Hey, I was wondering if I could take Disney characters to create a new story because I don’t now if that would be against rules or something.
I have an idea in mind, where Disney characters would go to the same Academy and I was thinking about making my story related to feminism, so I thought that maybe using Disney princesses I could make a better impact. Before thinking about the story any further, I just wanted to check first if there’s nothing wrong with that.
Thanks ahead!
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I don’t think you’re allowed to use Disney characters as they’re trademarked for Disney. So, I don’t think you can use them as it would be against the Episode guidelines. 
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Yeah, like @WinterMoon05 said, you probably wouldn’t be able to use them for copyright reasons. Although, maybe you could make characters similar, but not completely the same. Like base the characters off of the Disney ones, but change them so they are different to the original and are very different people? Sounds like a really cool story, though 
I have to agree with the other responses. Perhaps, as @random_life stated, by changing the characters themselves a bit, but basing them off the Disney Princesses you would likely be enabled. Keep in mind! The princesses were not always property of Disney. You may be enabled to use those mentioned in The Grimm Brothers Fairytales, and old folklore. Anyways… good luck with your story!
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Yeah, I was thinking about changing them actually. I’d be basically taking the names, and creating a completely new story, but I have seen some stories that are actual copies from movies, so I don’t why it should be a problem…
I’d have to go with the basis of that being perhaps overlooked, or even maybe a few differing events? And yes, the creation of a complete different story, I must say I believe it would be enabled… so long as you make it clear that you aren’t copying Disney. Again, the fairytales aren’t originally sourced from Disney itself, they stem from other stories from different cultures. Such as before Cinderella was an animatic, The Grimm Brothers wrote a well… rather grim tale about it in their literature.
Overall, it just depends on how you go about it. From what I’ve gained so far, it’ll be an interesting story. Good luck!
This may help. A LOT of the original fairy tales are actually in the GRIMM Fairy Tales collection. Disney does not own the Grimm Fairy Tales. They were written before Walt Disney was even born. What Disney owns is their own artwork and re-imagining of the tales which are rather bowdlerized by Disney. The GRIMM tales are much darker. (A great read by the way if you want to know the origin of what you know as Disney stories).
That being said, you should only get in trouble if you use their artwork or likeness produced by Disney (which Episode will not approve regardless). Using their names should not be an issue if you make it your own story.
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I made a story with almost this exact plot, and it got reported, then taken off 
Thank you so much! Then I’ll try. All I want is to use their names and, for instance, Belle’s look would be like this.
But again, the story will have nothing to do with the one from the beauty and the beast. She will only be smart, and maybe I will try to show how sometimes men are intimidated by smart women, does it makes sense?
I’m actually so exited about my story, I wouldn’t want to make it and then thrown away. 
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The original stories were not written by Disney. They are Classic fairy tails. You’ll be fine
Read this:
It says:
In addition, by submitting your story, you agree that it does not include any content that infringes on the intellectual property rights or rights of publicity or privacy of any third party. This may include using any of the following without permission:
any copyrights or works of authorship of other parties, including excerpts or passages taken from literary works or television or film;
any trademarks or references to corporate or business names; and
any references to real persons or places that might violate rights of publicity or privacy.
Hope this helps out and good luck with everything!
Mulan, Cinderella, Possibly Snow white.
@fmr.episode try Mulan, Cinderella, Snow White, if you wanna get copyrighted.
I don’t think they allow disney.
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What?!
But Disney characters aren’t original. All the stories were written by authors and then Disney made their own versions. @fmr.episode I hope you made the story because you won’t get copyrighted at all. Disney doesn’t own the rights to the stories.
That would be a violation of copyright, unfortunately.
You see, you’d be allowed to use Disney characters in some sort of non-profit fanfiction because you wouldn’t be earning any money from it.
However, Episode makes money from every single ad we watch, so even though you wouldn’t be making any money from using Disney characters, Episode would be whenever someone watches an ad to read your story. It is against the law to earn money off someone else’s idea, which is what Episode would be doing if you wrote a story like that.
And Disney really do have the power to sue… I do believe that Episode has it written in our terms and conditions that we have to pay for anything if they get sued for our stories. Eep!
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They do own the particular depictions of the characters, though! If it’s a classic story like Snow White, all you have to do is make your own spin on it for Disney to not be able to say anything.
However, any story written after the 19th Century (like Alice in Wonderland), they either own outright or they have a licensing agreement with the owners – which means they would have asked for permission and paid for the permission to use the character. If they have licensing agreements, then you can get sued by the owner of the character.
And then, of course, there are the original Disney characters like Lilo and Stitch, Mickey Mouse, etc. Disney changed copyright law to make sure no one could use their iconic mouse. And also the names of specific old classic princesses. Check if Disney came up with the name of the character (like they did with Tiana for The Princess and the Frog and all the characters in Frozen), which would also be their property.
If you’re doing a Snow White adaptation, for example, don’t use their songs, don’t dress her the same and don’t call the dwarves the same names. If you’re in doubt, please feel free to ask!
I wouldn’t mess with Disney, personally!
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Mmm… to be honest the story would have nothing to do with Disney. I mean, I only thought it will be cool to take the main features of some Disney princesses to make a feminist statement. Like, Belle from the Beauty and the Beast, being bullied for being too nerdy for being a girl, or Mulan for being too “man-like” and stuff like that. I can still write the story for any girl, tbh, but I don’t know, if you think I’ll get in trouble I’ll just change the names then.
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You won’t get in trouble cause that’s what their names are in the original Fairy tales. You’ll be fine, Like I have said before.
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I don’t know if all of their names are the same in the originals. Tiana’s name is certainly not Tiana in the original. There are multiple princesses who were given names for the Disney adaptations that are now owned by Disney… this is a company which was almost successful in copyrighting The Day of the Dead, after all. They change copyright law to suit them. It’s difficult to know what’s copyright infringement and what isn’t with them.
If you want to be safe, adapt the original source material (the original stories), not the Disney adaptations. Making adaptations of adaptations is messy work, anyway.
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