mickey
Disney Epic Mickey
Mickey Mouse was never a big part of my early life. I guess that's to be
expected: my grandfather remembers seeing Mickey Mouse cartoons when he
was young, and a kids' cartoon character can only stay relevant for so
long. I've never been into the whole corruption-of-childhood-icons
thing, either. It always sort of struck me as puerile and cheap, like
finding a genitalia-spacecraft dogfight penciled into the margins of a
social studies textbook.
So when I first saw the Game Informer
cover art for a dark take on Disney called Epic Mickey, I scoffed. I'd
never imagined such a thing would exist, and I couldn't fathom it being
worth a damn. I let out an unapproving sigh as I skimmed over the
concept art in the magazine, featuring mechanical perversions of classic
Disney characters. The designs themselves didn't bother me beyond their
tired post-apocalyptic, steampunk styles, but the concept itself seemed
like something a goth 7th grader might come up with after being dragged
to Disney World by his family.
As it turns out, all of that
imagery was just pre-production concept, used in the magazine to create
as much hype as the shock value could muster. The final product has a
safer appearance, one that most would say is more "tame." I think it's
just less gimmicky. Further details would catch my interest as well,
including the use of forgotten Disney properties to create an off-kilter
gameworld (rather than just a dark one) and the moral freedom system
that's supervised by a guy who excels at that sort of thing.
It's
been a strange hype cycle, but Epic Mickey has finally arrived. For the
first time, I'm actually anticipating a Mickey Mouse property. Is my
newfound interest warranted, or should I have left it in the trash with
that issue of Game Informer?
