Fans of the Walt Disney Animation film Tangled (2011) will know that it tells the age-old Germain fairy tale of Rapunzel, the girl with the long golden hair.
In Disney’s adaptation of the Rapunzel fairy tale (starring Mandy Moore as the long-haired princess herself), the princess’s magnificent long hair actually has magical healing powers, which keep Mother Gothel young and beautiful as long as she sings the ‘Healing Incantation.’
Rapunzel’s adorable and as sweet as can be, if a little naive from living in a tower away from the outside world for her entire life. In short, she’s a great princess, and many fans love to meet her and her dashing prince, Flynn Rider, when they visit Walt Disney World.
When meeting any Disney Princess, the actresses portraying them do their best to emulate the beloved character. This usually means making references to their films. When it comes to meeting Ariel, she may ask about your gadgets and gizmos or reference a dinglehopper.
When it comes to meeting Jasmine, she may talk about going for an enchanted carpet ride with Aladdin.
When it comes to Rapunzel, she may ask what your dream is, as it was a big part of the film. However, one Guest beat Rapunzel to the question and even made the actors break character when she said this:
The worst part of visiting Walt Disney World is having to leave the Disney bubble and return to reality at the end of your trip. Even though most Disney trips are action-packed and exhausting, it is still so hard to leave the theme Park and go back to normal life. Some Disney Guests love the Parks so much that they even move to Anaheim or Central Florida so they can be close to Disney at all times. Still, there is nothing that compares to an on-property Disney vacation. This brings up an interesting question, if money was no object, how long could you really vacation at Walt Disney World Resort? For one woman, her Disney vacation lasted over twenty years.
Vacationing at Walt Disney World Resort is not cheap. Park tickets, food, merchandise, and accommodations all cost a lot of Disney property. Walt Disney World Resort has lots of different hotels to choose from when planning a trip. There are three tiers of Disney Resort Hotel at Walt Disney World; Value, Moderate, and Deluxe. Even at the Value Disney Resort, the rooms are not cheap and will run you hundreds of dollars a night.
If you were trying to stay at Walt Disney World Resort for an extended amount of time, you might be interested in staying at the cheapest accommodation on the property, Fort Wilderness. Here, you can rent a tent campsite for $76-$105 or an RV site for around $150-$250. While these prices are still expensive, some Disney fans do pay the premium to stay on property for an extended amount of time.
Technically, the longest you can book a room or campsite for is 30 continuous days. However, one woman has continued to extend her camping “vacation” and lived at Walt Disney World Resort full-time. A Reddit user shared the story of this woman.
According to the commenter, the woman has lived at the Fort Wilderness Campground on Disney World Property for nearly 20 years. She even went as far as to try and sue the Walt Disney Company when they wanted to kick her out during the Covid pandemic. Another commenter followed up this wild story with an update that the woman has been evicted from Fort Wilderness Resort and is also no longer a Disney travel agent.
Not long ago, we reported that Mickey Mouse was entering the public domain, meaning Disney could potentially lose the rights to the iconic character. How could that happen? Isn’t Mickey the intellectual property of The Walt Disney Company? Yes, however, once a copyrighted work is 94 years old, it loses its copyright and becomes accessible for public use (this is called ‘public domain’). This is great from an art history standpoint– it’s much easier to teach about a piece’s history when you don’t have to navigate trademarks and copyright. It’s terrible from a creator standpoint: anyone can use your work. Could the use of Mickey’s image really become a free for all? Yes…and no…but also yes…but mostly no.
Only Steamboat Willie will enter the public domain. The mouse we know and love is safe, potentially forever. That’s an important distinction because only that particular version (which is vastly different than other versions) will enter public domain. Even then, Steamboat Willie could be safe from general use.
A lawyer recently spoke to Newsweek and explained why so settle in, grab a snack, and listen to how Disney gets to essentially bypass copyright laws to keep our beloved mouse safe!
“Mickey Mouse as we know him, in color with gloves and shoes, will not enter the public domain,” lawyer Marc Jonas Block told Newsweek. “Later, including current designs of Mickey Mouse, will still be copyrighted until their terms end. Also, Disney protects Mickey Mouse under both copyright and trademark laws.”
Protecting Mickey under trademark laws means that as long as Disney uses him as their company logo, modern interpretations of the big cheese will not enter public domain.
Furthermore, despite Steamboat Willie entering public domain, the trademark on Mickey potentially prevents people from using even his early likeness. Daniel Mayeda from the UCLA School of Law explains, “You can use the Mickey Mouse character as it was originally created to create your own Mickey Mouse stories or stories with this character. But if you do so in a way that people will think of Disney—which is kind of likely because they have been investing in this character for so long—then in theory, Disney could say, “You violated my trademark,” and win.”
This is evident with the numerous lawsuits Disney has won against Etsy creators and the like. Many try to circumvent copyright rules by giving clever names or altering images ever so slightly, thinking that makes them safe, but it doesn’t. If the created work brings to mind the original creator’s intellectual property (and isn’t a parody which has special protections), then public domain or not, the intellectual property is protected.
So there you have it. It’s clear as mud, right? The long and short of the story is that Mickey is safe and not going anywhere. It’s hard to imagine a day when Disney no longer uses Mickey as their logo. Mickey will be safe for many, many years to come. After all, Walt said it best: “I hope we never lose sight of one thing: that it was all started by a mouse.”
Three new Star Wars films have been announced at Star Wars Celebration Europe.
James Mangold will direct a pre-Old Republic film about the origins of the Force.
Rey (Daisy Ridley) in STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER.
Dave Filoni will direct a film taking place between “The Mandalorian” and “The Force Awakens.”
And Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy will direct a sequel, which will take place 15 years after “The Rise of Skywalker.” This was announced as a new film but Obaid-Chinoy was already slated to work on a Star Wars film, so it’s unclear if these are two different projects.
Daisy Ridley is set to reprise her role as Rey from the sequel trilogy as she leads a “new Jedi order.”
