35 Movies That Made Public Domain Characters Cool Again
US copyright law is a beast. Not long ago, there was a time when any creative work fell into thepublic domain – which meant that the original rights to the work expired, which allowed anyone to use the characters and ideas in it – after 42 years. Then, in the 1970s, the Walt Disney Company realized that it was losing control of some of its main sources of income (such as Mickey Mouse) and lobbied Congress to change the law . These days, copyrights can be extended more or less indefinitely if you have the right lawyers on your side.
It’s a real shame because truly great things have happened to the classic characters once freed from the control of their original creators, allowing a new generation of writers, directors, and other creative people to riff, subvert, and generally fuck in all sorts of ways. around cult stories. This is followed by 35 films (okay, and a few TV shows) that Lifehacker employees love for how they play with characters from the public domain. (Let us know your favorite interpretations or our mistakes in the comments.)