Adult Swim addressed “Steamboat Willie” hitting the public domain in the most on-brand way possible- turning it into a raunchy animation. The short is the first appearance of the iconic mascot of the brand, Mickey Mouse. It hit public domain on January 1st, 2024.
This means people can use that version of the character, without the full force of the notoriously litigious company coming down on them. As you can imagine, the internet has been having a field day with this. There is already a horror movie on the way, too.
Since internet culture is their bread and butter, Adult Swim took a potshot at Disney. On January 7th, they aired a bumper that had Steamboat Willie thrusting and kissing some text reading “Public Domain Bitch.” Making the mascot for the House of Mouse a bit edgier, while throwing a rock at the animation goliath.
Even though this may seem like a flash-in-the-pan internet trend, plenty of companies take issue with how insane Disney can be when it comes to IP. And now that one of the company’s most protected characters, and debatably the biggest symbols for children’s entertainment, has kind of fallen into the realm of being adaptable. There is no telling how many more companies will take a chance to get a quick shot in. This trend will more than likely only continue to grow given how much people love punching up.
We are absolutely on board to see how ridiculous this gets.
