Epic Mickey's Villain Is Already Pretty Sinister
This is 50% old news and 50% new news.
Back in 2006 Disney traded [ESPN] sportscaster Al Michaels to NBC Universal in exchange for the rights to the character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Al Michaels had worked for ABC Sports (a subsidiary of Disney) for over three decades and famously said "Do you believe in miracles? YES!" during the "Miracle on Ice" game (for the uninitiated: it was one of those symbolic 'beat the Russians, beat communism' matches, like Rocky 4 or Mega Man 4) that inspired the Disney movie Miracle. Oswald was one of Walt Disney's earliest creations but Walt lost the rights to him in a nasty buy-out in the late 1920s and the rights to the character eventually ended up in the hands of NBC Universal. The loss of Oswald lead Walt Disney to creating a very similar character, Mickey Mouse.
Up until this week, Disney's motive for obtaining the rights to Oswald was unknown. Game Informer's recent preview of Epic Mickey reveals that not only will Oswald the Rabbit be the game's primary antagonist (which is awesome, IMO) but when the project started Disney still didn't own the rights to Oswald. The upcoming game is so important to Disney that CEO Bob Iger traded to NBC Universal one of the most prominent sportscasters in history for a cartoon rabbit to be repurposed as a video game villain. Epic.
Little is known about Oswald's exact role in Epic Mickey, but Game Informer has hinted that he may be jealous of Mickey for stealing the spotlight. Though Mickey and Oswald are pretty similar, one of Oswald's more notable schticks is his constant reproduction--because he's a lucky rabbit, you see. A few cartoons feature him having to stop an endless flow of babies from a stork, or being heckled by his children who sometimes appear as background characters. I'm really hoping we'll see baby Oswalds as minor enemies, but that's pure speculation. We'll know more about Oswald's role as the game nears release.
Epic (Mickey) trade: Disney swaps Al Michaels for Oswald [Joystiq]
Bradamantium
Posted to Television, Video Games on 19 October 2009
· Comments (9)
Other stuff like this: Disney, Epic Mickey, ESPN, Joystiq, Mickey Mouse, Oswald
you'll see, next Kingdom Hearts will put him as the grandmaster behind everything and the source of all evil
I had heard that the Phantom blot was going to be the Big Bad? I knew Oswald was going to be in it, but I've been getting conflicting information. He's either a jealous rival living in the wasteland that Mickey accidentally made, or he's teamed up with the Phantom Blot to get revenge against Mickey like you said. TV Tropes says that Mickey spilled some paint thinner in Yen Sid's world of Forgotten Characters and is returning to fix the mess he made and wishes to team up with Oswald.
Game Informer has a FANTASTIC detailed history on the character of Mickey Mouse, which chronicles the Oswald loss.
As a guy who's as much of a fan of Disney as I am video games, I have to point out that it's unlikely that Epic Mickey was the sole reason (or even the primary reason) for the Oswald-Michaels trade. While that appears to have been a piece of the puzzle, the trade offered up so much more. At the time Bob Iger had just become CEO of Disney and this trade was his first public act--a move that won a LOT of great press and garnered respect among the Disney fans because he was able to "honor Walt." Moreover, Disney is all about licensing--and they've already been producing videos of the original Oswald shorts and various t-shirts and sundry items. Al Michaels also had a bit of baggage, so losing him was almost a plus at the time.
Bottom line, I think it is AWESOME that this game will use Oswald--and while that may have been one more reason to make the trade, I think the move had a lot more going on. I'm just glad it happened :)
The babies are friendly, help Mickey, call him Uncle Mickey, and will attack smaller enemies for him.
@ Drunken_Lemur I've heard that it's both Oswald and the Phantom Blot, and that Oswald is the one who unleashes the Phantom Blot. I think it's going to be awesome.
@NaviFairy
Mickey is the one who unleashes the Phantom Blot when he spills turpentine on the magical drawing of Oswald's world where forgotten Disney creations lived in an artificial version of Walt Disney World.
Oswald and the Blot will both be villains, but Oswald will be more sympathetic and want revenge on Mickey, while the Blot is just an insane creep.
It's interesting how Game Informer has like 10 detailed scans of images and information on the game and that no one else has put them up yet [surely the magazine being out means any embargo is ceased]?
I'd be interested to see the PS360 owners reactions to it [as predictable as they're be]!
I'm surprised this is just making news this week. It seemed to blow up on the gaming blogs this week. I thought that they announced Oswald when the GI cover leaked.
Maybe my coworker is on the inside somewhere though, as I believe I heard it from him.
To clarify though, Oswald was never owned by disney until 2006. He was created by disney as a commision for Universal. Universal always owened the rights to Oswald until the trade in 2006.
Boy1der1983, though Oswald's inclusion was known, the fact that Disney didn't own the rights to him when the project started, and that project affected Bob Igar's decision to get the rights to Oswald, is the new news. Also, the Disney company never owned the rights to Oswald, but Walt Disney himself had some piece of ownership over him at one time.