SORRY, WALT

Trailer for Mickey Mouse Horror Film Drops as Early Disney Character Enters Public Domain

The beloved cartoon rodent joins Winnie-the-Pooh in slasher stardom.

It was inevitable that we’d start seeing Mickey Mouse doing some seriously uncharacteristic things after an early version of the character entered the public domain on Monday—but we might not have expected him to grab a knife and set about slaughtering teenagers the very same day.

With the version of Mickey used in Disney’s 1928 film Steamboat Willie no longer under copyright protection, artists are free to use that original iteration of the iconic mouse however they like. That apparently includes making him a sinister, blood-crazed killer in a horror comedy film called Mickey’s Mouse Trap.

“It’s Alex’s 21st birthday, but she’s stuck at the amusement arcade on a late shift so her friends decide to surprise her, but a masked killer dressed as Mickey Mouse decides to play a game of his own with them which she must survive,” the film’s synopsis reads, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

It took over a year between the copyright lapsing for the first Winnie-the-Pooh book and a slasher film starring the honey-loving bear to come out. It seems filmmakers were more prepared for Mickey to start causing mayhem.

“We just wanted to have fun with it all,” director Jamie Bailey said in a statement. “I mean it’s Steamboat Willie’s Mickey Mouse murdering people. It’s ridiculous. We ran with it and had fun doing it and I think it shows.”

The movie doesn’t have a release date yet but producers are reportedly aiming for March.

Dan Ladden-HallBreaking News Editor

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