Steamboat Willie, the 1928 short film featuring the first non-speaking versions of Mickey and Minnie, is seen as a moment in movie history that changed Disney’s fortunes. And now, after Disney’s copyright expired, these characters are now publicly available in the US. So creators like cartoonists can now rework and use the earliest versions of Mickey and Minnie.
A century-long journey for Mickey and Minnie Mouse
US copyright law says that rights to characters can be retained for 95 years, which means that the characters in Steamboat Willie entered the public domain on Monday, January 1, 2024. These works can now be legally shared, performed, reused, or sampled.
The fact that the Mickey and Minnie Mouse characters are in the public domain does not mean that they can be used in any form. Disney warns that more modern versions of Mickey are still under copyright. Therefore, it will only be possible to use the first versions. In addition to Mickey and Minnie Mouse characters, the famous children’s book “The House at Pooh Corner”, Charlie Chaplin’s romantic comedy “The Circus” and Virginia Woolf’s “Orlando” have also entered the public domain.
