Epic Mickey: Rebrushed – a flawed, fascinating curio transformed

As a Disney nerd with a love of horror, I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited for a video game than I was after concept art for the original Epic Mickey leaked back in 2009. This was nightmarish stuff; all shambling animatronic monstrosities and apocalyptic landscapes haphazardly reassembled from the rotting remnants of Disney’s beloved theme parks. We saw Epcot’s shattered Spaceship Earth roaming a vast, rust-coloured ocean atop something part Rivers of America steamboat, part monstrous narwhal; Snow White’s castle balanced high on an impossible precipice amid belching, churning industrial machines; even a razor-limbed robotic caterpillar with Abe Lincoln’s animatronic head jammed awkwardly on one elongated neck while the shocked face of Mickey Mouse wobbled horribly on another nearby.

Epic Mickey: RebrushedDeveloper: Purple Lamp/Junction Point StudiosPublisher: THQ NordicPlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Out now on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, Switch, and PC (Steam and GOG).

It was a tantalising vision of an Epic Mickey that, perhaps inevitably, never came to pass. But there was still something of that initial darkness – albeit dialled back to more family friendly levels – when Epic Mickey eventually landed on Wii the following year. Yet even in its considerably more approachable form, it was a fascinating curio: a far wilder, weirder, and more ambitious effort than any licensed video game ever realistically needed to be, and an obvious labour of love for designer Warren Spector and his team at Junction Point Studios. As a heartfelt ode to nearly 100 years of often forgotten Disney creativity, it was a delight, but as a video game it was rather less so – a little too much of its magic lost amid its awkward platforming and a deeply frustrating camera. But 14 years later, all that’s been fixed in developer Purple Lamp’s savvy Epic Mickey: Rebrushed remaster, and the result is something of a revelation; a rare opportunity to revisit a flawed relic, its incredible artistry finally able to properly shine.

And that, of course, starts with the wonderfully conceived Wasteland, a dark reflection of Disney’s iconic theme parks where Mickey Mouse’s adventure unfolds. It’s a world strewn with discarded Disney ephemera and home to long-forgotten cartoon characters, from Clarabelle Cow to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (who ironically now enjoys a renewed presence in Disney Parks, thanks to his Epic Mickey revival). It’s also a world where a melting Cinderella’s castle teeters menacingly on the horizon as the mouldering Americana of Mean Street looms either side; where dead-eyed mechanical Dumbos whirl jerkily against the crumbling façade of Disneyland’s It’s a Small World ride, and where the Toontown-inspired suburb of OzTown squats in the shadow of Mickeyjunk Mountain – a colossal scrapheap of Mickey Mouse memorabilia: Pez dispensers piled upon posters stacked against giant push-button telephones. It’s glorious stuff; a wild, celebratory melding of iconic Disney artistry and the deepest of cuts from the company’s past, all squished into a cohesive, remarkably coherent whole.

Over in Tomorrow City, for instance, Junction Point conjures the spirit of Disneyland’s long-defunct Skyway and People Mover rides to craft a spaghetti-like retro-futuristic playground before firing players up to the top of Space Mountain for a boss fight riffing on Tron. Ventureland, meanwhile, is part Jungle Cruise, part Pirates of the Caribbean, smushed comfortably against the world of Peter Pan – and then there’s Lonesome Manor, a glorious amalgamation of Disney’s spookier side, at which point the Haunted Mansion obsessive in me starts to swoon. But that’s just the 3D platforming stuff; some of Epic Mickey’s most striking moments come as it delves into the world of Disney’s beloved animated shorts, turning classic capers like Steamboat Willie, Thru the Mirror, Mickey and the Beanstalk, and Plutopia into brisk bouts of side-scrolling action. And all of it is given a beautiful, respectful makeover in Epic Mickey: Rebrushed – one that comes perhaps a little closer to capturing the wonderfully ghoulish spirit of that early concept art, without ever losing the original’s welcoming, whimsical charm.