MASTERS OF THEIR OWN (PUBLIC) DOMAIN
Ten other animated characters that will join Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh in the public domain in the near future.
Ten other animated characters that will join Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh in the public domain in the near future.
Despite a decades-long fight to postpone the inevitable, New Year’s Day saw Mickey Mouse entering an entirely new form of existence: as a character in the public domain. Well, sort of, anyway. Having debuted in 1928, Mickey has now outlasted the legal 95-year term of copyright, at least in the rudimentary form in which he appeared in Steamboat Willie. Subsequent versions of Mickey, however, remain under protection.
But a host of other classic characters are also coming up for public-domain status within the next several years, while a few, including Koko the Clown, Felix the Cat and Farmer Al Falfa, have already gotten there. (Ironically, Farmer Al was denied a cameo in 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit because of a rights issue.) Some of Toon Town’s biggest names and/or most significant characters in the art form’s development will find themselves openly available to the public at large before you know it, including:
1. Oswa the Lucky Rabbit. Walt Disney’s first name-above-the-title star, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit very quietly slipped into the public domain in 2023. An early experiment in personality animation, Oswald was created by Disney and Ub Iwerks in 1927, but they lost control of the character the following year — hence the creation of Mickey. Oswald still enjoyed another decade in film through Walter Lantz Productions and was reacquired by Disney in the mid-2000s, appearing in a new short cartoon in 2022, which was his final private year. (A live-action-animation hybrid horror take on Oswald is arriving later this year!)
2. Bosko. Before Warner Bros. hit the cartoon big-time with such major stars as Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig and Daffy Duck, they had Bosko. Created by Hugh Harman in 1928, Bosko first appeared the following year in Harman and Rudolf Ising’s cartoon Bosko, the Talk-Ink Kid. Given that Bosko was the kind of stereotypical, racist caricature that is not tolerated today (he was replaced by a white clone named “Buddy”) his lapse into PD this year will likely not matter very much, historical relevance aside.
3. Pope . Created by cartoonist E.C. Segar in 1929 for the newspaper strip Thimble Theatre, Popeye made his film debut in the 1933 Fleischer cartoon Popeye the Sailor and became enormously popular. Although his basic form and name will edge into the public domain in 2025, the trademark stream-of-consciousness mutterings and signature theme song that characterized him on screen will remain under protection until 2029. In some forms (such as his eye-white redesign), the Sailor Man might even go beyond that.
4. Bett Boop. Created specifically for animation in 1930 by Max Fleischer and legendary animator Grim Natwick, cartoon sexpot Betty Boop was initially a dog … literally! A year later she was humanized and would go on to rival Mae West as a Depression-era sex symbol. A flapper with a helium voice, Betty’s initial career spanned the 1930s, but she has become an iconic character and merchandising figure. Her earlier canine incarnation will enter the public domain in 2026.
5. Flip the Frog. Maybe only the hardiest of toon heads even know about Flip the Frog, who was created in 1930 by Ub Iwerks and released through MGM. Definitely a pre-Code property, the downtrodden amphibian and his sometimes-bawdy misadventures only lasted three years, after which Iwerks returned to the Disney studios (where he’d earlier helped to develop Mickey Mouse). Those cartoons jump-started the careers of many future animation legends, including Irv Spence, Shamus Culhane and Chuck Jones. The frog flips into the public domain in 2026.
6. Pluto. Mickey Mouse’s pet hound debuted in the 1930 Disney cartoon short The Chain Gang, but was not yet named. He became “Pluto” in 1931’s The Moose Hunt. Pluto remains nearly unique within the cartoon realm in that he is not anthropomorphized and does not talk. His unnamed version will slip into PD in 2026; as Pluto, he will go public the next year.
7. Goofy. Disney’s lovable Goof (yes, folks, he’s also a dog!) will likely generate some extra court filings from the company’s lawyers in 2028 when the character as we know him may or may not fall into the public domain. The prototype for Goofy, a chortling caricature of an old-timer called “Dippy Dawg,” first showed up in the 1932 short Mickey’s Revue. Although his voice was established, he didn’t recognizably become Goofy until 1934, which may prolong his private status by a couple years.
8. The Three Little Pigs. Released in 1933, this milestone Disney cartoon huffs and puffs its way into the public domain in 2029. What will be the significance of that? For one thing, Edward Albee’s groundbreaking 1962 play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was denied permission to use the cartoon’s signature song for parody purposes and was forced to substitute Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush instead. Starting in 2029, new productions might not face that restriction.
9. Donald Duck. Arguably Disney’s second-most popular classic character, the mush
mouthed waterfowl with anger-management issues first appeared in the 1934 short The Wise Little Hen, where he’s seen fully formed, named and costumed, and teamed with “Peter Pig” (who had a brief, largely forgotten career). Because of this, Donald will slide into PD mostly intact in 2030.
10. Porky Pig. One of Warner Bros.’ most popular cartoon characters and the spokesman for the studio’s trademark signoffs, the stuttering porker made his first appearance in 1935’s I Haven’t Got a Hat, back when Looney Tunes were little more than a creative way of plugging the studio’s song catalog. Though Porky’s form has changed considerably over the decades, his original design, name and oft-parodied voice will enter the public domain in 2031.
While such other cartoon superstars as Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry, Mighty Mouse and Woody Woodpecker still have a decade or more before worrying about public availability, today’s critics are citing as a cautionary tale the 2023 feature Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, a controversial slasher film that capitalized on the recently-made-public characters of Pooh and Piglet. Last month, we saw the trailer for a horror film titled Mickey Mouse’s Trap about a group of friends that are attacked by a killer dressed as Mickey, Nightmare Forge’s horror game Infestation 88 and Fumi’s Mouse game featuring a Steamboat Willie-inspired gangster mouse. It might not be a bad idea for studios to start strategizing now before I Haven’t Got a Chainsaw: Farmer John’s Revenge is announced. ◆