Nation of Animation Presents: Steamboat Willie, the iconic cartoon that launched Disney’s empire, has entered the public domain. He’s also been MURDERED! Ryan and Brooke, lifelong cartoon fans with unfulfilling day jobs, take it upon themselves to solve this unsolvable case of mouseslaughter – and their investigation will take them into a sordid, strange world of two-dimensional two-timing, cartoonish corruption, and monochrome mystery.They’ll encounter public domain figures with a potential axe to grind with Steamboat Willie, from Captain Pete to Tigger to the mythical Hercules himself. What happens to a character when they enter the public domain? What does it mean to be an intellectual property? And how could any of this be worth killing someone over? The answers may shake Ryan and Brooke’s faith in cartoons, authorship, and the public domain itself. The Murder of Steamboat Willie is a Nation of Animation production, and is not produced, endorsed, licensed, or approved by the Walt Disney Corporation. All established characters depicted therein are in the public domain. Written and Directed by Ryan Stevens and Brooke-Erin Smith. Produced by Danny Mendoza Ryan and “Mike” were played by Ryan Stevens Brooke was played by Brooke-Erin Smith Newscaster was played by Madison Hill Captain Pete was played by Makela Yepez Tigger was played by Freddie Powers Disney Lawyer was played Kelsea Woods Pinnocchio was played by John Floyd Peter Pan was played by Clare Rollinger Hercules was played by David Kepner Additional voices for the Disney adults were provided by Jordan “Old Bean” Smith-Bowers and Hayden Bowers Original music composed by Mitch McAndrew. You can find his work on bandcamp and Spotify as Dogcatcher. Original art by Urvashi Lele. Additional music and sounds include “Dances and Dames” by Kevin Macleod licensed under a Creative Commons attribution license and sourced from http://FreeMusicArchive.org. This show is a part of Atlanta Fringe Audio: Listen to other festival shows here: https://atlantafringe.org/fringe-audio/ If you like the show, don’t forget to rate, review, and subscribe. Follow our bluesky @nationofanimation and our Instagram and Twitter @cartoonbookclub, and follow our hosts @thebrookesmith and @ryanwithcheese on Twitter & brookeerinsmith.com ryangstevens.com & Support secret projects on Venmo @nationofanimation This podcast is a part of Audio Mint. If you want to follow us, check us out on Instagram(@audiomintchi) or on Facebook, at Audio Mint. If you wanna support us even more, check out our Patreon by searching Audio Mint on the app or the website!