💬 Quoted… "We just wanted to have fun with it all. I mean it's 'Steamboat Willie''s Mickey Mouse murdering people. It's ridiculous. We ran with it and had fun doing it and I think it shows."

• The copyright on Disney's 1928 short film Steamboat Willie expired in the US on New Year's Day. This means the film and its characters are now in the public domain and free for anyone to use or build upon – so naturally, Disney’s beloved Mickey Mouse is getting the horror movie treatment. Not just one but two Mickey Mouse horror films – one set in an arcade and the other set on a boat in NYC – were announced hours after the copyright expired. The arcade-focused film is slated to debut in March.

🚗📈 Stat of the Day: What do General Motors and Taylor Swift have in common? They both had a great 2023. GM’s sales in the US increased 14% last year to reach 2.6 million vehicles, representing the company’s best year since 2019. Another interesting data point: sales at GM’s Buick brand increased 61% year over year.

🤔 Did You Know?... According to a 2018 study performed by Jeffrey Hall, a professor of communication studies at the University of Kansas, it takes between 40-60 hours of hanging out for an acquaintance to become a casual friend, then an additional 140-160 hours together to move from casual friends to close friends. However, how that time is spent matters – deep conversations, sharing feelings, and being a good listener can reduce the 200 hours to become close friends to as little as 45 minutes (!).

📰 Worth a Read: We used AI and satellite imagery to map ocean activities that take place out of sight → (The Conversation)