All this failure most likely led to years of self resentment and later self destructive behavior (excessive substance abuse, clinical depression, alcoholism) all this probably created a paranoid schizophrenic mentality which made him believe that his own cartoon creations were literally out to get him (primarily Oswald, his most beloved creation (at least in that universe) which he probably sold to another animator for drug/booze money), and only his other best creation, Mickey, could save him from his own nightmares.
So the entire game is just a typical dream in Alternate!Walt's mind who's watching us (the player as Mickey) from a fevered and Ranting third person perspective as we unknowingly fight the phantom blot (Alternate!Walt's Id Gone Horribly Wrong) for his very remaining sanity. And why don't we ever see this vision of a Wino/hobo raving Disney from the sidelines? Well, in most third person dreams the characters/creatures in them don't notice us watching them unless they're first person perspective/lucid dreams.
This also explains why Mickey in the game looks no different from his Golden Age appearance, since no Mickey cartoons were produced since the 20's. All the rest of the look of the game is just the rest of Walt's dreams are ruined and in dark disfigured tatters (a Disneyland/Disney World that was never created, all of Mickey's accolades he never received...)
Think about it. Ever since Epic Mickey was even in the planning stage, Oswald's semi-unknown popularity has skyrocketed. He came back to the ownership of Disney through a flesh and blood human, where all of his classic shorts were quickly made available through Disney Treasures DVD. Also, inevitably, he will become even more popular once the game comes out. It's possible that they might even be Breaking the Fourth Wall as an explanation for him to escape.- Considering that the game already has No Fourth Wall, this is actually quite plausible.
- Very disappointingly, Jossed.
- Muntz is pure Nightmare Fuel and has an extreme obsession with the past. If anyone from Pixar makes it in, it will be him.
- Well, this video has stated that Pixar would be somewhat involved with this, but since it isn't an official video, I'm not too sure.
- Confirmed from the man himself: "My team and I have been working hard on our own and (get ready for the cool factor to go way up) in collaboration with folks from Disney Feature Animation and Pixar."
- It's more of a "consultants on animation and story" thing though. John Lasseter suggested to Spector to explore what a Toon's needs and desires are, similar to how Toy Story explored what a toy's needs and desires are.
- One could wish, really, but Muntz is in too recent a production. If anyone from Pixar's going to be in Wasteland, it'd be the cast of A Bug's Life. It is arguably their least well-known film.
- Correction: It'd probably be that guy from the Wally B short or whatever it was called that everybody forgot about. But that has nothing to do with Disney, of course...
- Jossed. Word of God confirms that the dev team got inspiration from a lot of Disney history, but the latest film that they borrowed ideas from was The Jungle Book (1967), because that was the last film that Walt Disney had a direct involvement in producing. They did use unused concept art from several newer Disney media, though, such as Hercules and The Lion King (1994). I have yet to see any references to Pixar within the game.
- Not really, but two of the four Petes appear as a bosses, even though they're not working for the Blot.
- Half-and-half true.
Nearlyall the Petes in the Wasteland can be made friendly if you do the right quests.
- Jossed, unfortunately. Heck, Frontierland as a whole's been cut.
- Don't you mean Critter Country as a whole's been cut? (Splash Mountain from what I read is only in Frontierland at Walt Disney World, but at all other parks it's located in Critter Country if the park has one, minus Disneyland Paris which lacks the ride due to the budget and cold weather), then again I have no idea how the Disneyland's map is since it's been ages since I've been there, but I'm pretty sure you mean Critter Country as well.
- Technically, Frontierland was not cut out but covered. Look at Wasteland and you'll see Skull Island is where Frontierland should be.
- Jossed, unfortunately. Heck, Frontierland as a whole's been cut.
- Confirmed by the Game Informer article. The Beetleworx are simple maintenance robots... at least, that's what The Mad Doctor said they are.
- Confirmed by the Game Informer article. Oswald is angry at Mickey for
stealinggaining his popularity, and he does seem to confront Mickey several times, but it turns out he's opposed to the Phantom Blot. And yes, his Woobiness is deliberate — even the game's creators felt sorry for him.- According to the interview, he really just wants Walt Disney, his father, to love him.
- Spector has said hearts are important in the game in regards to the opening sequence with the Mad Doctor trying to cut Mickey up and take it.
- Maybe it's what's behind the "door of darkness", and in fact an alternate story/continuity? Also, the Cartoon Wasteland does remind one in story of Castle... oblibbity... oblostemy?
- Oblivion. How appropriate you forgot the word.
- It may explain This thing◊. Either that, or that's a really mutated Mousekateer, fused with the mirror, or Judge Claude Frollo.
- That's cause he is an animated character, you know, made out of ink and paint. Warren Spector says that the whole Wasteland is just ink and paint, explaining why Mickey can use paint and thinner to modify the environment, and how the Shadow Blot was created.
- Worse, Mickey soaked up some of the Shadow Blot when the Blot temporarily ate him in the opening cutscene.
- Confirmed by The Stinger. How much ink flows off of Mickey is an indicator of whether the player prefers using paint or paint thinner. Using more thinner than paint will imply that Mickey is slowly becoming more destructive.
- Well, Oswald's wife ends up Taken for Granite, so... does that still count?
- Jossed. But that would be cool.
- Well, Warren and Junction Point are considering having Oswald be a playable character in the sequel they're developing.
- He looks more like That Freak-A-Zoid character if you ask me.
- He looks like the bastard child of the Blot and Candlejack AW GOD DA
- Jossed. He's actually working with the Shadow Blot.
- I dunno, Yen Sid is being used as a rather blatant stand in for Walt.
- Well, Yen Sid created the Wasteland, but he never said he created anything else. He's probably just "higher up" somehow. I mean, a statue of Walt Disney appears in there, and Mickey obviously knows who it is and reacts like you'd expect. Also, Oswald refers to the man himself in his dialogue, but only with pronouns.
- Jossed.
- Plus, the Japanese love Oswald.
- Alternatively, Phantom Blot is the Final Boss and Big Bad.
- Both semi-confirmed and semi-Jossed by a recent Nintendo Power feature. The final level will be set in a dark Disney castle, but it's not connected to Kingdom Hearts in any way: it's called "Dark Beauty Castle," and it's presumably the huge, warped castle in the middle of Wasteland. You get to team up with Oswald, though, which should be awesome.
- Boss Battle with a corrupted, evil Dr. Drakken? Sign me up.
- The duck trio being turned into their older Quack Pack versions? Sign me up too.
- Jossed.
- Only half-josses. Sure we don't see TV Animation characters, but there's no particular reason to think that they ARE'NT there. It's just that Mickey had no time to visit everybody in the Wasteland !
- ...what "1999 cartoon"? You do realize that the Blot has been a recurring villain in Mickey comics since 1939? EDIT: Wait, you're referring to the Mickey Mouseworks short, aren't you? Well, he did appear in animation on DuckTales (1987) before that, if that counts.
This sounds unbelievably stupid, but it does make sense. You ever see kids go to the Haunted Mansion and Tower of Terror, where they end up screaming their heads off? That's what's going to happen to some of the rides there. At some of those same attractions, they would become torturous "rides" for the people that rebel against Phantom Blot. They would be brought through there, and perhaps turn into those freaky robots or mind manipulated, maybe even die in the process.
- "Unbelievably stupid?" What are you talking about? This sounds epic.
- Because of Saban.
- Jossed.
- No other Mickeys actually appear in the game, but there have been different versions: Musketeer Mickey, Sorcerer Mickey, Kingdom Hearts Mickey (mentioned above)... If Big Bad Pete has duplicate versions of his character, just in different costumes, then why wouldn't Mickey Mouse?
- The possible reasons why there aren't multiple versions of Mickey Mouse running around Wasteland is...well, it's Mickey Mouse. Each one of his incarnations is just too popular to be forgotten.
- Technically Jossed. The Final Boss is still the Blot, but he bears a striking resemblance to the big C in his Final Form.
- And the Shadow Blot will either be The Dragon or not so evil after all.
- Or maybe Chernabog will be the Shadow Blot's One-Winged Angel form.
- Oh wow, that one's actually true.
- That guy in the black outfit is the Mad Doctor in his "raincoat" from the opening of the short of the same name.
- Actually, this is sort of right. Sort of. There are "two" Blots, though the first is technically a tiny little piece of the real Blot that escaped from its Can.
- And the Jabberwock?
- Phantom Blot and the Blotlings will form a fourth enemy race: One made up of the incomplete materials that make up a Somebody's Heart, Body, and Soul.
- Wasteland will be another of the Worlds in the Realm of In-Between comprised of things that never fully came into being in the worlds of the Realm of Light, including what made up the original World before the Keyblade War.
- Oswald as a lost Keybearer of Disney Castle
- The Mad Doctor becoming an in-house researcher of the Heart's mysteries in a re-formed version of Maleficent's Legion of Doom
- Toad is still at Disneyland, where his cult following will ensure it stays that way.
The basic premise is that back when CGI Animation was still new, and PIXAR was still creating small shorts, John Lasseter and Ed Catmull had created a kind of Cyber Space called "Render Remanence", to store all of their rejected and outdated ideas and characters. The first of which being Andre and Wally B., Pixar's first animated CGI stars. They become the rulers of this world, but are sore and distasteful at the studio for only being one-shot "test" characters and harbor an intense resentment to Luxo Jr., the company's favored mascot.Luxo Jr. accidentally enters this world after following his star ball into an old 1993 Pixar Computer. Interested, he finds a locked container entitled "Early Toy Story" and, as usual, he decides to hop on it. Unfortunately, this releases the Black Friday Woody, who is now a jumbled mass of corrupted render software. Luxo. Jr manages to escape, but with Black Friday Woody loose, he quickly devastates Render Remanence.
Years later, Luxo Jr. has forgotten about this and is asleep by a computer, when suddenly a massive wall of corrupted text grabs him, pulls him through the old computer, and into Render Remanence.
The main objective is to befriend Andre and Wally B., RR's first deleted characters. Luxo Jr.'s main weapon in this game is an animated computer mouse he managed to grab before being pulled into the Cyber World. It's capable of Deleting and Restoring any old computer files.
- Lotso definitely needs to be involved somehow, possibly as The Dragon.
- Personally, this is too shameless a copy-pasted idea, but there's enough info found in the deleted scenes in the Pixar DVDs to fill such a world up. The blob aliens that were cut from Wall-E comes to mind.
- Sadly Jossed.
- Shame too. This would have been, in my mind at least, the perfect payoff to the 'Essence of Blot' absorbed by Mickey in the opening.
- The Hitchhiking Ghosts.
- Dreamfinder (or whatever his name was from the Epcot ride)
- Alice (the version from the Alice Comedies)
- Robin Hood
- The Pig Baby
- Perri
- Mira Nova
- The Fish Footman
- Maui Mallard
- Nimrod The Rabbit
- David Xanatos
- The Horned King
- Dennis The Duck: he and Nimrod were Ertazes for Oswald, now that Disney has Oswald, what do they do now?
- The Censor Monkeys
- Some of Stitch's cousins who were never shown.
- Sleepwalker
- Toxin
- Clarice (Chip N Dale's love interest from Two Chip's and a Miss)
- Clara Cluck
- Perhaps in a future installment or something, but definitely for Epic Mickey Warren Spector stated characters and series will only go up to The Jungle Book (1967).
- Jossed.
- Jossed, though Oswald becomes playable in the sequel as a character for the second player.
- Partly true. You can use paint to redeem the Blot... Only to learn that it's not the REAL one.
- I can see that each park is filled with forgotten characters, like for Epcot would have Dreamfinder, MGM would have Roger Rabbit (he had a unbuilt land in the park, planned during the 1990s) and for Animal Kingdom, there would be a level based off the aborted Beastly Kingdom where Mickey would face off with the final boss, the Dragon from the Dragon Tower ride.
- Jossed.
Warren Spector said that he wanted to make a game that would scare the youth of today, just as how the Disney Animated Canon scared his generation when they were kids. And what better way to do that than to take the characters that they love from the Disney Channel and fill them with ten tons of Nightmare Fuel?
The material doesn't have to be just from the present day. Disney's been in the "tween" business since before the word "tween" existed, going all the way back to the The '50s with Annette Funicello and The Mickey Mouse Club. That show alone has had dozens, if not hundreds, of Mouseketeers in its various runs. Most people probably can't name more than a dozen — and most of them probably come from the latest iteration of the show, which brought us Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, and their ilk. There's bound to be countless forgotten stars hiding away in the Wasteland. Of course, since we're dealing with real people here, they'd have to be No Celebrities Were Harmed versions unless they could get permission from the people and estates involved.
And why stop at The Mickey Mouse Club? Disney's history doesn't end with the death of Uncle Walt. For example, does the name Fiona Phillips have any relevance to you? No? How about Jett Jackson? And those shows made it to air and ran for several seasons! On top of the shows that have been aired and subsequently forgotten, there's probably tons of unused ideas for Disney Kid Coms and animated series that were never broadcast, and are probably gathering dust in the Disney vault. Plus, think about how this can be used for Nightmare Fuel — the perky, optimistic, teenaged characters from a Disney Channel Original Series that hit 65 episodes and ended a few years ago find themselves being sucked out of their normal lives and into the Wasteland as their Fleeting Demographic moves on to the Disney Channel's new hit series. There, these once-normal Disney teens get corrupted by the returned Phantom Blot/Shadow Blot, or whatever new villain appears in the sequel. Only problem is that satirizing the disposability of such shows might be a bit too subversive a subject for a Disney-produced game to tackle.
To close this off, I have just four words: Laugh Track slowed down. <shudders>
- Yeah, those four words sold it.
- THIS MUST HAPPEN.
- But is Disney willing to pony up the dough to use all those celebrity likenesses in the game? And how will paint/thinner affect them? (Actually, that could be a plot point.)
- At the very least, Toon!Lizzie McGuire needs to make an appearance.
- RavinSimone will Mind Rape you.
- Jossed.
- Possible explanations of the relation between the two games/why Mickey and the gang are there:
- 1. Toontown Online takes place years in the future, after Wasteland is all fixed up and Mickey and all the other Disney regulars have lost their hearts for real and are trapped in Wasteland (perhaps Disney finally became nothing but crappy teen pop stars, or perhaps Disney is just gone altogether). The classic characters were put in charge of different neighborhoods of Toontown (the sign originally said "TOONTOWN" ever since Yen Sid created Wasteland, but Oswald changed the sign before the events of Epic Mickey. It was changed back sometime in between the two games, seeing as Oswald is no longer the only fitting ruler here,) and newly-created Toons instantly go to Wasteland because not enough people in Real Life were ever made aware of them. Wasteland/Toontown is all the Toons have left, so when the Cogs come along, naturally all the Toons want to fight them, especially since the mere sight of a businessman fills them with bad memories of the Executive Meddling that forced them to live in Wasteland.
- 2. Toontown Online actually takes place before the Thinner Disaster. The playground versions of the Disney characters in Toontown Online are older prototypes of the animatronic characters seen in Epic Mickey. They look less robotic, but their A.I.s are far less advanced and they can only say a few things and walk around in circles pretending to talk to the residents. The sign is left as Toontown up until the Thinner Disaster because Oswald felt no need to change it yet. Also, he didn't build a new Animatronic Mickey after this prototype because he decided he wanted to be Mickey. And perhaps aqcuire the rodent's place of residence in addition to that.
- Possible explanations of the Cogs:
- 1. The Cogs are Beetleworx. Beetleworx are robots with "Toony" exteriors made of paint; exactly what the Cogs appear to be. And after they are exposed, they look like Skelecogs. The Mad Doctor could also be the elusive Chairman we've heard so much about, but of course that is a statement literally waiting to be Jossed.
- RESPONSES?!
- Or you know, the Ostown sign is just Oswald imitating Disneyland's version of Toontown, seeing as the entire Wasteland is a Disneyland facsimile.
- Toontown Online is based on the Toontown sections of the theme parks, which in turn was based on Roger Rabbit... so yeah, Older Than They Think, anyone?
- (Original poster) I'm perfectly aware of how old the "Toontown" concept is, thank you. But what you're doing is you're applying this "X was based on Y" Doylist talk to a Watsonian WMG. So what if Toontown Online isn't the first Toontown, it's still a setting that has the name and the sign. And this is Wild Mass Guessing.
- If Disney is nothing but Popstars, where's the Spider-Man and Wolverine worlds?
- It's somewheres. Either that, or I meant DISNEY Disney, not Marvel Disney.
- He IS pretty close to "forgotten" status. Plus, Warren Spector outright said that he was "lame" and made a new one. So, possible Canon Discontinuity aside, he'd naturally be there, since he's a forgotten Disney character.
- Except Animatronic Donald is the one with the parts to fix the Tugboat.
- Also, when Daisy mentions that there is an Animatronic Donald, Gus says Oswald never met the real Donald, so Donald isn't there at all.
- Teirland?
- Most likely true. In the opening of the game, after the Thinner Disaster, Yen Sid says he doesn't find out Mickey was behind it for a "very long time". Cut to the calendar in Mickey's room flipping pages featuring shorts and films he was featured in as time passes. The last two pages were from Mickey's Christmas Carol and The Prince and the Pauper, which were released in 1983 and 1990, respectively.
The only explanation is that each projector, in their natural state, will manifest a different world for each individual who goes in based in a notable event in his or her life, and the danger level in these projectors is related to the character's level of guilt. The projector stages pertain to the theme of the chapter because Mickey is thinking of that topic, except the gremlin chapter because he just got in Wasteland and is thinking of his legacy. That is, perhaps Sherman has only ever been in one adventure that would be notable enough to be a Disney production, and every projector would display the same stage or two, neither of which is much worse than a short walk because the events in Tortooga were through no fault of his own. Consequently, Oswald feels guilt over Ortensia and his failure to hold back the Blot, so his stages are more dangerous. Mickey gets the most dangerous stages as he progresses through the game because of increasing guilt over his starting the Thinner Disaster. However, some projectors can be tweaked to remain fixed on one stage, such as Oswald's projectors in Mt. Osmore Caverns or the Sleeping Beauty one in the castle through an unknown technique. (I cannot explain "Plutopia", as it's not part of Mickey's memories.)
This means that if the Shadow Blot or any Blotlings jump through a projector, they'll find themselves in a world based on what the Shadow Blot has seen, and Thinner can't even get in because it's nonsentient. In turn, this also means it's entirely possible for Blotlings or even Bloticles to still be present in the projectors, exiting through to plague the Wastelanders once more.
- The Mad Doctor is the Big Bad of the sequel, but he's still stuck in the Wasteland.
Now, anyone who is familiar with the dispute over Oswald's contract should have had alarm bells going off during this scene. Gus is making it sound like Oswald was forgotten because Mickey was created, which isn't true. Mickey was created because Oswald was lost. Thus, we are to assume that Gus doesn't really know what he's talking about.
While this could usually be Hand Waved as Gus misspeaking, Oswald does the exact same thing whenever he discusses why he was forgotten.
Erm... better? That makes it sound like Walt had a choice in the matter. Apparently, Oswald isn't entirely sure of what he's talking about either.
- Walter Lantz consulted with Disney after he was put in charge of Oswald, but Disney said he could keep the rabbit, since Mickey was by then very popular. So maybe Oswald saw this as the ultimate abandonment.
- Confirmed, the bunny childrens' love for their "Uncle Mickey" is All There in the Manual. Why this seems to involve throwing him into a vat of thinner... ah, we'll inquire about that if there's ever a sequel.
- Jossed.
- I can definitely see the modern design for Mickey being used, but what about Oswald...?
- Somewhat confirmed. One of Mickey's costumes is his Sorcerer's Apprentice outfit, complete with flesh-colored face and shrunken pupils.
- Jossed.
- Elaborating on this- this world is like a full-fledged version of the library of all the books that were never written in The Sandman. Essentially every discarded, forgotten character in existence, characters who were thought up on a whim but never given a purpose or backstory could show up.
- Jossed.
(Hey, does this mean we can have a cyborg Judge Doom as a boss in the second game?)
Were they all dissolved in the Thinner Disaster because they were made of less paint? Or did the Mad Doctor, while looking for a source of paint for his Beetleworx decide they were a good source for it? After all, rough drafts of Beetleworx often showed them as made of machine parts and toon parts so it's not hard to imagine this is what happened.
If toon limbs even made it to Wasteland they might have been an underclass to the regular toons or maybe even akin to animals, as they are detached from an actual toon body (although for 'emotion' head poses, they might have sentience and awareness more so) so possibly if the toons ever became aware of what happened they cared a lot less. Or maybe they just think the 'Limbs' are off hiding in some remote part of the Wasteland - who knows?
He was never told the real reason why he was 'abandoned' by Disney and had to theorise that Walt threw him out because his new younger half-brother was easier to market. As the King of Wasteland, during his building up of it with the first of the other forgotten toons to arrive he rabbited on about what he believed to the others as the pain was still raw at the time, and they in turn told other new arrivals when they came until every Wasteland resident knew - Oswald was here because Mickey Mouse happened.
- A possible location based on The Black Cauldron's Pyldrain.
- I mean, this movie is one of the films that destroyed Disney's reputation for being too grim, as well they would make you forget that this movie ever existed, so it could be possible that the entire region of Pyldrain is now somewhere at the shadow of the Wasteland.
- A location based on Bald Mountain
- While Chernabog himself is far from being a "forgotten toon", it was mentioned that at one point What could have been he was going to be the guardian of Mickeyjunk Mountain and during the Tales of the Wasteland's issue 3 "Oscar the Lucky Duck", one of the locations that Oswald was sent using the projectinator was at the Bald Mountain itself (or at the very least, a series of volcanos), chernabog included. While he did mention that if this was even wasteland he is, the fact that Chernabog is in there means that at least in this universe, he was forgotten, but instead of being the guardian of the Mickeyjunk Mountain, he had a reign of hellfire to rule over. (That, or it was an early version of the "Night at Bald Mountain" segment.)
- So far, THQ Nordic has confirmed that the infamous Camera Screw will be fixed.