts, movies, television shows, videos, comic books, artwork, and so on featuring Mickey Mouse will continue to have protection until their individual copyrights expire.
