Since entering the public domain on January 1st, the Steamboat Willie version of Mickey Mouse has been everywhere. Some people use the Disney icon cleverly, some very lazily. However, the biggest abusers of this newly freed rodent are YouTubers.
Over the past week, I’ve seen many channels uploading UB Iwerks’ 1928 short. Are there any artistic changes made? In most cases? Nope. Heck, many channels are throwing up low-quality 360p copies of the animated classic. It’s the lowest of low efforts.
Amusingly enough, Walt Disney Animation Studios’ official YouTube channel also has a low-resolution copy of the short, although it was uploaded 14 years ago. This is odd, considering a couple of channels made the effort of finding 4K scans of the cartoon.
Regardless of how much or little YouTubers are putting into making Steamboat Willie theirs, it could cost them their channels. Remember, Disney said they’re going to try to protect the brand. As pointed out by Clownfish TV, Disney isn’t taking this lying down. Walt’s company has started to strike channels uploading the original Steamboat Willie short.
It’s not all laziness, though. Even before Mickey made it to the public domain, animators and artists were putting in some work to reimagine the short. Some of these completely reanimated it!
One of my favorites is a black-and-white silent film called The Vanishing of the S.S. Willie by Night Signal Entertainment. It doesn’t regurgitate the short; instead, it uses the limitations of early 20th-century cinema to create a creepy horror short.
Check out the videos below of some of the best examples of this:
https://youtu.be/qQn6TgX1Muc?si=ow07y4k4mhJWj6Ob
The future of Mickey Mouse in the public domain will be … interesting. The initial novelty of having such a well-known character readily available will wear off in a month or so. Still, it opens up many possibilities for creators who want to put in the elbow grease.
What do you think of this new YouTube trend? Let us know below.
[Source: YouTube]
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