LOS ANGELES, Sept 24 — Until September 22nd’s landmark ruling from a Californian District Court, film and television studios preferred not to use “Happy Birthday to You” in order to avoid licensing costs.

To mark the occasion, we look at five films that ran against the grain and opted for the well-known birthday chorus — and one comedy show that went as close as possible without actually following through.

Batman Begins

30-year-old Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) enters to a polite, string-accompanied “Happy Birthday” sung by friends and acquaintances. That establishes his status as a well-esteemed member of high society, right up until the moment he’s confronted by Ra’s al Ghul (Liam Neeson) and has to throw out his guests and trash a carefully curated reputation. “Batman Begins” was, of course, a Warner Bros film, the studio having held the “Happy Birthday” license since 1988.

Office Space

Professional awkwardness at its comic, toe-curling best as an enterprise’s worth of disgruntled employees mumble “Happy Birthday” to their privileged, presumptuous Initechboss Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole). Number one outcast Milton (Stephen Root) doesn’t get the piece of cake he was promised, further contributing to the character’s unfortunate decline.

Full Metal Jacket

Unlike Initech’s VP Lumbergh, Gunnery Sergeant Hartman can actually command a rousing recitation of the traditional birthday song, performed on Christmas Day and personally addressed to Jesus, before reminding his troops of who it is that currently claims possession of their recently recruited behinds.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Director Stanley Kubrick knew how to make good use of “Happy Birthday to You”, having already used it a full ten years before “FMJ” in his sci-fi Arthur C. Clarke adaptation. Contrasting with the later war epic, here the song was used not to emphasize social bonds, however intentionally forged, but the isolation experienced by space station doctor Frank Poole.

Old School

Sean William Scott is in charge of a miniature pony at a kid’s birthday party thrown by Bernard Campbell (Vince Vaughn); Scott’s character drops an f-bomb and a tranquilizer gun in the pony’s pen and when Frank (Will Ferrell) accidentally shoots a dart into his own neck, a muddy, lethargic “Happy Birthday” becomes the soundtrack for a cake-crushing rampage.

Bonus: Futurama’s Birthday spoof

The Matt Groening comedy came as close as possible to using Happy Birthday without actually using it. Even though the tune for Futurama’s birthday enjoys certain similarities to that of “Happy Birthday to You” (or, more accurately, its forebear “Good Morning to You”), it’s never quite on point. That said, Futurama’s copyright bait ends with a playground corruption that makes its origins quite clear. — AFP/Relaxnews