The Walt Disney Company has acquired many assets over 100 years of existence, but sadly, not all have made it that long. The company has a major looming issue involving the copyright to Mickey Mouse ending in 2024, but that isn’t the only major loss the company has had to contend with since it was founded. In fact, the animation studio has ruined almost all of its vintage animation materials from its early films. Disney could still save Mickey Mouse, but the sands of time have ended any hope of ever seeing 95% of these assets again.
Protecting Disney Assets
The original Mickey Mouse captivated audiences when he made his screen debut in the iconic cartoon Steamboat Willie in 1928. Fast forward to January 1, 2024, and we are nearing a significant event. After a remarkable 96-year copyright reign, Mickey Mouse’s earliest form is in danger of becoming a member of the public domain. This may seem horrifying for the House of Mouse, but it is not the first time the company has had to save him.
The Walt Disney Company previously regained control of its character in the past by miraculously getting the United States Congress to grant them a copyright term extension. Hilariously titled the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, this copyright law eventually brought us to this upcoming moment.
Mickey is not the only Disney character that Disney has had to go to bat for over the years. In the late 1980s, Disney lost the rights to the beloved Winnie the Pooh characters due to a legal dispute with the heirs of the original creator. The rights were eventually acquired by Stephen Slesinger, a literary agent who licensed Disney characters in the 1960s. This led to several legal battles between Disney and Slesinger’s estate, resulting in a complex and lengthy battle. Ultimately, Disney regained the rights in 2001 by reaching a settlement with the Slesinger estate, allowing them to continue creating and producing new Winnie the Pooh content.
However, some events from the earlier days of the Walt Disney Animation Studios were not so fortunate. While the company managed to prevent huge losses in these legal battles, nothing could stop what happened within its own walls. A tragic loss of its intellectual property did indeed happen, and the culprits responsible were none other than its own animators.
Disney Animators Ruin Classic Animation Art
Arthur Stevens, a respected Disney veteran involved in timeless classics such as Winnie the Pooh, The Fox and the Hound, and Alice in Wonderland, revealed a fascinating tidbit about those bygone days. When the company was young, all animation was obviously drawn entirely by hand in a painstakingly slow process. While the animators were passionate about their work, they were not always the most careful with it.
Disney Animators casually discarded finished animation cells onto the studio floor or employed them as a means to slide along the floors. These activities might have been fun and cathartic, but it obviously was a disaster for the animation material used in this manner. Consequently, the negligence of its animators resulted in the loss of nearly 95% of the studio’s vintage animation material.
It is important to note that while most of these assets are destroyed, this doesn’t mean that Disney is in danger of losing its classic early films. While these animation cells hold a nostalgic importance to a bygone era, they are actually not integral to preserving the media anymore. Older titles like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs still exist today due to advances in technology used to bring them into the modern age. With this in mind, one could argue that Disney managed to save itself from another major loss that didn’t need Congress or a legal battle. Hopefully, they can get copyright protection to protect Steamboat Willie in the future.
