Note: even though this is being published on December 31, 2024, I’m going to write in the present tense for 2025, as that’s when most people who search for it will be reading it. Make sense?
Nothing is going to top last year’s gift of Mickey Mouse for quite some time, but there are other cartoon characters entering the public domain in 2025 that come close. Popeye The Sailor Man is now a free sailor, thanks to his first appearance in E.C. Segar’s Thimble Theater comic strip in 1929. Unlike Mickey, more of him can be used from the word GO than you’d think: Olive Oyl predates Popeye by ten years and is already public domain, and though Popeye didn’t chow on spinach for another two years, the copyright for the strip where he first did so was not renewed.
Surprisingly, the French adventurer Tintin is now free for public use as well! Didn’t think he was that old, did you? We didn’t realize it either. He first appeared in the magazine Le Petit Vingtième in 1929 along with Snowy. Speaking as a comic book maker, the ability to make your own Tintin comics is kind of huge. He can finally team up with Popeye!
Getting back to Mickey, the PD version will gradually become more recognizable as the years pass. When he first appeared he didn’t have his white gloves yet. Twelve additional Mickey cartoons are now PD and he’s wearing the gloves in them. He also speaks for the first time (“Hot dogs! Hot dogs!”) meaning he doesn’t have to be silent anymore. Here’s a full list of PD Mickey cartoons as of 2025:
Disney and Iwerks did more than just Mickey in 1929. Their studio created another landmark in animation with The Skeleton Dance, the first Silly Symphonies cartoon. This embed is from Disney’s own YouTube channel, but you can put it on as many other channels as you want in 2025 — they’re powerless to stop you.
Non-cartoon works entering the public domain this year include books by Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner and Agatha Christie, the songs Tiptoe Through The Tulips and Singin’ In The Rain (not the movie, just the song), and Cocoanuts, the first Marx Brothers movie.
The post Here’s What Cartoons Become Public Domain In 2025 appeared first on Anime Superhero News.
