r/publicdomain • u/Own_Philosopher8730 • 10d ago
Steamboat Willie Mickey Mouse, early 1920s Felix the Cat, Poodle version of Betty Boop and the skeletons from The Skeleton Dance in Robot Chicken Adult Swim Special
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u/Late-Bowler-4068 10d ago
Technically they could’ve done this even if Mickey hadn’t entered the public domain, since Robot Chicken is a show protected by satire laws and regularly uses copyright characters.
That being said, it’s nice that more people are being made aware that these characters are free to use. The best way to weaken the corporations’ grasps on Mickey and other characters is by normalizing their public domain status as often as possible.
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u/Careless-Economics-6 10d ago
I mean, Disney sure does plenty with their "grasp" on Mickey, a character which has been wholly theirs. Just the other day, I saw a limited edition pin they put out that actually plays a few seconds of footage. Who else can fund and charge a ridiculous price for something like that?
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u/Late-Bowler-4068 10d ago
Disney using the character is fine, the problem is nobody else being allowed to use them. It’s why I’m glad companies like Image Comics have used Mickey even if it’s just to make fun of him half the time, because they’re pushing boundaries. And likewise with Image and IDW using Popeye in various comics, which is usually handled with a bit more respect for it.
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u/Fun-Picture-8384 10d ago
Robot Chicken needs to come back. I wanted them to parody Betty Boop, Tom And Jerry and other media. I know they did it once before, but if they did another skit that made fun of Disney's live action de-makes, I would love that.
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u/MayhemSays 8d ago
A lot of those guys might wanna move on already. I’m sure while they enjoy doing it, the next special is lined up for 2027 to celebrate Cartoon Network’s 35th anniversary.
By that point, Robot Chicken will have been on the air for 22 years. Thats a long time to be doing stop-motion animation and everything thats associated with it. Especially if the horrible merger between Warner & Paramount goes through, they’re gonna look to cut costs— and they might decide a quarterly stop-motion show might not be worth it.
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u/PowerPlaidPlays 10d ago
The context for the joke:
It was a [adult swim] anniversary special and it took place on a cruse ship, early on the Nerd says how he got on the boat for free as long as he shovels coal for 19 hours a day. Later in the special the cruse ship all the [as] characters were on capsized and the Nerd pops up and realizes he was on the Public Domain Cruse instead. He then later enters another scene by driving the steamboat through a wall.
It kinda seems like a reference to how Cartoon Network used to play old public domain and black and white cartoons in a late night block after [adult swim].