Even More Mickey Mouse Classics Are Hitting Public Domain

January 1, 2025 will see a slew of classic Disney properties, including those featuring Mickey Mouse, enter the Public Domain. These works from 1929 can now be shared, copied, and built upon by other creators, at least in the U.S. There are some notable Mickey Mouse animated films that are entering the Public Domain, such as The Opry House, which features the debut of his white gloves; The Karnival Kid, in which Mickey speaks for the first time; and Mickey’s Follies, wherein the song “Minnie’s Yoo Hoo” is introduced. The other Mickey Mouse films that will soon be in the Public Domain include:

• The Barn Dance
• When the Cat’s Away
• The Barnyard Battle
• The Plowboy
• Mickey’s Choo-Choo
• The Jazz Fool
• Jungle Rhythm
• The Haunted House
• Wild Waves

While not starring Mickey Mouse, there’s another Disney animated short that will soon enter the Public Domain in 2025 as well: The Skeleton Dance. This first installment in the Silly Symphony series was written, directed, and produced by Walt Disney himself, and sees a group of skeletons rising from their resting places in a graveyard at the stroke of midnight to participate in a charming dance number. Though it may be tame by today’s standards, the morbid humor of The Skeleton Dance was considered too much for Denmark, who banned it upon its initial release. Footage from the short was included in the Disney Sing-Along Songs version of Andrew Gold’s 1996 song, “Spooky Scary Skeletons.”

It’s also interesting to note that while there’s quite a few Mickey Mouse offerings hitting public domain on New Year’s Day, the upcoming Public Domain Day is significant for another reason. The day marks the milestone that all of the books, films, songs, and art that was published in the 1920s is now public domain.

These are not the first Disney properties to enter the Public Domain; 2024 saw Steamboat Willie and the silent version of Plane Crazy – both of which mark the first appearances of Mickey Mouse – become available for anyone to use without permission. In fact, it only took one day for Steamboat Willie to become free for everyone to use before it was announced that a slasher movie version of the character was being produced, called Screamboat. Yes, it also means that anyone can come along and turn Mickey’s Choo-Choo into a gory horror flick without having to deal with Disney and given that we’ve seen it happen with Steamboat Willie, it’s only a matter of time before we see other horror takes on these specific versions of the iconic Mouse.

[RELATED: These Animated Disney Movies Will Never Be Remade in Live-Action (Probably)]

Interestingly enough, the Walt Disney Company is a large part of why copyright protection lasts for 95 years. With the previous 75-year limit approaching, Disney was eager to hold onto the rights of its early works, and so it successfully lobbied Congress to extend it another 20 years. Though Disney wasn’t the only major copyright holder lobbying for this extension, it was the most famous one, to the point that many referred to it as the “Mickey Mouse Protection Act.” 

You can check out a full list of what is entering the Public Domain on January 1st
here.