Disney Loses Nearly 95% of Its Classic Animation Material

[Transheuser-Busch]

Full steam ahead with the woke crap, Disney. Go for it.

As the year 2024 draws closer, Disney fans have become increasingly vocal
and concerned about The Walt Disney Company losing the rights to Mickey
Mouse. But Disney has already lost almost 95% of the classic animation
material from its feature films, such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,
Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi, and no amount of lobbying Congress could have
stopped the loss.

One of the earliest versions of Disney’s Mickey Mouse is set to enter the
public domain on January 1, 2024, ending a 96-year-long copyright held by
the entertainment giant since Mickey’s first cartoon, Steamboat Willie,
debuted in 1928. At that time, Mickey’s copyright was valid for 28 years,
with the option for Disney to extend it for an additional 28 years,
meaning that the original copyright for the Steamboat Willie character was
set to enter the public domain at the end of 1983. Facing a loss of
ownership, Disney sprang into action to save the beloved mouse from life
outside The Walt Disney Company.

Disney wasted no time, bypassing any potential riff-raff and going
directly to the United States government for help, lobbying Congress in an
effort to hold on to Mickey a little longer. Whether federal lawmakers
revered Disney as an untouchable entertainment powerhouse or the American
people had elected a Congress full of Mickey fans, we’ll never know, but
Congress happily extended Disney’s copyright by enacting the “Mickey Mouse
Protection Act,” or, as it is formally known, the Copyright Term Extension
Act.

Copyrights don’t last forever, though, and when the clock strikes midnight
on January 1, 2024, Disney will be forced to say farewell to Steamboat
Willie–though his trademark will remain.

But while there may still be some measure of hope for Mickey, there’s no
hope for a loss of Disney property that has already occurred–one that
never made the headlines as Steamboat Willie did. The Walt Disney Company
has already suffered a tragic loss of some of its intellectual property,
and the company has no one to blame but its very own animators.

In the 1930s and 1940s, when Walt Disney’s animators were tasked with
hand-drawing the characters and backgrounds for some of the studio’s most
beloved animated films, they embraced their work with great passion and
dedication. They apparently enjoyed their work and had lots of fun on the
clock. Back then, hand-drawn animation was a lengthy, labor-intensive
process, but it was business as usual for those in that line of work.
Because of this, animators were often very carefree–and sometimes
careless–when it came to the fragile vintage art they were creating.

Arthur Stevens, a long-time Disney animator and director who worked on
classic Disney animated films The Rescuers (1977), The Fox and the Hound
(1981), and The Black Cauldron (1985), once explained that animators used
to toss finished animation canvases on the floor when they were finished
with them. Some animators even used the canvases to slide around on the
floors. While the practice might have been good for team-building, it was
entirely destructive for the artwork itself.

It created multiple problems for the studio as well. Over the years, the
carelessness of Disney’s animators resulted in the loss of nearly 95% of
Disney’s vintage animation material–a loss from which recovery is not
possible. In an effort to prevent further losses, experts now employ
preservation techniques to care for the remaining material. The goal is to
lower the risk of further damage and loss of Disney’s treasured and
priceless artwork.

Fortunately for Disney fans of every age, all of the films for which the
animation material was lost are still available in some physical and
digital formats and can be streamed on the Disney+ platform.

Not if you're woke broke!!

https://www.disneydining.com/disney-loses-95-percent-of-classic-animation-
cels-bb1/

[Transheuser-Busch]

Go woke, be broke and bankrupt.

Disney is set to lose its rights to Mickey Mouse in 2024, and a potential
new owner is already lying in wait.

Did you hear it? If you’re totally quiet, you can hear it. It’s the dark,
sinister, and maniacal laughter of the villain from any of Disney’s
classic feature-length animated films. You hear it now, don’t you?

In news reminiscent of that from early 1928, Disney is set to lose its
rights to the beloved Mickey Mouse in 2024, just two short years from now.
and the enterprise poised to catch him just as he is loosed from his
Disney birthplace is doing so only out of spite–not for the Mouse–but for
everything the Mouse represents.

A company called MSCHF has launched its own version of Mickey Mouse. And
it’s scary. Its version isn’t referred to as Mickey, and the likeness is
not quite Mickey’s either. It’s more of a copy and an idea rolled into
one.

Fans and non-fans alike are invited to purchase a token that looks like a
mouse. The so-called “X Famous Mouse” serves as more of a placeholder that
can be bought today for $100 and redeemed in 2024 when Disney no longer
owns the rights to Mickey. Once redeemed, the owner will receive an actual
collectible piece of artwork.

It’s the copyright for Disney’s Steamboat Willie that is set to expire on
January 1, 2024. Once the copyright expires, the character of the famous
mouse, as he appeared in the animated short, will be part of the public
domain. That is unless Disney can pull a fast one as the company did in
1988.

Faced with a similar fate in the late 80s, Disney bypassed any potential
riff-raff and went straight to the federal government for help, lobbying
Congress in an effort to extend its copyright on Mickey. Whether it was
Disney’s powerhouse persona or a Congress full of Mickey fans, we aren’t
sure. But the lobbying worked, and the copyright was extended.

But, as with all good things, the copyright is coming to an end. The so-
called “Mickey Mouse Protection Act,” or, as it is more formally known,
the Copyright Term Extension Act, only extended the rights so long, and in
2024, the extension of the protection will be terminated.

MSCHF explains that it feels Disney is a “multinational behemoth, able to
change national laws to suit the interests of a cartoon mouse” and that
the entertainment giant is also “a massive all-swallowing conglomerate,
with a desire for both industry dominance and cultural hegemony.”

The company further says that we must “leap at the chance to take back
even the scant morsels available to us; at the slightest chance we must
eat them alive.”

So it would seem that MSCHF wants the rights to Mickey, not to continue to
see his notoriety blossom and bloom or further his legacy, but rather to
mock him and the company he represents for being such a power-hungry
“conglomerate.” Got it.

But if Disney did it once, couldn’t they do it again? Couldn’t they lobby
Congress or write a letter to the President or pay a hefty sum of money to
see that the copyright doesn’t expire? That remains to be seen.

And if Disney is successful in securing some kind of staying power on its
Mickey copyright, MSCHF is ready for that too, saying that it will move
along with the extension, should one be granted.

Catching the mouse seems to be the name of the game for MSCHF’s CEO, Gabe
Whaley, who says his company is making the most of a loophole in the
copyright law.

“Famous Mouse is using the idea of conceptual art as a copyright
loophole,” he explained. “Copyright is always a game of loopholes.”

A loophole led to the demise of Walt’s beloved Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in
early 1928. The long-eared bunny ended up the property of Universal
Pictures, thanks to a contract loophole, a sneaky distributor, and some
less-than-loyal studio staff members.

Could it happen again in 2024? It’s possible.

Whaley explains, “This is a roundabout way to get the mouse out early.”

https://www.disneydining.com/disneys-losing-the-rights-to-mickey-and-
thats-not-the-weirdest-part-of-the-story-bb1/