January 1 saw Disney losing the copyright to the original “Steamboat Willie” Mickey Mouse—and now the character is onto new, decidedly “un-Disney” adventures. The fact that Disney lost the original Steamboat Willie copyright after 95 years of Mickey Mouse this year is all fans can talk about at the moment. The event is extraordinary. The Mickey Mouse cartoon is the foundation ...

Clearly, people have been waiting for this moment for a while. They have been preparing for Mickey Mouse to enter the public domain so they can do whatever they choose with the beloved symbol of the Walt Disney Company without fear of repercussions. And that was probably the draw of all this: the ability to take a classic American icon ...