Different sort of Mickey Mouse to debut in Epic Mickey Wii game

Wii game Epic Mickey is set in Cartoon Wasteland, where Walt Disney World icons take on a darker perspective. (Photo from Junction Point)

It’s colder than usual outside, and kids who are on school break just received presents of video games, so the Wii system is getting a workout at our house. I know we are not alone.

One of their favorite games is Toy Story Mania!, which is quite similar to the ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Released in September, the Toy Story game was a popular holiday gift, if the empty store shelves are any indication. But most of Disney’s Wii games are based on its movies and Disney Channel television shows — not rides or classic characters.

That’s soon to change, however. Mickey Mouse is poised to make his highly anticipated debut next fall in Epic Mickey, exclusively on the Wii platform. Creative director Warren Spector of Disney’s game developer Junction Point has been collaborating with Walt Disney Feature Animation and Pixar on the project, a starting point in rebranding Mickey’s squeaky clean image.

“The first thing that came to mind is that I wanna remind him [Mickey Mouse] and remind players that he’s a cartoon character. It’s almost like, over the years, he’s become like your favorite uncle. He’s almost human. And he doesn’t do the kind of impossible things that people expect from cartoon characters,” Spector said in the holiday issue of Nintendo Power Magazine.

In Epic Mickey, players will be able to create Mickey Mouse as they see him — mischevious, wacky, helpful, friendly, etc. — and will use the character’s composition of “painting” and “erasing” to advance their adventures. Each player’s experience is customized by the choices he or she makes, but one common denominator is that each person will have to engage Oswald, Walt Disney’s precursor to Mickey Mouse.

Spector describes the world of Cartoon Wasteland in Epic Mickey as “a way station for 80 years of Disney’s forgotten and rejected creativity. … It’s a world where all these things that look familiar can be found, but they’re all a little off and they don’t quite belong together.” The concept art is said to include tweaked images of Goofy, Epcot’s Spaceship Earth, Disney’s Hollywood Studios’ “Earful Tower” and The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and Cinderella Castle, according to online reports.

Epic Mickey challenges players’ preconceived ideas of Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters in an effort to make them relevant to a new generation. Rebranding a beloved icon such as Mickey Mouse is, of course, risky. It seems certain, though, that in the short-term, the game will be a hit with fans.