New Mickey Mouse Inspired Horror ‘Screamboat’: Everything We Know

Mickey Mouse’s first official appearance, depicted in a 1928 black-and-white short titled Steamboat Willie, entered public domain in 2024. According to copyright law, this means that once the copyright on a project has expired, anyone is allowed access to freely use, copy, and distribute the work without needing permission from the original creator, which in this case belonged to the animated media powerhouse Disney. The short was created by Walt Disney himself and depicts the iconic figure as a steamboat captain. The 8-minute project also depicts early versions of Minnie Mouse and Pete the Cat. Steamboat Willie is regarded as notable for several reasons, including Mickey’s introduction to the world, as well as being a notable feat in the realm of synchronized sound. Now, Steamboat Willie is the next victim in a long line of parodied, children’s animated intellectual properties released in the 2020s amongst the likes of Winnie the Pooh’s Blood and Honey and The Grinch in The Mean One.

Til this point, a few images and teasers regarding the titular character in the upcoming Screamboat had been revealed, with the project officially announced merely the day after the source material hit public domain, coming from The Mean One‘s director Steven LaMorte.  The film, featuring the Terrifier franchise’s Art the Clown actor David Howard Thornton as a slasher-style Mickey Mouse, hits theaters on April 2, 2025.  The film is set on a New York City ferryboat, where Steamboat Willie hacks his way through victims in a bloody rampage. The victims in the trailer portrayed as less-than-subtle parodies of iconic Disney princesses whose “dream voyage turns into a nightmare.”

The film’s premise accompanied by the trailer, which is styled after a classic Disney-inspired VHS advertisement is as follows:

Be our guest on a New York City ferry ride that turns into a hilarious nightmare when a mischievous mouse named Steamboat Willie becomes a monstrous reality. Can the unsuspecting passengers survive the creature’s miniature murder & mayhem?

Watch the latest trailer below.