With every new year comes new works that are set to go into the public domain. For 2025, the most notable include Disney titles such as Silly Symphony short The Skeleton Dance and Mickey Mouse shorts such as “Karnival Kid,” the first to feature his voice. Either of those already sound like a horror film—but please, no more tacky horror cash grabs. At least give us an arthouse indie Skeleton Dance.
Also being freed into the public domain are Popeye and Tintin’s early cartoons. Which hopefully means that since they can be adapted and shared maybe we’ll see Genndy Tartakovsky make his move on Popeye through this potential loophole. (There are, of course, already multiple Popeye slashers on the way.) Interestingly in the realm of horror related music, “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” will also be public domain, which could be useful as an Insidious spin-off idea.
Check out the full list below of the works which are now open to be performed, screened, and used in various ways without permission as shared by Duke Law.
Books and plays
- William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
- Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
- Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
- Dashiell Hammett, Red Harvest and The Maltese Falcon (as serialized in Black Mask magazine)[4]
- John Steinbeck, Cup of Gold (Steinbeck’s first novel)
- Richard Hughes, A High Wind in Jamaica
- Oliver La Farge, Laughing Boy: A Navajo Love Story
- Patrick Hamilton, Rope
- Arthur Wesley Wheen, the first English translation of All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
- Agatha Christie, Seven Dials Mystery
- Robert Graves, Good-bye to All That
- E. B. White and James Thurber, Is Sex Necessary? Or, Why You Feel the Way You Do
- Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet (only the original German version, Briefe an einen jungen Dichter)
- Walter Lippmann, A Preface to Morals
- Ellery Queen (Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee), The Roman Hat Mystery
Characters
- E. C. Segar, Popeye (in “Gobs of Work” from the Thimble Theatre comic strip)
- Hergé (Georges Remi), Tintin (in “Les Aventures de Tintin” from the magazine Le Petit Vingtième)
Movies
- A dozen more Mickey Mouse animations (including Mickey’s first talking appearance in The Karnival Kid)
- The Cocoanuts, directed by Robert Florey and Joseph Santley (the first Marx Brothers feature film)
- The Broadway Melody, directed by Harry Beaumont (winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture)
- The Hollywood Revue of 1929, directed by Charles Reisner (featuring the song “Singin’ in the Rain”)
- The Skeleton Dance, directed by Walt Disney and animated by Ub Iwerks (the first Silly Symphony short from Disney)
- Blackmail, directed by Alfred Hitchcock (Hitchcock’s first sound film)
- Hallelujah, directed by King Vidor (one of the first film from a major studio with an all African-American cast)
- The Wild Party, directed by Dorothy Arzner (Clara Bow’s first “talkie”)
- Welcome Danger, directed by Clyde Bruckman and Malcolm St. Clair (the first full-sound comedy starring Harold Lloyd)
- On With the Show, directed by Alan Crosland (the first all-talking, all-color, feature-length film)
- Pandora’s Box (Die Büchse der Pandora), directed by G.W. Pabst
- Show Boat, directed by Harry A. Pollard (adaptation of the novel and musical)
- The Black Watch, directed by John Ford (Ford’s first sound film)
- Spite Marriage, directed by Edward Sedgwick and Buster Keaton (Keaton’s final silent feature)
- Say It with Songs, directed by Lloyd Bacon (follow-up to The Jazz Singer and The Singing Fool)
- Dynamite, directed by Cecil B. DeMille (DeMille’s first sound film)
- Gold Diggers of Broadway, directed Roy Del Ruth
Musical Compositions
- Singin’ in the Rain, lyrics by Arthur Freed, music by Nacio Herb Brown
- Ain’t Misbehavin’, lyrics by Andy Paul Razaf, music by Thomas W. (“Fats”) Waller & Harry Brooks (from the musical Hot Chocolates)
- An American in Paris, George Gershwin
- Boléro, Maurice Ravel
- (What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue, lyrics by Andy Paul Razaf, music by Thomas W. “Fats” Waller & Harry Brooks (a song about racial injustice from the musical Hot Chocolates)
- Tiptoe Through the Tulips, lyrics by Alfred Dubin, music by Joseph Burke
- Happy Days Are Here Again, lyrics by Jack Yellen, music by Milton Ager (the theme song for Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1932 presidential campaign)
- What Is This Thing Called Love?, by Cole Porter (from Porter’s musical Wake Up and Dream)
- Am I Blue?, lyrics by Grant Clarke, music by Harry Akst
- You Were Meant for Me, lyrics by Arthur Freed, music by Nacio Herb Brown
- Honey, lyrics and music by Seymour Simons, Haven Gillespie, and Richard A. Whiting
- Waiting for a Train, lyrics and music by Jimmie Rodgers
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.