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  As usual, please put any spoilers behind appropriate tags. Just because it's Disney doesn't mean that an unspoiled first-time experience isn't valuable! MOST RECENT VIDEO (LP COMPLETE):  Introduction Mickey Mouse is one of the most recognizable and beloved characters in all of Western media, and he hardly needs an introduction. But if I asked you what Mickey's character was, his likes and dislikes, his personality...is there a definitive answer? Mickey's characterization has changed so much over the last 95 years; and at the risk of sounding like a pretentious jackass, here's a game that lets you decide what kind of Mickey you want to be. Epic Mickey (also known as Disney Epic Mickey) is an action-adventure platformer released for the Nintendo Wii on November 25th, 2010. The player guides Mickey Mouse through a mysterious world known as the Wasteland, where forgotten, obsolete, and scrapped cartoon characters call home. With the help of a mysterious gremlin named Gus and a magic paintbrush that creates either life-giving paint or destructive paint thinner, Mickey must save a world he barely knows - and whose residents resent him for his popularity. Epic Mickey's tone is much darker than your typical Disney fare, dealing with themes of loneliness, jealousy, forgiveness, and redemption. The game is full to bursting with loving references to other Disney media, whether they be popular, obscure, or even unmade. It's also a homecoming party for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, the first cartoon character created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks in 1927, as he returns to the Disney family. Oh, and it was developed by Junction Point Studios, a team filled with talent from Ion Storm and Looking Glass Studios, including the producer/director of Deus Ex, Warren Spector. As befitting the pedigree of its developers, Epic Mickey lets the player approach objectives as they see fit, make meaningful choices, and interact with the world primarily through gameplay. So, uh, it's kind of understandable that when word first got out of this game's existence, the internet went absolutely crazy. Unfortunately, initial leaks focused more on the grimdark tone of early concept art which, combined with word of Warren Spector's involvement, led to the misconception that this game was some kind of American McGee's Alice-esque reimagining of Disney lore. The truth is far more complicated. We have plenty of time to talk about that though, and don't you worry, we will. How the LP's going to work Joining me on this magical journey are pdPreciousRoy and Blastinus, and as usual they are both going in blind. This is not going to be a completionist playthrough; you need a minimum of three playthroughs for 100%, as many rewards and collectibles are mutually exclusive. Think of it more as a Pletionist playthrough (thanks Mad Goon Elusif for the joke!) This is also an informative LP which will explore the history of the Walt Disney Company and its products. While I will do my best to be as comprehensive as possible, I am only human and will inevitably make mistakes, so feel free to correct any errors in the comments. VIDEOS SERIES PLAYLIST                      
theenglishman fucked around with this message at 14:40 on Dec 27, 2023 |
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Jan 13, 2023 16:49
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Reserving, just in case.
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Jan 13, 2023 16:51
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Kermit The Grog posted:Do you know why they went the Banjo Kazooie route for the voices? Was it a hardware limitation or a design choice? It's not like Mickey doesn't talk in full sentences. Epic Mickey 2 has full voice acting, so I guess it was an artistic choice.
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Jan 13, 2023 18:37
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Pungry posted:Oh cool, I remember reading a lot about this series in Nintendo Power but never cared enough to get it. I think the funniest part of this game's development isn't that it was made by the creative team of Deus Ex (though that is pretty funny), but that Disney didn't have the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit at the time. NBC had the rights. Now, obviously, Disney could've probably just bought the rights back if they really wanted them. But ESPN in the mid-2000s was trying to get Al Michaels, an NFL announcer under ABC contract, to join them for Monday Night Football, so the ESPN president called Disney president Bob Iger to see if Michaels was available. Iger said that he'd trade Al Michaels for the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. The ESPN president was able to get approval from Universal Pictures who owned the rights because Oswald was designed by Walt Disney for Universal Pictures in the 1920s, and so, for perhaps the first and only time in recorded history, a living person was traded for the rights to a cartoon character. See I always thought that part of the story was exaggerated, that Michaels' contract was part of the deal between Disney and Universal, but from the research I've done, it really does seem to be a one-to-one trade between Al Michaels and Oswald. Such a weird moment in entertainment history. Also, to add a bit more context, when Buena Vista Games first pitched the idea for a game starring Oswald, Disney didn't have the rights to the character. They reacquired the rights in 2004, and work on what became Epic Mickey didn't start until 2007 when Disney purchased Junction Point Studios.
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Jan 13, 2023 19:32
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PurpleXVI posted:Also is there any effect to restoring the "decorative" toon parts? It seems like there are a good few chunks of the world you can restore just for a sense of completeness or your own whims. We will find out what that does next video. Simply Simon posted:It doesn't look bad so far? Of course, heavy tutorializing, but I like the mechanics of the two liquids, the platforming looks fluid, and I love the 2D interlude! Gonna follow this closely. I'd be lying if I said Epic Mickey didn't have serious design problems, but they don't tend to line up with the loudest complaints you heard around the game's launch. There's also a decent amount of jank, mostly because the game was rushed out a year early so it could be out for Black Friday 2010 (which it still missed by over a month). With a bit more time and a spring/summer 2011 release, I think this game would be far more fondly remembered.
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Jan 14, 2023 01:23
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FoolyCharged posted:I hope all the other moral choices come across in a way that you can read your helper as trying to convince mickey of either option depending on your read. With the constant warnings I wound up reading that with some serious Gene Wilder Willy Wonka vibes. If Gus caught Mickey stealing Fizzy Lifting Drinks, he’d say something like “Really now, Mickey! I expected more from you.” and then never mention it again. theenglishman fucked around with this message at 02:29 on Jan 16, 2023 |
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Jan 16, 2023 02:27
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Zeniel posted:I think the only thing I know about this was that Warren Spector worked on it, I didn't know other members of Ion Storm and Looking Glass worked on it too. I sat down and made a list of as many connections between Epic Mickey's development team (Junction Point Studios) and Ion Storm / Looking Glass as I could find (and a few connections to Origin Systems as well, since Warren Spector worked on Ultima and Wing Commander). Spector himself is not on this list because my hands are tired and I have to stop somewhere.
An interesting note: after the dissolution of Junction Point, a number of these people went to Arkane Studios. I'm seeing a lot of connections between Epic Mickey and Prey, and a few on Dishonoured 1's DLC and Dishonoured 2.
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Jan 17, 2023 18:14
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See the sights! Ride the rides! And can someone please get that song out of my head....
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Jan 20, 2023 18:37
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CzarChasm posted:Find some time and go watch Gremlins. Both movies are on HBO Max We don’t get HBO Max in Canada (Crave doesn’t count) but it is on Prime Video, so I’ll check it out there.
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Jan 21, 2023 20:44
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Commander Keene posted:You mentioned in the video that you used to speedrun this game; would it be possible for you to do a speedrun at the end of the LP? Or are you planning on showing off the exploits and routing you'd use in a speedrun over the course of the LP? I’d love to, but unfortunately, my arms aren’t what they used to be. I need to keep recording sessions under an hour for medical reasons. At the end of the LP however, I will link to some newer speedruns from a whole new community that’s taken up the game since I stopped. Their stuff is really good!
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Jan 23, 2023 04:51
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We're wrapping up the intro section, and it's going out with a bang.
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Jan 27, 2023 17:37
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Kermit The Grog posted:Was there a reason you decided to do the lets play on the actual hardware and not Dolphin? That alternate boss fight take on Dolphin looked gorgeous with the up res. Even with my new computer, I can't get Epic Mickey to run at consistent full speed on Dolphin. I got lucky during that fight.
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Jan 28, 2023 17:08
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berryjon posted:Yes. If you ever get to watch the very first Proto-Mickey short, he kidnaps proto-Minnie after she refuses to go on a plane ride with him. The whole 'Hero' thing came later. Mickey’s personality was based on Douglas Fairbanks, and unfortunately that sounds like something one of his characters would do.
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Jan 29, 2023 05:06
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Nut Bunnies posted:I thought this was awfully tutorial heavy, even for a kid's game of this era. Knowing that this has all been a tutorial and not the actual game helps. Gus doesn’t really stop pointing out objectives, but at least he will ease up on reminding you about basic mechanics and gives you more freedom when it comes to completing required tasks.
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Jan 31, 2023 19:38
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Welcome to Mean Street. Yes, that's its name.
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Feb 3, 2023 18:07
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mateo360 posted:Wizard of Oz is MGM not Fox Thanks for the correction. I think I got confused because I thought of the 2013 movie Oz: The Great and Powerful, which was produced by Walt Disney Pictures, but that's only inspired by the L. Frank Baum books and whatever movie iconography they could use without violating copyright. Now that you mention it, I remember that Warner Bros. has a trademark on the exact shades of green used on the Wicked Witch of the West's makeup, which is why when that character appears in Great and Powerful the makeup is ever so slightly different.
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Feb 4, 2023 21:34
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Kibayasu posted:I'm not sure the friendly clocktower is any better than the unfriendly one! Attempts at smashing aside. I think I've found what you're talking about. Content warning for suicide, obviously. In The Goofy Success Story from 1955, we see Goofy's humble beginnings as an actor. He has a popular career until he's snubbed at the non-trademark-violating Academy Awards. After the show, he contemplates drowning himself in the ocean.  It's a clear homage to the 1954 version of A Star is Born, where something very similar happens to James Mason's character. It's the 50's version of making a "Mr. Stark, I don't feel so good" joke. As for "George Geef", this cartoon predates that name, as Goofy's birth name is Dippy Dog here. Probably another reference to A Star is Born as the same thing happens to Judy Garland's character (and Janet Gaynor's character in the 1937 original) theenglishman fucked around with this message at 22:33 on Feb 8, 2023 |
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Feb 8, 2023 22:27
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The discussion in this video certainly goes places.
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Feb 10, 2023 16:39
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Beartaco posted:It's a bit weird that not only does Walt Disney exist in this universe, Mickey Mouse knows who he is. Epic Mickey's relationship with the fourth wall is very strange. For the most part (excluding Gus' tutorials talking about the controls) these characters don't know they're in a video game. They do, however, acknowledge their existence as cartoon characters; in fact it's kind of the whole point of the game. It's up to interpretation, but I believe it works on Roger Rabbit rules* where toons are like Hollywood actors, and that the real world, our world, exists separately from where the toons with Hearts live when they're not working. I think I mentioned this in an earlier video, but Mickey and Oswald are half-brothers in both the main cartoon canon and the canon of Epic Mickey, with their shared "father" being Walt Disney himself. * excluding Roger Rabbit's allegory for the treatment of black performers in the entertainment industry, of course. Unrelated, but I stumbled on this image of a particularly cursed Funko Pop of the Epic Mickey version of Mickey Mouse and I had to share my pain with you. 
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Feb 11, 2023 13:43
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KILL 💀 THE MOUSE 🐭 TAKE 👐 HIS HOUSE 🏠 Good news: this episode will be a treat for anyone who's following along for the history. Bad news: this LP is going on a brief hiatus after today's update, due to real-world scheduling conflicts. I will continue capturing and editing footage in the meantime and hopefully we'll have a nice backlog once commentary recording resumes. I will not close the thread, and in the meantime, feel free to keep leaving replies and drive that engagement!
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Feb 17, 2023 17:14
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Mraagvpeine posted:So, do you plan on returning? The short answer is yes, but unfortunately I don’t have a timeframe for when updates will continue. I’m really sorry this is taking so long.
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May 20, 2023 19:12
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It sure has been a while, hasn’t it? We have a reasonably good backlog and I’m almost done recording footage. Barring any unexpected delays, updates will resume on August 26th.
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Aug 21, 2023 00:34
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Aug 26, 2023 04:14
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Lemniscate Blue posted:I have this in my "to-read" stack: https://www.amazon.com/DisneyWar-James-B-Stewart/dp/0743267095 I'd also recommend: The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney Disney's Land: Walt Disney and the Invention of the Amusement Park That Changed the World Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse. The Ultimate History. 40th Ed. Wild Minds: The Artists and Rivalries that Inspired the Golden Age of Animation
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Aug 28, 2023 21:48
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Sep 2, 2023 14:12
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Smik posted:Just want to say I've been loving this LP, fantastic work! Thank you so much!
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Sep 3, 2023 00:57
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A belated happy 96th birthday to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, whose first public cartoon “Trolley Troubles” debuted on September 5, 1927!
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Sep 7, 2023 03:36
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Go directly to Bunny Jail. Do not pass GO, do not collect 200 e-tickets.
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Sep 9, 2023 14:20
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Lactose intolerance plays a key role in today's video. I'm not joking.
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Sep 16, 2023 14:16
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This Let's Play is Under New Management. We apologize for the inconvenience and loud bird noises.
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Sep 23, 2023 15:50
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I’m away from my computer at the moment so I can’t do the usual fancy image update post, but here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmgYKaRGk_c In today’s episode we take on animatronic Captain Hook, and maybe we can even make him walk the plank… I’ve also been gathering a collection of some absolutely wild stuff from DeviantArt that was posted between late 2009 (when the concept art was leaked) and the game’s official announcement in 2010. At some point I’ll have to turn that into a compendium in the thread proper.
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Sep 30, 2023 17:40
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berryjon posted:Pete Pan... was... a thing. Pete Pan is a beautiful boy and I will hear no slander against him.
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Oct 2, 2023 01:17
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Sorry folks, no update this week. I just haven’t had time to do any editing.
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Oct 5, 2023 20:12
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Again, really sorry about these delays but hopefully I can get back on track.
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Oct 28, 2023 19:44
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Nov 5, 2023 15:26
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We may be a few weeks late for Halloween, but there are plenty of spooks to be had at Lonesome Manor.
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Nov 11, 2023 16:11
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let the mad doctor sing you cowards
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Nov 18, 2023 15:55
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Nov 26, 2023 05:11
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Dec 2, 2023 15:47
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 04:36 |
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Only three videos left! (plus one or two postscript videos showing off the opening hours of Epic Mickey 2)
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Dec 9, 2023 13:50
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