Mickey Mouse: Homicidal Playtime

Mickey Mouse: Homicidal Playtime is a 2023 British-American independent slasher film written, directed and produced by Jack Peter Mundy. It serves as a horror reimagining of Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoons and stars Piers Morgan as the titular character, David Howard Thornton as Donald Duck and Craig David Dowsett as Goofy, with Logan Paul, Jamie Demetriou, Amber Doig-Thorne, Natasha Rose Mills, Nikolai Leon, and Elizabeth Olsen in supporting roles. It follows Mickey, Donald and Goofy who have become feral and bloodthirsty murderers as they terrorize a group of hikers and Ethan Moonchild when he returns to Playtime Rollercoaster many years after leaving for college.

The film was first announced on May 24, 2022, when it drew widespread attention due to its premise involving a character that was a beloved childhood icon, and it was met with divided reactions. There was even controversy surrounding the film among both the general public and the Mickey Mouse fan community, with Mundy claiming that he and the other members on the film's production received death threats and petitions for the film to be cancelled. It was produced by YouTube Premium and Jagged Edge Productions in association with ITN Studios, Legendary Digital Media, 21 Laps Entertainment and ChampDog Films and went into development after Steamboat Willie, the 1928 American animated short film which marked the first appearances of both Mickey and Minnie Mouse, entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2022. The film was shot on a $100,000 budget in ten days in the coastal village, civil parish and seaside resort of Ingoldmells, Lincolnshire.

The film was originally released exclusively onto YouTube on January 12, 2023, before garnering a major worldwide theatrical release due to the popularity of the feature. Mickey Mouse: Homicidal Playtime made its theatrical premiere in Mexico on January 26, 2023, 14 days after it was originally released exclusively to YouTube, before being theatrically released in the United States on February 15, 2023 and in the United Kingdom on March 10, 2023. The film received generally mixed reviews and grossed $5.2 million against its small budget during its theatrical run. A sequel, tentatively titled Mickey Mouse: The Mouse Bites Back, and a shared universe are currently in development.