disney They do a lot of terrible things as a company, but one of the worst things for the arts as a whole is its support for the Copyright Term Extension Act (also known as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act). It essentially increases the length of time a copyright remains before the property enters the public domain. As you may have seen recently, not even Disney was able to prevent Steamboat Willie, the earliest incarnation of Mickey Mouse, from entering the public domain, meaning anyone can now use their specific version of the character however they like. So, of course, the first big project was an overly edgy horror game that probably had some neo-Nazi dog whistles in it.
Am I surprised? No. Am I disappointed? Of course, but not just for the obvious reasons. Possible Nazi connections aside (the developers are changing the name and claiming they are against any form of Nazism), I can’t think of anything better than making a “Mickey Mouse…but like…he’s depressed” The game is even more boringly creative. up? ? ? “It’s not even very original! The same day, a Mickey Mouse horror movie came out that, aside from a very funny name (Mickey Mouse Trap), looked extremely amateurish. Judging from the full title of the trailer on YouTube – ” The first Mickey Mouse horror movie!!!! [sic]”—you get the sense that the people behind it were interested in being the first to do anything interesting. Plus, the costumes aren’t even as edgy as the equally edgy Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey.
Of course, you wouldn’t exactly call Steamboat Willie’s version of Mickey Mouse a particularly fun Mickey Mouse, but we’ve seen that there are fun things you can do with him. Obviously this isn’t for everyone, but for better or worse, Kingdom Hearts does have a version of the mouse that’s not available in other Disney media. Come on, he famously left one of his protagonists in a dark realm where time didn’t move at all and nothing good was to be found, for ten whole years! too crazy!
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