Epic Mickey/Tropes


 * Adaptational Badass: The film's version of the Blot combains the power of the original videogame's Shadow Blot with the intelligence and cunning of the original Phantom Blot, making him more dangerous than in the game.
 * Adaptational Villany: The Blot was already an Eldritch Abomination willing to do anythingbto getvtonthe Cartoon World in the game, but the movie version is far worse. The film version is a narcissist and a sociopathic Card-Carrying Villain who is more than happy not only to kill those who gets in his way, but also For the Evulz, keeps a trophy room full of people he turned to stone, has no qualms with threatening his own allies, only refuses to kill when he chooses to torture people psychologically to the point that killing them would be a Mercy Kill and letting them live would be a Fate Worse than Death, and even when he does choose to kill people still makes them suffer psychologically, to not to mention he takes pride in his cruel emotiinal manipulation. Safe to say, Movie!Blot is a far bigger monster than Game!Blot.
 * Author's Saving Throw: Much like DuckTales (2017), the film restores the Phantom Blot's intelligence from the comics. Additionally, the Blot in the film is potrayed as cunning and having Trap Master qualities, something the DuckTales incarnation was criticized for lacking.
 * Batman Gambit: The Blot implements one in the third act. He steals the last oart of the rocket, forcing Mickey and Oswald to return to Dark Beauty Castle for it, after which the Blot attempts to capture them and nearly regains his powers, only for Mickey to defeat him... just as the Blot planned. After watching Mickey being praised, Oswald is manipulated by the Blot into releasing him by appealing to his insecurities.
 * Card-Carrying Villain: In the spirit of the Disney Villains of old, the Blot is someone who is evil, loves being evil, is proud of being evil, takes every insult towards his villany as a compliment, and wants to be remembered for his evilness and villany.
 * Company Cross References: On Mickey's house, a shirt with the words "Lumity Forever" and a Sprig Plantar plushie can be seen.
 * Disney Villain Death: Averted
 * The Mad Doctor meets his demise after his plane explodes at the climax.
 * The Blot gets killed at the hands of the Thinner Guardians.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything: Oswald's emotional stare after being firgotten is clearly an allegory for child abandonment. He at one point even asks "why did [Walt] left me?!".
 * The Dreaded: Eliza Masa has this status among the Wasteland's evildoers. Which makes sense, seeing how all the villains she faced througth Gargoyles are far darker and more dangerous than the usual Disney Villains.
 * Family Unfriendly-Death: The Blot's death is framed as if he was gunned down by the mafia! And if it weren't because the Guardians dissolve, there would be a gunned-down corpse laying around.
 * Fridge Brilliance: The Blot's first words to Mickey at first appear to be him simply putting a façade before scaring him for the kicks. However, savy Disney fans will recognize the words as the lyrics for "The Mighty Hunters", a song originally written for The Jungle Book (1966) before being scrapped. And who was going to sing it? The Big Bad Dummviretee of Shere Khan and Buldeo (who was also discarded from the final film). This means that the Blot was both falsesly reassuring Mickey and revealing on his villany at the same time, by quoting a Villain Song!
 * It also works for the Blot's sadistic personality. Those who recognize the first lyrics already feel that there's something off about him and become wary at least, while those who don't fall into a false sense of security before the Blot reveals himself as a villain.
 * Heartwarming Moments: It is subtle, but it is shown that Mickey is actually pro-LGBTQ+. A Freeze-Frame Bonus shows that Mickey has a shirt that says "Lumity Forever", and it is latter established that he has formed a friendship with Luz. Surprising, given Disney dosen't have the best reputation with LGBTQ+ representation in films.
 * He Also Did: Mickey and the Blot's supervising animator is Dana Terrace. While this is her first film for the Mouse House, she has a history with Disney on TV, having worked as a storyboard artist and revitionist in Gravity Falls and as a director on the 2017 version of DuckTales (which also centered on classic Disney characters), before creating and executive-producing The Owl House. According to the filmmakers, her work on The Owl House would be the main reason she was hired as both Mickey and the Blot's supervising animator.
 * He Really Can Act: Not the his acting chops weren't underappreciated, but Jess Harnell truly shines in his performance as Oswald in the film. He truly captures the resentment the rabbit holds towards Mickey and the deep-seated insecurit behind it, and sells Oswald coming to see him as a friend. A particular moment that showcases his range is when Oswald sincerily asks why did Walt gave him away. Harnell's performance will break your heart.
 * Knight of Cerebus; Most of the villains in Mickey Mouse media are bullies at best, and thugs at worst. The Blot, on the other hand, is a sociopathic murderer and psychological torturer whose actions are played completly straight and who wouldn't serm too out of place in a film like The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Safe to say, the film takes a much darker turn once he is onscreen, and is honestly surprising that a guy like him was the villain of a Mickey Mouse production. Driving home this point is the clinax, which feels more like something out of the MCU than what one would expect from a Mickey Mouse film.
 * Medium Blending: Througth most of the film is made with hand-drawn animation, the scenes in the Cartoon World are produced with CGI.
 * Mythology Gag:
 * The scene where the Blot drags Mickey to the Mad Doctor's lab and begin to experiment on Mickey was directly based on the Doctor's original short.
 * After the Blotbdestroys the orojector in an attempt to escape, Ortensua and Mickey travel to Mean Street by train, which is how Mickey, Ortensia, Gus, and Oswakd went to the same place after Dark Beauty Castle was destroyed in Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two.
 * Oswald's first scene in the Wasteland takes place in Mickeyjunk Mountain, which is where he met Mickey (and appeared for the first time outside flashbacks) in Epic Mickey.
 * Much like in Epic Mickey 2, several "Hidden Oswalds" can be spotted througth the film.
 * Upon meeting Mickey, Oswald assumes he and his friends were forgotten and begins to listen them off, with Minnie being the first one he mentions. In Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion, Minnie's cartoon essence was dragged to the Wasteland and took her form.
 * Oswald enters the ckimax by driving a firefighter truck, as a nod to the Epic Mickey: Tales of the Wastelwand comic "Clocktower Cleaners".
 * During her fight with the Mad Doctor, Eliza throws Thinner at him as a distraction, a nod to the bad ending from The Power of Two.
 * A dialogue between Mickey, the Blot, and Oswakd was taken straight from when Donald prevented Pete from killing Mickey in Mickey, Donakd, and Goofy: The Three Musketeers.
 * As the Blot tries to catch Mickey at the Dark Beauty Castle, he evades him doing the same moves the Prince did to evade Pete's attacks in the Mickey Mouse featurrette The Prince and the Pauper.
 * Nightmare Fuel: You thougth Runaway Brain was creepy? That is a typical Mickey short compared to this!
 * The Blot is this in spades! A sociopathic and sadistic narcissist who wants to be seen as "The Greatest Villain In The History of Animation", he is more than willing to either kill or torture in any way imaginable not only those who stand in his way, but even innocent people just for the sake of it. He is undoubedly one of the most vile, heartless, disgusting, evil, and downright terrifying villains to have ever appeared in a Mickey Mouse production, and one who wouldn't look out of place in a horror film like Candyman.
 * And then there's his design, which animators admitted was directly based on the Grim Reaper. There's a reason his supervising animator was Dana Terrace.
 * It is also very chilling just how he randomly switches from a calm and composed villain akin to Wenwu from Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings to a sadistic and calculating Ax-Crazy villain akin to The Joker.
 * His first scene alone is really scary. The way he shows up by hiding all but his green eyes and smile in the shadows is geniunely frightening, the way he plays with Mickey's emotions and threatens to kill him will sure make the audience shiver in terror, and the enterity lf the scene in which the Blot drags Mickey to the Mad Doctor's lab, from Mickey screaming for help to the Blot taking a sadistic delight on hearing his screams, is absolutely disturbing.
 * At one point in the film, the Blot takes the Mad Doctor to the room where he has all the innocent people he turned to stone, while not-so-subtly threatening the Doctor that, if he dosen't find Mickey, he will personally tear him apart and put him somewhere in the room. The scene's tone and the way the Blot threatens the Doctor help sell the scene's creepiness.
 * The room itself is this. Even if you never played the game, the "statues"' appearances quickly spells the truth: Thise aren't statues. The Blot has an entire room basically filled with the corpses of the people he killed! And all to remember how he killed them!
 * When he reveals his motivations. In what is definetly one of the most terrifying Bait-and-Switches in Disney history, the Blot at first appears to be set-up as a Tragic Villain who wants to be beloved, due to how geniunely devasted he is over not being remembered... And then he reveals how he wants to be remembered: As one of the greatest cartoon villains. All those moments he showed sadness over not being remembered? Is sadness over his atrocities being unknown. This man wants to be remembered as the sociopathic monster he is. That's the moment that made it ckear: He's no Killmonger. He's a repugnant being who's very deserving of his Hate Sink statues and who must be stopped. He took the Card-Carrying Villain trope to geniunely horrifying levels.
 * His confrontation with Mickey at the Mean Street Cinema. The entire confrontation is like straight out of Candyman or Us. He uses the Cinema's darkness to disguise himself as he brutaly beats up Mickey physically and psychologically, before starting to sing an off-putting version of "It's A Small World" as he corners Mickey, shutting down every remaining light, and then... nothing, except a sense of dread that he's gonna pop up somewhere. And right on cue, his hand grabs Mickey's throat out of nowhere, and throws him violently out of the cinema, after which he keeps beating Mickey.
 * And if that wasn't enough, after kicking Mickey's ass, the Blot throws him onto the abysm below Mean Street, not before taunting him over how he's gonna kill everyone in Mean Street during his fall. And, hadn't Eliza, Ortensia, and Oswald showed, Mickey Mouse would've died while watching innocents die too.
 * And when the Blot takes Mickry's heart. Its so painful its jus unbereable to watch.
 * When the Blot sadistically tells Mickey that he will tell his friends "[Mickey] said hi", the look on Mickey's face is the same one Scar had before being eaten alive. He's scared shitless of what this heartless monster will do to Minnie and his friends.
 * Just Mickey's reaction to the Blot by this point. He was scared many times before, but never like this. The Blot managed to absolutely terrify a character as old as Mickey in ways he never was before.
 * Much like the game, the climax takes place inside his body. However, the film version is more based in Guardians lf the Galaxy Vol. 2, and it shows! The Blot easily (and literally) manipulates the enviroment to his favor, toying with Mickey and Oswald by having them fight their own enviroment nefore attempting to crush Mickey and strangling Oswald. And then he shows up in his body. The scene may look like Ego reforming in GotG Vol. 2, but feels like watching someone being banished from Hell for being too much of a demon!
 * And then, he utters this line: "How long did any of you really thougth you'd survive against me". It may have been taken from 2016's The Jungle Book, but here is far more terrifying.
 * There's also a TV spot that starts with the typical Mickey Mouse opening... before it suddenly glitches and we see the Blot, in all its terrifying glory, staring at you with one hell of a Slasher Smile. And then there are shots of him wrecking havoc and trying to kill Mickey and Oswald, before seemingly throwing Thinner right at the camera!
 * The Blotlings are no slouchs either at the scary department. Forget the comical depictions in the game, these guys may leave you sleeping at night:
 * Believe it or not, the Spatters are the biggest offenders here. In the game, they were the typical idiotic Disney Villain sideckick. In the film? They are borderline zombies. Absolutely feral. Completly mindless. And more tuan happy to kill you. Their designs intentionally invoking Uncanny Valley does not do them any favors.
 * For second place there are the Sweepers, who got turned into what can be best described as a Parademons black ops strike team. They can go covertly to attack their targets from behind, but if they get caught all subetly gets thrown away just to ensure you don't escape...
 * While the Slobbers are the lightest ones in changes, they are still pretty intimidating. Just picture this: Mafia enforcers who wouldn't look out of place in a Quentin Tarantino movie, except that they have the strength and ferocity of the Hulk, plus the ability to suck you up. Sweet dreams
 * The Mad Doctor can be quite frightening as well. His sadistically insane personality, closer to the original short, can be downright scary. Specially with the way he treats his Beetleworx... the only way Disney got away with all that is becsuse they are robots.
 * Think of the film from Minnie's point of view. She sees a gigantic monstrous creature kidnap her boyfriend to do who know what with/to him, and the he isn't seen after that for days. Is surprising she held out to hope and convinced everyone to try to help her bring him back. Anybody else would think he might as well be dead!
 * The opening scene, when everything regarding Oswald is forgotten. As with most real life disasters, there's nothing but panic as everuthing many characters knew vanishes. If that wasn't enough, panic only furthers when people begin to vanish as if they were victims of Thanos' snap. And Oswald can do notjimg but watch as his friends, his family, everything he had left, and eventually himself dissappear.
 * Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: A variation. While Mickey and Oswald do argue after seemingly defeating the Blot, isn't because he's angry at Mickey. Instead, he admits that, while he now considers him a friend, he's neverthless still jealous of him, all while exposing his insecurities. And while Mickey tries to argue, he dosen't get mad at Oswald either, understanding where his feelings come from. In the end, is not about the two getting mad at each other, but rather the two getting mad at themselves and unleashing that anger at the other.
 * Shout-Out: The way Eliza defeats the Mad Doctor is taken straight out of Stuart Little 2.
 * Take That!: Two towards Disney Animation's biggest rivals:
 * First, when Oswald sees the destruction the Blot caused, he utters the line "Of course, he realizes this means war!". Both Eliza and Ortensia agree it was "a terrible thing to say".
 * Later, as Eliza leaves her Atlantean vessel as it crashes with the Mad Doctor's ship, she says "Goodbye, looney toon", which sounds just like "Looney Tune", to not to mention many actually do think is written "Looney Toon".
 * Tearjerker: After Mickey seemingky defeats the Blot and Oswald fails to help, Mickey tries to comfort him. Then, Oswald lashes out and reveals all tye deep-seated insecurity he developed following decades of being forgotten. When Mickey tries to tell him You Are Better than You Think You Are, Oswakd instead argues that if that were true "then why did [Walt] left [him]?". A stunned !ickey is unzble to respond as Oswald repeats the question, initially in a sarcastic and aggresive tone, but by the third time he does it with a heartbroken sincerity, revealing who Oswald has become now: A deeply insecure kid who wonders why his dad left him?
 * Unxpected Character: Eliza Masa, Luz Noceda and King! Given how Disney barely features characters from animated series in a movie, the fact that this film features them at all is surprising. And that they have speaking roles and appear in more than one scene is a miracle. Eliza is an special case, seeing how she is one of the main characters in the movie and Gargoyles is not precisely among Disney's most promoted productions.
 * Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Epic Mickey is practically your average Mickey Mouse advebture made in a long format... unless the Blot is in scene, after which it becomes more of a dark adventure story thanks to him being a walking Nightmare Fuel.
 * Win Back the Crowd: After years of making enterily computer-animated films, the film was produced mainly througth hand-drawn animation, which was met positively by old Disney fans. However, the film still contains enterily computer-animated sequences, which helps appeal modern audiences.
 * The Woobie: As in the original videogame, Oswald. Aside from losing Ortensia (which is only avoided barely), he went througth the same crap he went throught in the game, his self-steem issues are further explored.