Dem Bones, Dem Public Domain bones

 Not gonna lie: 2025 has not exactly gotten off to a stellar start.

There has been violence. There has been dangerous political rhetoric. There has been the Dallas Cowboys finding a way to lose a game that I stopped watching at the two-minute warning because we had the win in our back pocket (not to mention beaning one of our own cheerleaders in the head with an errant kicked ball).

There is apparently a winter storm a-brewing here in the Lone Star State that may cover us in a ridiculous-for-Texas 5+ inches of snow later this week. You guys may remember how much I love winter weather.

My point is, we're six days into the new year, and it's already kind of a crapshow.

But there is one delightful bright spot amid all this nonsense. You may not have heard about it unless you lurk in the same weird corners of the Internet that I do. And it does make me happy in the face of everything that is trying to make me sad.

As of January 1, 2025, the Disney cartoon "The Skeleton Dance" has entered the public domain.

It's all ours, you guys. It belongs to us.

In all the animated short films I've seen in my GenX fever-dream life of media consumption, there are few that bring me such unbridled joy as "The Skeleton Dance." It's skeletons dancing in a graveyard. Twirling in unison. Playing each other's bones like xylophones. And that's pretty much it, for five and a half wonderful minutes. 

Created by Ub Iwerks, who helped Walt Disney turn an unappealing character named Oswald into the trillion-dollar juggernaut that is Mickey Mouse and got almost nothing in return, "The Skeleton Dance" was released in August 1929, just before the world slid into the Great Depression. If I'd been around back then, the sight of four chummy skeletons with great rhythm probably would have kept me from jumping out a window when my entire stock portfolio suddenly became worthless. I assume.

Prior to January 1, it wasn't exactly difficult to find videos of "The Skeleton Dance" on the Web. Disney didn't seem to care about protecting the boney boys with anything like the vigor they apply to persecuting folks who try to post unauthorized footage of the Mouse, or the Angry Duck, or the Creepy Mermaid. But the skeletons are now fully released from the bounds of copyright. And that makes me happy.

In the interest of full disclosure, the landmark Mickey Mouse cartoon "Steamboat Willie" actually entered the public domain last year on January 1. To which I say, who cares? To me, dancing skeletons beat a mouse wearing gloves any old day. 

Bones make me happy. Congratulations on your emancipation, "Skeleton Dance."