After the iconic opening image of Mickey Mouse entered the public domain in the United States on the first day of 2024, other famous comic and cartoon characters will be free from copyright on January 1, 2025: the sailor Popeye and the adventurous reporter Tintin.
E.C. Segar’s first strip showing Popeye and Popeye’s original appearance “The Adventures of Tintin“, by Hergé, were published in 1929. These and several other works that include films, books and pieces of art will have their rights made public in early 2025.
In fact, on the first of next year thousands of copyrighted works dating back to 1929 will enter the public domain in the United States, along with sound recordings from 1924. They will be free for anyone to copy, share and build on.
With this, all books, films, music and art published in the 1920s will now be in the public domain, highlights the Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke University.
Literary highlights of 1929 include “The Sound and the Fury,” by William Faulkner“A Farewell to Arms”, by Ernest Hemingwayand “A Roof All Yours”, by Virginia Woolf.
At the cinema, new Mickey Mouse cartoons will be released, including a short film in which he utters his first words (“Hot-dog”, Hot-dog!”). In these films, the mouse appears for the first time with white gloves.
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The first feature film by the Marx Brothers and the sound film debut of legendary directors, such as Alfred Hitchcock and John Ford, will also be copyright-free.
Among the compositions that will become public domain are “An American in Paris” by George Gershwin, “Bolero” by Ravel, “Ain’t Misbehavin’” by Fats Waller, and the musical number “Singin’ in the Rain.” – not the film of the same name, with Gene Kelly’s famous scene in the rain.
The specialized website highlights that the works from 1929 were first set to enter the public domain after a period of 56 years, in 1985, but there was an extension of the deadline, which pushed this date to 2005. However, the US Congress extended the copyright term from 75 years to 95 years, throwing release to 2025.
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In the coming years, several other famous characters entered the public domain: Betty Boop e Pluto (2026), Potatoes (2028), Mary Poppins e Pato Donald (2030), Superman (2034), Batman em (2035), Tom and Jerry e Bugs Bunny (2036) e Wonder Woman (2037).
The site highlights that this release can be a source of creativity. Broadway’s Big Hit “Wicked”which became a film in 2024, is the result of a different vision of the universe of the books “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum.
See below some curiosities from the release
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Characters
The original Popeye, who appeared on January 17, 1929, in the story “Gobs of Work” from the Thimble Theater newspaper strip series, enters the public domain. He already had superhuman strength, but without the use of spinach, which only appeared in 1932. Olívia Palito has been in the public domain for longer, as it appeared in 1919, including with another boyfriend, called Ham Gravy. The first story about the reporter Tintin and his faithful dog Snowy appeared on January 10, 1929, starting a series in the magazine Le Petit Vingtième that later became the book “Tintin in the Country of the Soviets”.
The Buck Rogers character also first appeared in 1929 and would be in the public domain in 2025, but technically the futuristic space hero has already been free from copyright for decades because the copyright was not renewed and expired after 28 years.
Cinema
1929 is considered the year that marked a turning point in cinema, with sound films quickly replacing silent cinema. And the debut of giants in this new format is scheduled for 2025, such as “The Black Guard”, by John Ford, “Blackmail”, by Alfred Hitchcock, and “Dynamite”, by Cecil B. DeMille. The classic “Pandora’s Box”, by German GW Pabst, also loses copyright in the USA, as does the Marx Brothers’ film debut: “Hotel da Fuzarca” (“The Cocoanuts”).
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Mickey
A dozen animations, including his first appearance in “The Karnival Kid” are on this New Year’s list. In this series of animations, the mouse appears with the famous white gloves for the first time and he also has his first lines: “Hot dog, Hot Dog!”. Speaking of Disney, the first short in the Silly Symphony series, “The Dance of the Skeletons” is on the new list (this cartoon is available on Disney streaming.
Music
There are a number of songs by George Gershwin (“Rhapsody in Blue”), Ray Miller and Orchestra (“Mama’s Gone, Good Bye”) and Al Jolson (“California Here I Come”) about to be released, but the website specializing in public domain warns that only musical compositions – the music and lyrics that you can see in a sheet of music – are entering the public domain, not recordings of those songs, which are covered by separate copyrights with a different term of protection. Since in these cases the term of protection is 100 years, only the 1924 recordings made by these artists are entering the public domain, not their later recordings.
Books and plays
Productions that are considered masterpieces enter the list in 2025. Among the works from 1929, there are two acclaimed books about the First World War: “A Farewell to Arms”, by Ernest Hemingway, and the first translation into English of “Nada de Novo no Front”, by Erich Maria Remarque. By Virginia Woolf, the feminist classic “A Room of Your Own” will be released. “The Mystery of the Seven Clocks”, by Agatha Christie is also part of the relationship.
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Copyright on several works of art such as drawings, paintings and photographs will also expire in 2025. Featured are three works by Salvador Dalí from when he moved to Paris and became a fundamental part of the surrealist art movement: “Enlightened Pleasures”, “ The Accommodations of Desire” and “The Great Masturbator”.
