Fact check: False claim Mickey Mouse to be replaced as Disney mascot
The claim: Mickey Mouse will be replaced as the official Disney mascot
A Feb. 18 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows a statue of Walt Disney standing alongside a cartoonish dragon.
"Mickey Mouse to be replaced as official Disney mascot," reads text in the image.
The post was liked more than 200,000 times in three days.
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Our rating: False
There is no evidence Disney plans to replace Mickey Mouse with a different mascot. The claim originated from a satirical website.
Claim started on satirical website
The caption of the post cites the Instagram account of a website called "Mouse Trap News," which describes itself as "the world's best satire site" and says "you can be assured that anything you read here is not true, real, or accurate, but it is fun."
The website published an article Feb. 10 with the headline, "BREAKING: Mickey Mouse Out as Official Disney Mascot." The caption of the post is an excerpt from the satirical article.
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"The decision to remove Mickey Mouse as Disney's official mascot was motivated primarily by legal concerns," reads the post's caption. "Mickey Mouse's copyright protection is set to expire in January 2024. This means that Mickey Mouse will be in the public domain and anyone will be able to use him."
The copyright that covers the version of Mickey Mouse that appeared in "Steamboat Willie," the 1928 short film that introduced the character, expires at the end of next year, according to The New York Times.
Later versions of the character will still have copyright protection, including the more commonly seen design with red shorts and white gloves.
The claim is an example of "stolen satire," in which made-up claims published and labeled as satire are reposted in a way that makes them appear to be legitimate news. As a result, readers of the second-generation post are misled, as was the case here.
Paste BN reached out to Disney and the social media user who shared the post for comment.
PolitiFact and Lead Stories also debunked the claim.
Our fact-check sources:
- Mouse Trap News, accessed Feb. 22, About
- IMDB, accessed Feb. 22, Steamboat Willie
- The New York Times, Dec. 27, 2022, Mickey’s Copyright Adventure: Early Disney Creation Will Soon Be Public Property
- PolitiFact, Feb. 20, M-I-C you later? No. Mickey Mouse will stay as Disney mascot.
- Lead Stories, Feb. 21, Fact Check: Figment The Dragon Is NOT Slated To Replace Mickey Mouse As Disney Mascot In 2024
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