#alice comedies

[toonycryptid]

Alice and Julius.

On twitter someone had an idea of Shadow and Maria from Sonic as Alice(Disney's Alice in Wonderland) and Mickey Mouse but I have a better idea and instead use the characters from Alice Comedies since It made more sense to me. Now I'm crying.

[mousetrappedcomic]

Mousetrapped #10: A Dinner Guess

Oh look! A few original characters.

Let's see how long they last.

[enlightenedrobot]

Other Characters you can legally use for your Mickey Mouse project

Mickey Mouse is in the public domain, as is Minnie Mouse and Peg-leg Pete. There's some caveats to that, and I talk about that more in this other post, but for now, let's talk about other characters who you can also use to fill out the cast.

These characters should all be in the public domain, though some characters still have treademarks. I'll get into how to use them safely as we go. Anyways, let's start.

Other Disney Characters

Disney obvciously doesn't advertise this, but there's actually quite a few Disney originals who've actually been in the public domain for a while.

The Mad Doctor never had it's copyright renewed, and so it's very technically the first Mickey Mouse cartoon to enter the public domain. Keep in mind, the version of Pluto featured in the short isn't in the domain just yet, but the Doctor himself is free to use.

What's funny is that Disney would later use a version of Doctor for Epic Mickey. Obviously don't use that version of the character.

Aside from the Mad Doctor, we also have Oswald and Ortensia

Yeah, as it turns out, Oswald's been in the public domain for quite a while, but he's still trademarked by Disney. Easy recommendation... use the original "fat" design of the character and have him go by Lucky.

But before Oswald, we have the Alice Comedies

Everything about the Alice Comedies is Public Domain for a long time, and the Disney corporation very rarely acknowlege these characters existence. Which is a shame because These shorts were some of the first shorts Walt ever produced, and they have the unique gimmick of featuring a live action girl in an animated world.

Everybody already knows about Oswald, but nobody talks about Oswald and Mickey's older brother from these shorts, Julius the Cat

Like... yeah no, it didn't all start with a mouse. Or a rabbit. It started with a cat.

Foxy and Milton Mouse

Both Foxy (top) and Milton (bottom, pictured with his girlfriend Rita Mouse) were characters created by Warner Brothers and Van Beuren respectively to cash in on Mickey's success, and both characters are also in the public domain.

In fact, all Van Beuren cartoons are apparently in the public domain, and I encourage you to find their cartoons and use them as you please.

Fleischer Characters

Betty Boop is probably in the Public Domain, but there's a few caveats with this. From what I can tell, the name Betty Boop is trademarked, but the character herself isn't. Most of the old Betty Cartoons are free to use, but newer incarnations, including the versions used in 1985's The Romance of Betty Boop and 1989's The Betty Boop Movie Mystery are still very much under copyright.

To avoid any legal trouble, I have two big recommendations. Although everybody remembers Betty as having Black hair, in one of the few early instances of Betty being shown in color, she's actually depicted as Redhead.

This is Betty Boop in 1934's Poor Cinderella, and her hair color is pretty clearly red.

The other option is to just make her black.

Though there's been some debate as to whether Betty Boop was intentionally modeled after Esther Lee Jones or not, there's still no denying the influence of Jazz on the character. Betty Boop is a Jazz singer and is often depicted dancing to Cab Calloway. Hell, the Betty Boop musical features Jasmine Amy Rogers as the titular character.

Betty Boop aside, there's an entire world of defunct Betty Boop characters who are definately public domain, including Bimbo and Koko the Clown.

Next year, Popeye's also gonna enter the Domain. So keep an eye out for him too.

Anyways, these are my picks, but obviously this list isn't meant to be comprehensive. There's a ton of old cartoon characters out there who can be freely reinterpreted into newer works. Feel free to add your own favorite public domain cartoon to the list.

[mistergaspertoons]

The Disney brothers

[a-little-birdy-told-me]

So many kitty cats!

[san-merlinart-63]

[misscloudiedays]

Your steamboat Willie and conductor Oswald with their brother Julius. (If he is in this version! I love to see all three of them!)

All three, in one place!

[mickedy]

teaser for an epic mickey au prequel thing, Vantablank. was once a comic called synthetic, if you remember that then this is a reboot of that. tl, dr, your life is a lie mickey

next

[deerbeard]

They look a big silly because it’s the first time I’m drawing them 😭 THEY ARE SO SILLY THOUGHT

🤑

[gaillol-13]

Im genuinely baffled that the Alice Comedies were forgotten, considering how its literally who framed roger rabbit before who framed roger rabbit.

Also WHO GAVE ALICE A GUN

[disney-mystical-au]

(Reupload) Julius in the Mystical AU 💚

[toonycryptid]

Oohh now I remember I was gonna make an another animation meme of Julius but I scrapped it.

[mousetrappedcomic]

Mousetrapped #20: Tomorrow

I'm not dead, i just feel like it. And I regret changing the art style for this strip cuz it slowed me down awfully.

[michellemouse]

redesign of these 3 felines cuz my ovaries forced me 💔💔💔

I think I prefer this character who looks more like Julius than Julius with the same anatomy as Mickey Mouse lmao

[nya-hotcat]

idk looks like a manga

[a-little-birdy-told-me]

A nudest, a prude, and an enabler.