When Disney made the best ghost stories!

It’s that time of the year where ghouls and ghosts take over our streets. Since I had been on a Disney kick I was thinking fondly about the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. I had talked about the attraction in the past and compared it to the God of War series. Specifically how the attraction, and game had richly themed environments. With that in mind I was wondering about how it was presented in game form.

I discovered an old Disney game that had a dedicated Haunted Mansion stage. Mickey no Tokyo Disneyland Daibōken was a game published by Tomy for the Super Famicom (SFC) in 1994. The game featured Mickey and his friends at Tokyo Disneyland. Mickey was trying to get his friends together to practice for a concert. Each friend just so happened to be located in a different area of the park.

There were bad guy weasels trying to keep Mickey from his duties as he traveled around. Of course Mickey had to be able to fight against bad guys, but in a Disney game you couldn’t really be too violent. So Mickey was given two types of balloons that he could use on his adventure. The water balloon he could bounce off of, as well as throw at his enemies. Then there was a helium balloon that allowed him to float to higher platforms, of breeze over gaps. Parents wouldn’t be able to object to Mickey defending himself with balloons after all.

The big attraction at each land was the basis for each stage. It was neat seeing how things like Big Thunder Mountain, and the Pirates of the Caribbean were turned into platforming levels.

The fourth stage was set in the Haunted Mansion. That attraction was arguably the greatest dark ride ever created. It was layered with so much detail that it developed a cult following. Even I was not immune to its importance in theme park history. In fact I wrote about the Hatbox Ghost 10 years ago on this blog. You can read about the history of the Haunted Mansion on the Disney Family Museum page. The fact that the Japanese game was able to turn iconic scenes featured in the attraction into actual stages was mind blowing. The “stretching room” for example was amazing, it took advantage of the SFC’s fabled “Mode 7.”

The attraction did not have a definitive story, but was rather a collection of spooky vignettes. An official album tried to tie together the various scenes. However many things were added, or removed through its history. Each of these changes were embraced by the fans. Fan theories spread among the community, in the ‘80s these were discussed in fanzines, and would eventually make their way online. Even leftovers from a refurbishment got a legend all to themselves.

The game even featured animated suits of armor. This was a brilliant callback. In the early days of the attraction in the late 1960’s they actually had cast members wearing the armor, and pop out to scare riders. This was eventually turned into a stationary animatronic that rattled.

The busts that followed visitors in the foyer, and the head of Madame Leota in a floating crystal ball also appeared in the game. The developers at Tomy had certainly done their homework. The attraction was filled with 999 Happy Haunts. There was plenty to pull from, and many ghosts that people should expect to see in a game.

The deepest cuts in the game were the ghost portraits. Not every painting by Disney Animator / Imagineer Marc Davis was featured in the original attraction, or the follow ups in Florida or Tokyo. The ghostly fisherman was part of a pirate theme that had originally been pitched for the attraction. The mariner with the harpoon had appeared in both Mickey no Tokyo Disneyland Daibōken, as well as Epic Mickey.

At the end of each stage there was a version of “Pegleg” Pete waiting to challenge Mickey. He wore a costume that was appropriate for the particular attraction. In Stage 4 Pete was waiting in the mansion graveyard. He was a pale blue color, and wore a pale victorian suit as many of the ghosts did in the attraction. He floated around the stage, and shot plasma balls at Mickey. As far as I know this was the first and only time this version of Pete had ever appeared in an officially licensed game.

In honor of this eerie version of Pete, and just in time for Halloween I decided to make an illustration of “Phantom Pete.” What do you think? Should Disney revisit platform gaming? Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Retouching a photo, and checking out some Disney robots...

The best part of being an illustrator is being able to add missing details to a picture. I was bummed out that I couldn’t get a clear picture of the full Oswald mural that I mentioned in the previous blog. I also didn’t understand why the part that read “The Home of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit” was covered in butcher paper. Hopefully the next time I get out to Culver City I might be able to get an unobstructed view of the painting. To hold me over I recreated a classic illustration of Oswald with a bucket of paint, and paintbrush filling in the part that I didn’t get to see.

Before the month wraps up I’m hyped on some high-end Disney toys that I found out about earlier this year. The manufacturer Morstorm has some pricey figures based on the Disney classics, as well as some of the newer films. They made a couple of figures that were stylized to look like robots. What do you think about the mechanical Donald Duck, or Stitch?

Would you spend $50 or more per each of these six-inch figures, or would you pass? Are there any expensive toys that you like to collect? Tell me in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Oswald finds a new home, at his old home?

In the previous blog I talked about the cancelled Oswald cartoon series for Disney+. This was from back in 2019. Just as the animation fans had lost all hope there was a surprise announcement from Disney. In March of 2025 the company revealed that actor / director / producer Jon Favreau was working on an Oswald series for Disney+. Aside from Mr. Favreau was the only other thing revealed was that three young leads had also been cast.

The details on the show were very tight. Audiences had no idea if the show was set in 1923 when Walt Disney first arrived in Los Angeles. Or if it was set in the present almost 60 years after his death in 1966? Or did it cover multiple points in between? Mr. Favreau was known for keeping his projects, and most important his team sworn to secrecy. He managed to keep a great portion of the Mandalorian under wraps during its production. The things he could not control however were the public stumbling across his filming locations. He was spotted on multiple occasions shooting at Disneyland. Eagle-eyed visitors also spotted a scale model for Oswald that the actors could play to. We could assume that Oswald was going to be computer generated, and not a puppet like Grogu aka Baby Yoda. Now that I think about it a puppet Oswald would have been amazing. A few lucky fans that visited the park during filming were rewarded with challenge coins from the director himself. The stories of the coin were shared on Reddit.

You could see on one side of the coin that Oswald was playing a guitar. The neck of the guitar had 2025 printed on it, and the music notes actually spelled out “JF” for the director. I begged every Disney friend that I knew to see if they could score a coin for me. Many visited the parks at least once a week, the odds that they might stumble across the shoot were pretty good. As an Oswald super fan I also begged Favreau online yet never got a response. I’m sure he was getting millions of comments for every Marvel, Star Wars, and now cartoon project that he was associated with. Chances were that he would never see my posts. Still I held out hope!

I lost hope that I would ever come across the filming of the series. Ticket prices for Disneyland had soared in the past few years. I had been priced out for some time. Then I learned that they were shooting outside of the park as well. @fairy_drawsdb on Twitter posted several pictures of the “set.” It looked like an aged strip mall called “Hyperion Plaza.” Some of the people commenting on the lot said it looked exactly like 2829 Hyperion Ave in Los Angeles. The original Disney Studios were located just down the street at 2719 Hyperion Ave. This was now the location of the Gelsons market. You could read all about the original studio location here.

The strip mall had a big Oswald mural painted on the side where it read “Home of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.” The downside was that the people that posted images of the building never gave away its location. Even the people posting in the comments section asked, but didn’t get a response. Although some people speculated that it was on Hyperion I knew that wasn’t the case. When I did a Google street view of the mall I saw that the rails and elevated platform on one side were missing. I studied the street photos from the set carefully. I saw there was a Culver City bus stop in front of the parking lot. Disney would not be allowed to remove, or rename a bus route. Sure they might digitally get rid of it in post production, but they couldn’t touch the actual stop. I also saw that the building was on Jefferson Blvd. and not on Hyperion. There was also a Chic-Fil-A fast food restaurant in the distance. With these clues I was able to find the actual address on Google Maps.

I put on some of my best Oswald gear, got up early on a Saturday, and convinced my family to join me for a road trip from North Long Beach. Some 20 minutes later we got to 11800 Jefferson Blvd, in Culver City to see if the set was still there. Since Mr. Favreau was working on a television series rather than a film I guessed that the set might be around for months. I was also hopeful that the mural would not have been removed as it was only photographed a few days earlier. It was cool, and overcast when we arrived. Thankfully it wasn’t raining. Sadly the entire lot was fenced off. A number of lights, and generators were stored behind the fence. Along with a security guard that was keeping an eye on us. I could still get close enough to snap a picture of the mural.

I don’t know why but they had the “Home of Oswald” sign covered with butcher paper. Perhaps they were going to change the message during the shoot? Was it possible that Disneyland would become the new home of Oswald by the end of the series? As I did with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra performance in 2015 I wanted to bring along a special guest. My crib toy from the 1930’s would be joining me for the picture. I wanted to show Oswald that he still had fans 98 years after his birth. Not only that but I brought the oldest piece in my collection. I had an Oswald W565 film strip card from 1928.

Film strip cards were collectables in the early 1900’s. They were photo-lithographs printed on cheap card stock, often with black backs. They were similar to early baseball cards in terms of print quality, and simplicity. What made my card unique was that Oswald was the only cartoon character in the 1928 film strip card set. The rest were actors like Charlie Chaplin, and sports stars like heavyweight boxer Young Stribling. The Lucky Rabbit was considered as big a star back then too. Unfortunately his fame would be surpassed by Mickey Mouse later that year. It would be the first, and last time that Oswald got the film strip card treatment. Little did he know that the card would end up with me 80+ years later.

I know for a fact that Oswald’s luck brought him back home. The mural may have been freshly painted, however it was a way for me to reconnect with his past. Every time a new project was announced I made it a personal mission to get a timestamp. I needed a visual record of my oldest Oswald toy to go along with the good news. I did this at the Disney Interactive booth at the LA Convention Center in 2010 for the Epic Mickey premier at the E3. I did it again in 2015 at the Ace Hotel Theater when the LA Chamber Orchestra performed an original piece for the restored Proud Papa short. In 2025 I was still keeping the tradition alive. It may sound silly but I wanted Oswald to know that he would never be forgotten.

I'm glad I went, and I might make the trip again before the end of the year. Do you have a character that you loved as much? I’d like to hear about it. Tell me in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

The many almost returns of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

Hello friends, I hope that your fall season is going well. My birthday is this month, and I am very much in a Disney mood. I want to talk about my favorite Disney character, and a project that was cut short. If you had read my older blogs then you would know that Walt Disney had created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in 1927, and produced a number of animated shorts for Universal Pictures. He lost the rights to Oswald, and created Mickey Mouse in 1928 to keep his studio alive. He was incensed that the character, and many of his artists were stolen out from under him. From that point on he was determined to own his own work. He never discussed the character again to the media, or even his own family. Only animation historians were really aware of what had happened. Around 2005 Epic Mickey was pitched at the Disney studios, it was a way to reintroduce Oswald to audiences. Disney CEO Bob Iger loved the idea but was surprised that Oswald didn’t belong to them. He spoke with then NBCUniversal CEO Bob Wright and reacquired the rights to Oswald as a part of the trade for sportscaster Al Michaels.

From 2006 on Disney slowly reintroduced the rabbit to audiences. They did this with shirts, pins, collectables, and eventually in the parks with a walk around character. Epic Mickey from he Nintendo Wii was a major effort to get him back into public consciousness. There were countless ways in which they supported their original star. This included releasing a DVD with the early cartoons that were restored, and going on a global search for the missing films. One of the previously assumed lost movies “Poor Papa” turned up at auction. Disney got the film, restored it, and worked with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra to have its first public showing in 80 years. The 2015 concert was a monumental event for animation fans. I secured a ticket, and went with my wife on a rainy night in June. To make the event something special I brought my Oswald crib toy. I wanted something that existed from the era of Walt to be there when the short was screened for LA audiences.

I had long hoped that Oswald might become as big a star as his younger brother Mickey Mouse was, but Disney didn’t seem to know what to do with him after Epic Mickey 2 was released in 2012. The concert was one of the last public events featuring the character. A few years later, and Oswald would be back on our radar. Disney Television Animation veteran Matt Danner was well known for his body of work. As an animator, and storyboard artist he had a hand in Warner Bros. projects like Shaolin Showdown, ¡Mucha Lucha!, and the Looney Toons Show. For Disney he had worked on Gravity Falls, Wander over Yonder, and Legend of the Three Caballeros. In addition to his art, he also provided a number of voices for cartoons including Kermit the Frog in Muppet Babies. It was obvious that his heart was in cartooning, and was going to be great on anything he worked on. Mr. Danner, and his team started development circa 2013 and around 2018 Disney formally announced that there was an Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon for the streaming service Disney+. A year later it would be cancelled.

The show was named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Adventures in Coneyopolis. I suppose the city the cartoon was set in was a play on Coney Island and Metropolis. It had been 90 years since Oswald had a series under production from the Disney studios. For the majority of the time Universal Studios, and Walter Lantz held onto the rights. As a lifelong fan of the character you could imagine how excited I was to see him back on the air. The project was unfortunately cancelled while still in pre-production. Many of the artists, and animators that were working on it went on to different projects, or different studios altogether. Fans of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit were absolutely crushed. I was hurt even more than when I found out Disney would no longer pursue any other sequels in the Epic Mickey series. Game designer Warren Spector should have been the boss, and creative director for Disney Interactive, similar to how Shigeru Miyamoto was for Nintendo. The powers at be were too shortsighted to see the potential for that. A fully supported Mr. Spector, and gaming wing of Disney could have been revolutionary. But I digress…

A few seconds of test footage from the cartoon were leaked from the studio, as were a number of concept art pieces. The majority of the concept art was posted by WilliamOswald1 on Twitter @William40378514. The show was a call back to classic animation, and the early era of Hollywood when Oswald was a star. The concept art revealed that a lot of influences were pulled from both the early Disney, and Universal cartoons, but also from comics, and the theme parks as well. There would also be a chance to create new heroes, villains, and settings that would make Walt proud. It hurt knowing that the project was cancelled when there was so much potential left on the drawing board.

Mr. Danner hoped that public interest might get the studio to revisit the concept. There was no doubt that a number of animators would return, and try to elevate the cartoon to new heights. That sounded like an impossible feat. There was a huge public backlash against the Disney company at the end of September 2025. They took a $4 billion hit following the cancellation of the Jimmy Kimmel. The late night show host would get reinstated, but the public perception of the company was tarnished. It would take something exceptional to get fans to forgive, and forget. It seemed all but impossible for Oswald to return under these conditions. Yet luck was something that he was known for. I’ll talk about an Oswald revival more in the next blog. Did you have a favorite Oswald cartoon, or game appearance? I’d like to hear about it. Tell me in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

When was the blue Oswald the Lucky Rabbit created?

Hello friends, I hope that you are doing well. Today I want to talk about a question I didn’t have an answer for. As you may know I’m a huge fan of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. I’ve done plenty of blogs about the character. No doubt I will write about him more in the future. What I didn’t know was when the character officially turned blue. I know that he was presented in an old rubber hose design, with blue fur, and yellow shorts when Universal Studios Osaka had his merchandise in their park. That was from around 2001-2004, just before the Disney company reacquired the rights. But was that really the first time the character was reimagined for audiences? I’ve been wondering if this new look was spearheaded by Japan, or the US.

I’ve also wondered how exactly this redesign came to be. After all, in the mid ‘90s Oswald was still brown in color, and looked like a traditional cartoon rabbit character. He had more or less stayed the same since his old comic book run from around 1937 until the mid 1990’s. There was a time stamp that showed one of his last media appearances from that era. In Brazil Woody Woodpecker was known as Pika Pau. “Coehlo Osvaldo” was brown in the game Férias Frustradas do Pica-Pau aka Woody Woodpeckers Frustrating Vacation. The title came out in October 1995 by Tectoy for the Sega Master System, and Sega Mega Drive. In it Oswald gave Woody a magic paintbrush. Mind you this was 15 years before the magic brush in Epic Mickey!

The next time Oswald appeared in an officially licensed game was in Woody Woodpecker Escape from Buzz Buzzard Park for the GameBoy Color. It was developed by Planet Interactive Development, and published by DreamCatcher Interactive (North America) on August 14, 2001. Oswald appears in Level 2 in his blue form. This time he wasn’t friendly with Woody, and would actually attack you with a drop kick.

A few years later Oswald got a cameo in a Japanese pachinko machine called CR Woody Woodpecker. Developed by Maruhon, and released in December 2004. In the game the blue Oswald made a short cameo on the game screen. In 2006 the sequel CR Woody Woodpecker 2 was released. Again the blue Oswald got a cameo on the video screen. What was interesting about this appearance was that it was the same year that Disney had gotten the rights back from Walter Lantz / Universal. This could possibly be the last piece of media featuring that version making it a rare collectors item. The blue Oswald was indeed in circulation between 2001-2004 just as I thought. The pieces were falling into place, however the pachinko machine made me realize the updated look lasted longer than I first suspected. 

It turns out that the blue version had actually been proposed much earlier. Universal was looking at relaunching the Walter Lantz IP with a new Woody Woodpecker show in the mid 1990’s. This meant that the characters would be receiving a minor stylistic update, to make their look a little bit more contemporary. You can read the details on the New Woody Woodpecker show on the Walter Lantz Fandom page. Not only were Lantz’ biggest stars like Woody Woodpecker, and Chilly WIlly getting a refresh, but rare characters like Space Mouse, and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit were also getting a makeover. The show started development around 1997, with a few revisions made before production began. The new designs were posted by Daily Woody Woodpecker on Twitter. As these new versions were being finalized the comics, and games featuring the updated begun licensing. 

Sadly we wouldn’t actually see Oswald, or a few other rare characters make it into the new cartoons. They would appear in Latin American comics, and the aforementioned games, and pachinko cabinets. As for Oswald’s earliest blue design, the oldest officially licensed item that I could find with him was a rectangular dish / tray from 1998. He was very loosely drawn, and didn’t have the standardized look used in the Universal Osaka merchandise. Altogether the blue Oswald lasted for about eight years. I began wondering if I could track down any US merchandise from this era, but I’ll probably stick to the Japanese items. Were there any rare cartoon characters that you want to see return? Perhaps in game form? Tell me in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Oswald & Homer, two rare cartoon characters reunited!

Hello friends, I hope that you are doing well. As you can tell there have been a lot of Disney posts this month. So I’m going to keep it up, and post a rare character illustration. As you may know I’m a huge fan of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. This was the character that Walt Disney created, and unfortunately lost the rights to. It took more than 70 years for the Disney company to get the rights back. I was wondering what it would happen if the studio got the rights to Oswald side characters. One of them was a little rascal named Homer.

The tiny cat first appeared in the cartoon Homeless Homer. It was a 1929 film by animators Friz Freleng, and Rudolf Ising for Winkler / Universal. A few years later Freeing, and Ising would become some of the best animators for Warner Bros. In the cartoon Oswald tried to take in the tiny orphan, but ended up fighting with the brat instead. The character would turn up in the comics a few more times, and become retconned as the little brother of Ortensia, Oswald’s girlfriend. In each appearance he was a thorn in the side of the rabbit.

I wondered out loud what it might look like if Homer was pulled into the Disney family. It shouldn’t be very difficult as he is now a public domain character. It would be great to see him start causing trouble again. So I drew up this poster. Are there any classic cartoon character that you want to see come back in animation, or even game form? Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit turns 98!

Hello friends, in the previous post I mentioned that the blog hit more than a million views. That milestone actually happened on the same day as my favorite Disney character celebrated a birthday. That’s right, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was now 98-years-old! I had to create an illustration to mark the occasion. Now I have to think about what I’m going to do for the 100th birthday. Maybe have all sorts of classic characters splitting cake with him?

In case you didn’t know I am a huge fan of Oswald. Like a super-huge fan. I’ve been collecting Oswald merch for decades. One of the nicest gifts I received recently was from my sister-in-law. She created an Oswald cross stitch for me. It was a brilliant piece with well over 16,000 stitches in it! Can you imagine the patience it took to make something like this?

She created this piece because she knew I was a huge fan. In case you didn't know how obsessed I was about the character I was interviewed for the I Want that Too podcast on Jim Hill Media. Which you can see below.

   

In case you are not familiar with the character I did a deep dive on him many years ago. The links are below, including snapshots that I talked about in the interview with Jim Hill, and Lauren Hersey. 

The evolution of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, part 1... 

The evolution of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, part 2…

Warren Spector can't stop looking at my Oswald figure during his Epic Mickey presentation.

The evolution of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, part 3… 

The evolution of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, part 4…

Warren Spector's Oswald crib toy next to my own.

The evolution of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, part 5… 

The evolution of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, part 6…

Meeting Disney animator / art director / toy designer Tara Billinger at Oswald's debut in Disney's California Adventure.

The evolution of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, final part… 

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a list of Taito products featuring the rabbit! 

 

Do you have any favorite classic cartoon characters? What about comic book characters? I’d like to hear about it. Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

The Epic Mickey 2 the Power of Two Review - a 1UP classic from Nov 28, 2012

Hello friends, I have finished my Epic Mickey 2 review for JimHillMedia.com. I'm not certain when it will be posted or how much will be edited but here is the original draft for you to look at.

Epic Mickey 2 the Power of Two (EM2) is out now on multiple consoles including the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii and Wii U. The game deserves special consideration for readers of JHM because it is layered with several generations worth of material from the Disney Archives, theme parks and film library. The world of Epic Mickey, or "Wasteland" is so saturated with history that it could catch trivia specialists flat-footed. Warren Spector, lifelong Disney fan and creator of the game had said at the San Diego Comic Con that he wanted to create a world with substance. He did not want to have gamers dig underneath the surface and discover that the Wasteland was like other games. His studio Junction Point succeeded in doing just that. In some areas of the game when Mickey Mouse dissolves the walls and floors of the world players can actually see the blueprints. The grey paper of the imagination with penciled out blue lines created by the great architect Yen Sid himself.

The feeling that players come away with is more than a wash of nostalgia, it is almost indescribable. Players may recognize a piece of art hanging on a wall or a radio standing in the corner of Mickey Mouse's home exactly as it appeared from the 1936 film Thru the Mirror. Players are not only visiting the home from the film, they are now interacting with it. They are walking around in his kitchen, jumping on his furniture if they choose to. Players then begin to peel away at the walls and floors only to find there is another world beyond, waiting to be explored. The game is filled with these "a-ha!" moments. In addition to capturing the details and minutiae from the Disney legacy the game gives audiences a fresh perspective on the iconic Mickey Mouse without betraying the character. The amount of work that went into the game is staggering. Disney is trying to make Mickey and his friends relevant again in the new media and are sparing no expense in making that happen.

I've spent the past two weeks with fellow gamer Alice Hill going over the game on multiple consoles. The game has average difficulty for seasoned players but is moderately difficult for younger gamers. The main portion of the game is long but can still be beaten over the course of a weekend by experienced players. In order to get the full experience however a player has to explore every inch of the Wasteland, collect hidden items and accept side-mission that enhance the story and extend the gameplay to dozens of hours. The best way that Alice and I could review this game was by playing it on the different platforms in single and multiplayer modes and trying different options and paths. If you are interested in purchasing the game and do not want to read the spoilers then here is a one sentence review… Epic Mickey 2 is a good game but its faults prevent it from reaching true greatness. For those that want to know how we came to that conclusion please keep reading.

The camera was a major sticking point in the original game, the new camera system is much more user friendly, it follows the action better and can be moved with more precision. The camera and control really shine on the PS3 and Xbox 360 using the regular controllers. It was still a chore to use motion-based controllers in the game, and doubly so when in 2-player mode. The limited screen space and drawbacks of the motion controller were apparent when playing on the Wii and PS Move. We constantly had to keep realigning the camera to line up our targets, not to mention it was harder to perform double team moves on the Wii than the other consoles. Alice and I would recommend getting the sequel on a different console if available. Those that do have the Wii can at least play using the cool new light-up peripherals, a paint brush and remote control available for Mickey and Oswald respectively.

Visually the game was stunning. The lighting, animation, and effects featured in the new game were better than the original. Characters cast shadows, light bounced off of objects and refracted or reflected realistically. Junction Point made good use of the new physics engine as well. Items had weight, paint and thinner flowed convincingly and objects dropped as they would in the real world. These things were put to use on the new levels created for the game. Environments that collapsed remained that way for the rest of the game. Players were warned early on that all decisions they made would have consequences and could ultimately effect the outcome of the game. The level design was as good as the original game, albeit some of the best "Lands" or attractions like Lonesome Manor were featured only in the original title. The scale of the levels was much larger in this game, but like the first game they maintained an incredible amount of planning and detail. Exploration was rewarded with items that could be used in game, pins to collect or even costumes for Mickey and Oswald to wear. There were many details pulled from the parks, movies and even television shows which would appeal to even the most jaded Disney fan. Where else could a fan visit the Rainbow Caverns, fight a robot modeled after V.I.N.CENT from the Black Hole and wear a Tron costume?

Players could travel from land to land using film projectors. The side-scrolling levels used the setting of a classic Disney film and allowed both Oswald and Mickey to explore, interact and even combine resources to get through the stage. The projectors were featured in the original game as well and contained some of the most memorable experiences. Some of the sequences in EM2 include the Old Mill, Night on Bald Mountain, the Skeleton Dance, Music Land and Building a Building. A second side-scrolling component has also been added. Mickey and Oswald can now navigate the Dahl Engineering Corridors or D.E.C., a series of underground tunnels that connect the remote areas of the Wasteland. The tunnels were named after Gremlins creator Roald Dahl but based on the Utilidoors from Walt Disney World. Each D.E.C. is made up of junk from the Wasteland, of course junk to the residents are actual antiques and merchandise from company history. Look carefully for a tape, doll or record that you might have in your collection!

This game also features actual voices for the main and supporting characters instead of the text boxes and generic grumbles used in the original. Veterans Bill Farmer (Goofy), Tony Anselmo (Donald Duck), Tress MacNeille (Daisy) and Jim Cummings (Pete) are joined by Bret Iwan the new voice of Mickey, Dave Wittenberg as the Mad Doctor, Frank Welker as Oswald and Cary Elwes as Gus the Gremlin. The supporting cast made up of Gremlins and forgotten monochromatic characters also have their own unique voices. Most blended well with the main characters. The opponents consisted of Blotlings, Beetleworx and Blotworx. Those original creations were made of animated ink blots, machines or a combination of the two. They did not have any voices per-say, mostly grunts or screams. Three additional classic animated characters appear in game if a player searches high and low for them.

The Three Little Pigs are trapped in Wasteland and have Mickey try to help them. Fifer and Fiddler Pig sing with the exact high pitched voice and even rhyme and meter from the old cartoons. Practical Pig maintains his raspy voice and serious demeanor as well. Whomever voiced the characters was spot-on. Not all of the voice acting was great however. Some of the residents of Mean Street seemed out of place. Listen for the surfer and overdone Caribbean accents. The stand-out character and voice for EM2 goes to Ian the ghost. His gruff but friendly "Hey Boss!" was a welcome addition to the cast.

He was in the first game and originally appeared in the Lonesome Ghosts short. Ian challenges the player to mend the relationships between the citizens of the Wasteland, the Blotlings and Mickey. His was the best developed new personality in the game. A close second would be the robot A.B.E. He is a curator to the diorama museum and can best be summed up as Jimmy Stewart-meets-Tom Morrow. The addition of color characters in the Three Pigs contrasted the black and white citizens of the Wasteland and animatronic representations of Daisy, Donald and Goofy. The addition of cartoon stars other than Mickey is creating precedence for combining the toon and park worlds, these things may be expand upon in the next Epic Mickey title. Hopefully Ian and A.B.E. will be featured more prominently if that happens.

The greatness that Junction Point was going after began to break down when we stopped watching, stopped looking at the details and started playing. Epic Mickey was promoted as the first gaming musical. The plot was all told through song so technically Disney was right. However the Mad Doctor had all of the singing parts with one line reserved for Oswald. The gravely voice did nothing to make the character sympathetic or pull on any nostalgia strings. Imagine seeing the Little Mermaid but only Scuttle the seagull could sing the parts. It was an odd decision considering that the Mad Doctor was used only once by Disney and was allowed to fall into public domain. None of the songs were truly memorable which was odd considering that the music was written by James Dooley. The television and movie composer wrote an amazing score for the first game, X-Play deemed it the best Soundtrack in 2010. Disney never released a physical album of the first game but did make the music available via iTunes. Many players reported crying when they heard the original end credits.

The original soundtrack worked on many levels whereas the new soundtrack felt lacking. It was not all bad though. The audio cues in the game were put to good use. When a player was thinning or painting the Wasteland the music on the level signaled whether a good or bad decision was being made. If players listened carefully to the choices being presented by the other characters in the game they could be prompted to make the right choice. Each level could be passed in multiple ways, some of the cues are obvious while others are well hidden. While playing in two-player mode several set pieces, particularly boss battles, were not triggered properly if at all. Gus the Gremlin would chime in and give us a hint over and over but nothing we tried would trigger the set piece. In other cases either Mickey would get stuck in an object or Oswald would fall through the floor and be unable to rejoin Mickey. This frustrated us to no end. For the minor glitches we would quit the game and then restart it. For the larger issues we had to turn off the system and go back later in the day. When we returned to the game the set piece would load properly and we could finish the stage. In several instances we ended up doing the "wrong" thing to finish the stage because the correct option did not load or would not respond to our attempts.

With two players working independently the majority of the game was very easy. Fighting or befriending enemies was much easier this time around as was compared to the solo battles in the original game. When the set pieces did not load, or when only Player 1 (Mickey Mouse) could trigger an event then it made the game far more difficult. The majority of the game moved quickly for two players, if they were not performing any side missions. The gameplay was smooth and intuitive, as good as most action platformers. The majority of battles were well balanced if not easy as well. Very often however the gameplay would change suddenly into a slow, grating experience. The battles would become extremely difficult and feel very redundant. It would feel like an insult to the players when their progress was suddenly halted. For example Gus the Gremlin would drop the same hint over and over if a puzzle wasn't solved within a set amount of time. He would not offer alternative strategies.

When fighting a boss encounter Gus would offer a clue to defeating it. Even if the player used the proper strategy Gus would continue dropping the same hint again and again. This was particularly annoying when a set piece or boss encounter did not load. There was nothing we as players could do about it unless we turned off the console or deliberately made the wrong choices. In at least one case just wandering around the level, not interacting with characters or the environment triggered a bad outcome. Alice said that it felt like we broke the game, which was alarming since we had only been playing it for a couple of days. Disney boasted that during the development they had near 600 employees working around the world in different countries. The sun never set on the production of EM2. Spreading the talent and workload over several timezones meant that something was destined to fall through the cracks.

Perhaps the QA testers focused the majority of their efforts on the 1-player experience and did not go over the 2-player mode with a fine tooth comb. Or perhaps Junction Point did not consider what elements would have to be changed if gamers wanted to experience 2-player mode the entire way through. Even in the single player attempts that we tried it seemed that the computer-controlled Oswald slowed down the experience and in certain portions made the game more frustrating than it should have been. The encounters and choices we made permanently affected the outcome of the game, as promised by Warren Spector earlier this year.The good or bad sequences would play during the credits. The endings varied depending on the choices made in game. Even though Alice and I had gone out of our way to try to make nothing but good choices we had amassed a melancholy string at the end of our first play through.

In the past two weeks Alice and I have found ourselves more frustrated than pleased with the game. We enjoyed the world that Junction Point created, the details that they filled the game with, the pins, costumes, wonderful personalities and experiences. However there is a difference between looking at the game and playing it. Pulling the experience out of EM2 was a chore. The story felt lacking and disconnected. The fear of Oswald being forgotten again was not fleshed out, why Prescott the Gremlin felt unappreciated and how the Mad Doctor set him up and then brainwashed him was a bit deus ex machina. Despite everything added to the game, including the voices, we did not feel as connected to the story as we did with the original game. Other comparative "epic" experiences like God of War, Shadow of the Colossus and Zelda did not feel broken. The player felt rewarded for exploring those games. They did not have set pieces that failed to load or a hint system that kept interrupting the player or insulting their intelligence. Gamers did not feel like they were being punished for missing an item or making a bad decision.

In EM2 we were frustrated with some puzzles, boss encounters and even backtracking. For example, the studio broke Mean Street, the Wasteland version of Main Street in two, which meant we had to spend more time traveling through the lands for simple tasks. We wanted to enjoy the game, we really did but several times we were so put off by the game that we swore we would never play it again. We calmed down after a day and tried but the experience felt redundant rather than rewarding. We wanted to say that the game was better than the original but we didn't know if that was a completely true statement. Epic Mickey 2 is not for everyone and that is partially why we say it was good but not great. Those that are willing to slow down their gaming experience, carefully consider the needs of Wasteland residents and revisit locations to search for hidden items will be rewarded. Those that just want to play through a game and feel good about it in the end may need to look elsewhere.

Did you play Epic Mickey 2? Were you a huge fan of Disney, or a casual fan? Did this color your perception of the game? Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!