The Four Color Media Monitor

The famous mascot of Walt Disney has entered public domain this year. But if you think that's inherently good news, it's sad to learn, as Variety's announced, that just like the horror movie from over a year ago based on Winnie the Pooh, there looks to be a horror project in the works based on Mickey's rendition from Steamboat Willie:

First there was “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey.”

Now, get ready for “Steamboat Willie” horror films.

The 1928 version of Mickey Mouse entered the public domain on Monday, and indie horror producers are wasting no time in capitalizing on it.

Steven LaMorte is set to direct an untitled horror-comedy based on Mickey’s cartoon debut. In it, a sadistic mouse will torment a group of unsuspecting ferry passengers. Production is set to begin in the spring.

“Steamboat Willie has brought joy to generations, but beneath that cheerful exterior lies a potential for pure, unhinged terror,” LaMorte said in a press release. “It’s a project I’ve been dreaming of, and I can’t wait to unleash this twisted take on this beloved character to the world.”

LaMorte previously directed “The Mean One,” a horror parody of the Grinch.

“It all comes from our love of these characters,” he said in an interview. “Filmmakers — we’re all kids in the sandbox. We love taking them and playing with them in different ways. It’s not a desire to ruin these characters or make a quick buck, but to love them and honor them and show them in a new light.”

There's nothing honorable or lovable with depicting classic cartoon characters in themes more than 360 degrees the opposite of what they were originally built upon. This is disgusting, and using the comedy theme alongside horror is no excuse. But based on what happened to Winnie the Pooh and Piglet, not unexpected. And it's not the only one:

The announcement follows the release on Monday of a trailer for “Mickey’s Mouse Trap,” another public domain horror-comedy directed by Jamie Bailey. That one, which is set an amusement arcade, appears to already have been shot. In a press release, the filmmakers said they don’t have a release date yet, but expect it to be out sometime in March.

The BBC has more:

It's Mickey, but not as you've ever seen him before.

A trailer for a slasher film, featuring a masked killer dressed as Mickey Mouse, was released on 1 January, the day that Disney's copyright on the earliest versions of the cartoon character expired in the US.

"We wanted the polar opposite of what exists," the movie's producer said.

A new Mickey-inspired horror game, showing the rodent covered with blood stains, also dropped on the same day.

Steamboat Willie, a 1928 short film featuring early non-speaking versions of Mickey and Minnie, entered the public domain in the US on New Year's Day.

It means cartoonists, novelists and filmmakers can now rework and use the earliest versions of Mickey and Minnie.

In fact, anyone can use those versions without permission or cost.

Creatives have been quick to take advantage of the new rules, with a trailer (contains violent scenes) for a Mickey horror film dropping on the same day.

In the horror comedy thriller, called Mickey's Mouse Trap, a young woman is thrown a surprise birthday party in an amusement arcade - but things quickly take a turn for the worse when she and her friends encounter a knife-wielding murderer in a Mickey costume.

[...] "People need to not take it too seriously, we made a ridiculously fun movie," said Simon Phillips, who wrote and produce the film and plays the man behind the Mickey mask.

Mr Phillips told the BBC that "if you put Mickey into a family movie, you don't cover new ground".

"In order to flip the coin, you have to come up with something that's the polar opposite of what already exists," he said.

[...] Not to be outdone, a new video game has been unveiled, also featuring the 1928 version of Mickey.

Game studio Nightmare Forge Games said the game, titled Infestation 88, is a survival horror game in which an outbreak of vermin turns into something more sinister.

At the start of the trailer, a man is heard saying nervously: "I thought it was just rodents, but there's something else in here."

A huge, blood splattered Mickey then pops up on screen, while mice scurry around him.

A spokesperson from Nightmare Forge Games told the BBC that Steamboat Willie entering the public domain "allowed us to include our own derivation of the film's starring character in our game, which fits perfectly as an antagonist causing an infestation".

So not only is it not enough to put famous cartoon characters into horror shows, they have to be changed into villains as well. And that's additionally telling about what's going wrong now that classic literature's in public domain.

What these projects warn is that we could be seeing a wave in the near future of horror-themed films and even TV shows seemingly based on classic characters that were never intended to serve as a drainpipe for darkness like we're seeing today, using public domain status as the shoddy excuse. The filmmakers and video game producers can say whatever they like, but this reeks of a childish obsession with putting literary characters into nasty settings that're the polar opposite of the books and cartoons they originally appeared in, and turning them into violent criminals. It all stinks of the worst fanfiction ever written, and indeed, that's what it is. Decades ago, these kind of stories usually just dwelled on the fringes of fanfiction, and now, such an unintelligable vision is being mainstreamed. And where do these juvenile fools get the money from for their vulgar products?

I guess what's really appalling is if anybody who really cares doesn't try, no matter how easy and legal it is now, to develop a story that honors Mickey and his fellow Disney creations the right way, without blending in vile themes that disrespect the creations. It's to be hoped that we'll actually hear of something more decent soon enough, from sources with a heart, being in the works. But if not, then real Disney cartoon fans are letting everyone down, while these phonies in the horror movie business rag on Mickey in the worst ways possible, and nobody in the MSM makes any effort to speak out against the filmmakers for the terrible disservice they're doing to Walt Disney's resume, just like the people now running Disney already are with their woke pandering.

Labels: animation, golden calf of villainy, moonbat writers, msm propaganda, technology, violence