For decades, AA Milne’s beloved creation Winnie-the-Pooh was no more than a portly and pleasant bear with an addiction to honey.
Then, in 2022, the copyright restrictions that had protected this gentle image were lifted, and a new Pooh made his debut: a murderous cannibal who eats his friend Eeyore.
As copyright protection is lifted from the childhood staples Popeye and Tintin, cinema audiences face more horror. The classic characters made their first American appearances in 1929 and have entered the public domain, meaning they can be used and repurposed without permission, just like Pooh.
Popeye the Sailor, with his bulging biceps, was created by EC Segar and made his first appearance in the newspaper strip Thimble Theatre. Film-makers have wasted no time in pouncing on the fist-fighting seaman and horror adaptations have already been announced.
Popeye the Slayer Man is set in an abandoned spinach cannery while Shiver Me Timbers “transforms Popeye into an unstoppable killing machine”.
Advertisement
Directors might have a harder time turning the intrepid hero reporter Tintin into a villain. The Belgian artist Hergé’s creation was one of the most popular cartoons in Europe for much of the 20th century.
The horror parody film Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey grossed $7.7 million worldwide and a sequel was released last year.
A slasher movie also released last year, The Mouse Trap, featured a manic killer wearing a mask inspired by Mickey Mouse in the film Steamboat Willie, after the earliest iteration of the Disney character lost its copyright.
Copyright protections elsewhere in the world will remain, depending on local laws. In the UK copyright exists for 70 years after a creator’s death — Hergé died in 1983.
“As with Pooh and Mickey, it is the original versions of Popeye and Tintin that are public domain,” said Jennifer Jenkins, the director of Duke Law School’s Centre for the Study of the Public Domain in North Carolina.
Advertisement
“While Popeye 1.0 had superhuman capabilities, he did not derive them from eating spinach until 1931,” she said. “However, it appears that the copyright in this 1931 comic strip was not renewed — if this is true, Popeye’s spinach-fuelled strength is already in the public domain.”
According to Jenkins, Popeye’s damsel-in-distress love interest Olive Oyl dates from 1919, so is already in the public domain. Her boyfriend before Popeye was named Ham Gravy.
Other notable works now in the US public domain include classic novels from William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck.
The first sound film made by John Ford, the director of classic westerns, has also lost its copyright protection. The Black Watch, an adventure epic from 1929, featured a young John Wayne as an extra.
