The power dynamic is very asymmetrical. Disney is ABSOLUTELY free to negotiate with him to continue distributing the movie, running the ride, etc.

It has been 35 YEARS and Disney's failed to do anything else with the IP. The original creator wants to make a sequel, and now he's able to.

Also: you mentioned a scenario where you might make a video game and wanted to be able to distribute it in perpetuity. Unless you based the video game on some pre-existing creative work that someone else came up with (Roger Rabbit's Raucous Riot or something), you WILL retain the rights. Termination of copyright doesn't apply to works made for hire [0] (i.e., if you pay your employees to create the IP, it doesn't apply).

TLDR; fuck the mouse.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Act_of_1976#Terminat...

>Unless you based the video game on some pre-existing creative work that someone else came up with

Licensing assets like rocks, foliage, random textures or sounds is extremely common in the game industry, even among big games.