Reimagining Disney Magic: Epic Mickey Rebrushed Revealed!

In 2010, during the thriving period of the Nintendo Wii, Disney introduced a game that was supposed to be the entertainment company’s next big gaming franchise. Epic Mickey was an ambitious project that paid tribute to the iconic character of Mickey Mouse while trying to propel him forward into the future of gaming. Mickey Mouse wasn’t the only focus however, Epic Mickey would also bring back for the first time in many decades, Mickey’s “older brother” Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. For those who don’t know Disney’s history, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was Walt Disney’s first successful cartoon character. Disney lost the rights to the character to Universal and then created Mickey Mouse to continue making cartoons. More than seventy years later one of the first acts that Bob Iger did after becoming CEO of the Walt Disney Company was to acquire the rights to Oswald back from Universal. One of the reasons was that Epic Mickey was going to be how Oswald would make his debut back into the Disney family. Oswald’s return was a huge deal for many Disney fans and animation historians, and one of the reasons for the anticipation of the game. Another first that was introduced in the Epic Mickey games was that it would also feature Mickey Mouse in a darker-tone story with twisted and peculiar visuals. The game would take place in the fictional world of the Wasteland, a sort of bizarre Disneyland where forgotten toons and concepts from the Walt Disney Company would go to live. This gave the designers the ability to bring to light many forgotten parts of Disney’s history and also give the world of Wasteland an interesting aesthetic.  

The game was released and according to a 2011 New York Times article, “Backed by a megawatt marketing campaign, the largest in Disney history for a video game, Epic Mickey sold 1.3 million units in North America in December for a retail total of $64.2 million, according to NPD Group. That result made Disney’s game the fifth best-selling console title leading up to Christmas.” According to Metacritic.com, the average score the game got from reviewers was mediocre. This came from the game having a bad camera and clunky controls making the game harder to execute the platforming needed to get through certain levels. Another critique is the morality system, where a player could affect the game’s story and world by the choices they made during their adventure. When first announced the morality system was promoted to be an integral part of Epic Mickey. However, when the game was released it had a bare-bones morality system that didn’t really affect the story at all. Regardless of its faults, Epic Mickey does have a fan base and a lot of people who played it remember it fondly.

Epic Mickey was an extremely ambitious game that had hopes of turning into a full-blown series. The problem was that this game and its subsequent sequel came out when Disney Interactive, a branch of the company that created video games based on Disney’s IP,  was going through some big changes. The new leadership had just switched and had decided to focus more on making mobile games. With this decision, they started to close off any publishing companies that made games for consoles including Junction Point Studios, the creators of Epic Mickey. So the studio was forced to close its doors just a bit before Epic Mickey 2 was released. Which in turn canceled any spin-off games that they were planning to do. This also dashed any hopes that there would be a return to the game’s world. If you want more information about Epic Mickey’s history and the canceled spin-off games I put a great video by Did You Know Gaming? below.

On February 21st, 2024, during the Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase, many fans were shocked to find out that their wish had come true and Epic Mickey Rebrushed was announced for release sometime this year. The remake is going to bring the visuals to HD along with releasing the original Nintendo Wii exclusive on all consoles and PCs. Very little is known about what changes the Rebrushed version will have, other than adding a few new attacks to Mickey’s repertoire. If there is one improvement that I am hoping for it’s the game’s camera being fixed. While I didn’t hate it as much as some people who played the game, I hope that it can be fixed so that more people will enjoy the game, its story, and its twisted but beautiful visuals. 

So, are you excited about Epic Mickey Rebrushed? Do you have fond memories of playing the original Epic Mickey or the sequel? What system are you going to play Rebrushed on? Leave your comments below and stay here at The Arcade Archives for more updates on Epic Mickey Rebrushed.