In theory, you would be able to use Mickey/Minnie Mouse once they're PD, but each of the works they appear in will enter the PD one at a time, so if you use elements of the Mouse that appear in later cartoons that haven't become public yet, you're opening yourself up. We see this in action with modern retellings of classic fairytales - Snow White and the others are all public domain, but the Disney adaptations are not, so if you make one you have to be careful that none of it looks too similar to the Disney version, and major publishers basically don't touch those properties even though they theoretically could because if it turned into a huge court case it would all be up to the interpretation of some judge and that's a pretty expensive coin to flip.
The trademark/corporate identity thing is another layer of legal trouble on top of the sketchy interpretation of what is and is not public domain. The Mouses are pretty well established as mascots of Disney, and if you decided to use a public domain version of them you would have to be sure that your use can in no way be confused with an official Disney use of the character, but what the fuck that means in practice nobody has any idea. Mickey in particular has appeared in so many costumes and so many contexts over the years that I cannot fathom a way to present him that couldn't possibly be confused with an official use of the mascot.
In theory, you would be able to use Mickey/Minnie Mouse once they're PD, but each of the works they appear in will enter the PD one at a time, so if you use elements of the Mouse that appear in later cartoons that haven't become public yet, you're opening yourself up. We see this in action with modern retellings of classic fairytales - Snow White and the others are all public domain, but the Disney adaptations are not, so if you make one you have to be careful that none of it looks too similar to the Disney version, and major publishers basically don't touch those properties even though they theoretically could because if it turned into a huge court case it would all be up to the interpretation of some judge and that's a pretty expensive coin to flip.
The trademark/corporate identity thing is another layer of legal trouble on top of the sketchy interpretation of what is and is not public domain. The Mouses are pretty well established as mascots of Disney, and if you decided to use a public domain version of them you would have to be sure that your use can in no way be confused with an official Disney use of the character, but what the fuck that means in practice nobody has any idea. Mickey in particular has appeared in so many costumes and so many contexts over the years that I cannot fathom a way to present him that couldn't possibly be confused with an official use of the mascot.
Like how Felix the Cat is public domain, but only the old 1920s cartoons and not the 50’s chase cartoons or the 90’s edgy metatextual humor cartoons