Mickey Mouse has been an iconic character for nearly 100 years. From television, to films, to books, to video games and more, the cartoon mouse has garnered tens of billions of dollars for Disney. Now, Steamboat Willie’s Mickey Mouse is stepping away from his usual family friendly content and will now get a new “official” horror game.
Mickey Mouse, Infestation: Origins
Nightmare Forge Games released the trailer for their new game, Infestation: Origins, on January 1st 2024. The trailer showcased a horrifying and twisted version of Disney’s famous cartoon mouse, Mickey Mouse. Infestation: Origins appears to be a new indie horror game with co-op play for up to four players. The threat is not only just the Steamboat Willie version of Mickey, but also a titular infestation of rats, pairing nicely with the new terrifying incarnation of Mickey Mouse. You play as an exterminator traversing a warehouse trying to get rid of the rats. As you go about exterminating them, you discover this demented new version of Mickey Mouse.
Infestation: Origins Gameplay
Mickey Mouse and the Public Domain
So, why does Mickey Mouse have a horror game now? As of January 1st 2024, Mickey Mouse is officially in the public domain. So now, the house of the mouse doesn’t fully own the original Mickey Mouse, you do. Kind of. Disney has battled the copyright system for Mickey Mouse to remain solely under their ownership for 95 years. So Mickey being even partially in the public domain marks a major milestone.
Steamboat Willie And Plane Crazy Are In The Public Domain
Generally, the copyright for something expires 70 years after the creators death, or 95 years after the copyright of something created after 1978. But that’s because of Disney, they’ve infamously pushed back the copyright duration on multiple occasions for multiple properties, some successful, some unsuccessful. But it’s understandable why that is. Mickey Mouse has been one of the most profitable characters of all time grossing over $50 billion since his inception. So now, anyone can do anything with the original version of Mickey Mouse from Plane Crazy and Steamboat Willie. And it looks like people are taking full advantage of it. Also, just to be clear, none of this information is legal advice.
Mickey Mouse’s Public Domain Potential
Mickey Mouse isn’t 100% in the public domain, just the 1928 Plane Crazy and Steamboat Willie interpretations. So there’s bound to be more versions enter the public domain over the years. Currently, there’s already two confirmed Mickey Mouse horror movies. The first was also announced on January 1st 2024, titled Mickey’s Mouse Trap. The second, announced January 2nd 2024, is titled Steamboat Willie and will be more of a direct adaptation of the original short, just as a horror film. and now Infestation: Origins. One question a lot of people have been asking and will continue to ask for a while is; why are our cute and cuddly Disney characters becoming horror characters?
Original Steam Boat Willie Short Film
Well, that’s solely up to you, literally. Anyone can legally do anything with this version of the character. It’s also known that close to no budget horror films can be some of the easiest films to make a large profit from. For example, Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey cost less than $100,000 and it made over $5 million in the box office. So while those numbers are still low compared to most modern movies, it’s still a massive profit. And no fear, there’s most likely going to be more reveals for more works based on the original Mickey Mouse in all genres, ranging from TV shows, to movies, to games, books, and more. We could even get an unofficial threequel to the Epic Mickey games!
