STEAMBOAT WILLIE MICKEY MOUSE IS NOW IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.
That text doesn't nearly feel big enough to encompass the wave of crapola suddenly being sprung on a generally unsuspecting populace, but to make the font big enough to match the hype would mean making it big enough to be seen from space, and nobody wants that.
I've seen at least half a dozen horror-themed(!) takes coming out either RIGHT NOW or LATER IN THE YEAR on the Steamboat Willie theme. It's BIG! It's EDGY! It punches THE HOUSE OF MOUSE right in the SNOOT. YEAH BABY.
Even ROB ZOMBIE'S getting involved. Though as of right now, his Wikipedia page doesn't mention this film.
Except the same thing happened, what a year or two ago with the A.A. Milne versions of Winnie the Pooh and all his friends from the Hundred Acre Wood, and there were horror-themed movies involving that popular IP and all and as far as I can tell that wave is over, so it's probably good news for this current wave that it'll end flash in the pan style and we can go back to the ordinary drivelalia coming from Hollywood and the indie publishers, namely DC/Marvel superhero movies or adjacent ripoffs.
I mean, I guess I get it. Being able to use Disney's signature character -- who hasn't appeared in a cartoon short since 2013 or a feature film since, well, I guess 1983's Mickey's Christmas Carol counts as a feature -- is really stiggin' it to the man, who of course stug it to Ib Iwerks in the 1920s by taking credit for all of Iwerks' Mickey Mouse work in the first place. JUSTICE FOR UB, I suppose is how the posters would go.
I've even seen someone post the entire Steamboat Willie short to YouTube with the joke title "Hey, look at what I made."
In re-watching the short, I have to wonder if Disney's really all that worried. They do use Steamboat Willie as the logo for Walt Disney Animation Studios (or at least they used to; and likely could continue using, of course). But Diseny has a habit of making IP or buying IP and sitting on it for decades, so it's not hard to imagine those thinking they're stiggin' it to the man will get bowled over by whatever Disney is producing now.
And -- apologies to the horror folks -- but horror seems like a low bar, as easily produced by the foot as the dreck these people accuse Disney of making with their billyuns and billyuns of dollars, but that's just me.
So here's Steamboat Willie: Imagine the schlocky possibilities:
And, for fun, here's the last time this version of Mickey appeared in a Disney short:
No comments:
Post a Comment