Epic Mickey

Epic Mickey would be a 2023 American animated musical buddy fantasy adventure film directed by Lauren MacMullan in her feature directorial debut, and produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. It would be based on the Disney video game of the same name, making it the first animated Disney film to be based on a video game. MacMullen would also write the film's screenplay alongside Pamela Ribon, from an story by MacMullan, Ribon, and Epic Mickey creator Warren Spector, while Dorothy McKim would produce the film, with Spector and Jennifer Lee serving as executive-producers.

The film would star the voices of Bret Iwan, Frank Welker, Sarah-Nicole Robles, Jim Meskimen, Benedict Cumbertbatch, and Dave Wittenberg. The film would be the first theatrical animated film to feature Mickey Mouse in an starring role since Fantasia 2000, the first film to star Mickey since DisneyToon Studios' Mickey, Donald, and Goofy: The Three Musketers, and the first feature-length film to star Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Recurring Disney composer Alan Menken composed the score.

Disney would first announce plans to adapt the Epic Mickey video game in the D23 2020, with MacMullan being set to direct the film. While the film would be based on Epic Mickey, the studio would take many liberties with the source material in order for the story work as a film, while also ressurrecting a few deleted concepts from the video game, althougth the studio would try to be as faithful as possible to the video game. The filmmakers would also feature a few elements from the video game's sequel, Epick Mickey 2: The Power of Two, mainly Mickey and Oswald teaming-up. The film, unlike the video game, would be set in modern times, in order to allow more cameo appearances in both the Wasteland and the Cartoon World. Epic Mickey would be the first Disney film since 2011's Winnie the Pooh to be animated mostly using hand-drawn animation. Back to the Future Part III was an inspiration for the film's plot.

The film would be released on May 22, 2023, and would became a critical and commercial success, grossing 712 million dollars over a budget of 177 millions, and being praised for its direction, screenplay, animation, humor, vocal performances (particularly Iwan, Welker, Alexander, Lentz, and Ferrell's), songs, sense of nostalgia, and score, with many critics praising it as one of the best films based on an video game of all time. The film would earn an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature, as well as both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Original Song.

Synopsis
Good old Disney star Mickey Mouse finds himself in a big problem when he is suddenly transported to the "Wasteland", a land inhabited by forgotten toons, forcing Mickey to join forces with its ruler, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, who resents Mickey because he was forgotten when he appeared, to return home. The two, along with the gremlin Gus and Oswald's girlfriend, Ortencia, soon discovers that Mickey's appearance in the Wasteland is part of a bigger plot by the dangerous Shadow Blot to put an end to both the Wasteland and the Cartoon World. Now, the two must find a way to work together before its too late!

Voice cast
Additonally, Alan Tudyk would provide the vocal effects for the Blotlings, minor spawns of the Blot who serve as his army. Bill Farmer would provide the vocal effects for Pluto, Mickey's loyal dog in the Cartoon World. Grey DeLisle would voice Minnie Mouse, Mickey's girlfirend. Tony Anselmo would make a brief cameo as Donald Duck. Corey Burton would reprise his roles as Yen Sid, a powerful sorcerer and creator of the Wasteland, and Ludwig Von Drake, a brilliant-but-eccentric scientist who is Donald's paternal uncle.
 * Bret Iwan as Mickey Mouse, an anthropomorphic mouse who is the biggest star in the Cartoon World, only to find himself in the Wasteland.
 * Frank Welker as Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, an anthrpomorphic rabbit and the deeply insecure former ruler of the Wasteland, who hates Mickey for being the reason he was forgotten in the first place. According to Welker, the film would focus more in Oswald after he was forgotten
 * Sarah-Nicole Robles as Ortensia: A friendly rabbit and Oswald's ex-wife, who helps Mickey in the Wasteland. Screenwriter Pamela Ribbon would say that Ortensia's role from the game was changed "because [the filmmakers] felt it could be a variation of fridging" and saw her replacing Gus as Mickey's guide "the only other role she could play in the story". Robles would say that "the filmmakers really changed Ortensia in a way that kerps her essence. She's more tought now and, while she does have a bit of a story with Oswald, she wants to redefine herself too".
 * Jim Meskimen as Gus Gremlin: A gremlin inventor who helps Mickey in the Wasteland. The character would be written to be a combination of his potrayal in the games and Doc Brown from the Back to the Future trilogy
 * Benedict Cumbertbatch as The Blot: An evil creature made of both Paint and Thinner who wishes to destror both the Wasteland and the Cartoon World. Cumbertbatch would define the character as "somebody who not only lives to destroy, and not only loves it, but also someone who has a deep pasion for it, like a painter with his paint. He almost makes the act of destroying life an art". Cumbertbatch would describe the Shadow Blot form as "more focused and restrained" than the full Blot, as he "wants to destroy everything he sees, but he musn't, as it dooms his plans". Director Lauren MacMullen would describe him as "an hybrid between the Blot and the original Phantom Blot", saying that the character "has the Blot's love for chaos and destruction, and the Phantom Blot's criminal mastermind and deceptive nature". Producer Dorothy McKim would describe him as "an anarchist".
 * Dave Wittenberg as the Mad Doctor, the Blot's main ally in his conquest to destroy the Wasteland.

Brenda Song and Amanda Leighton would reprise their roles as Anne Boonchuy and Polly Plantar from the animated Disney TV series Amphibia. Tom Hanks would briefly potray Walt Disney in a live-action sequence at the start of the film, reprising his role form the film Saving Mr. Banks (2013).

Differences from the source material

 * The game is set around the 40's, while the film would be set in modern times.
 * Unlike the game, the film would be a musical.
 * The game starts with a narration by Yen Sid, while the film would start with a live-action/animated sequence depicting Oswald's fall from grace.
 * In the game, the Shadow Blot was created by Mickey after an accident in Yen Sid's workshop, while in the film he would be an accidental creation of Oswald's who was unknowingly banished by Walt Disney by trashing the only sketch in which he appeared.
 * The film would feature more scenes with Mickey in the Cartoon World than the game
 * In the game, Mickey was transported by the Blot to the Wasteland. While this concept would be mostly retained in the film, Mickey would accidentaly give a hand in this version, by weaking the walls between the Cartoon World and the Wasteland while trying to use Yen Sid's magic to become a big star again.
 * The film would feature Oswald and Mickey working together to gather the rocket pieces to get Mickey out of the Wasteland, while in the game Mickey worked alone.
 * Mickey meets Oswald in the Mickeyjunk Muntain in the video game, while, in the film, they would meet at Mean Street. Additionally, their meeting would more hostile in the film, with Oswald attacking Mickey out of anger
 * In the game, The Mad Doctor was defeated by Mickey in his laboratory. In the film, he would instead be defeated by the gargoyles and Djali in the Dark Beauty Castle. Additionally, his defeat in the film would be an inversion of the game, as he was shot up to the sky inside a machine in the game, while, in the film, he would fall to his death instead.

Casting
On the D23 2020, while announcing the film, MacMullan would reveal that Frank Welker would reprise his role from the video game as Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, while Bret Iwan would once again reprise his role as Mickey Mouse. On June 23, 2021, Dave Wittenberg would confirm that he would reprise his role as the Mad Doctor from the video game. On August 24, 2021, Benedict Cumbertbatch would reveal that he would voice both the Blot and the Shadow Blot in the film. On December 12, 2021, Jim Meskimen would be announced to be voicing Gus Gremlin, while Sarah-Nicole Robles would be announced as the voice for Ortensia. During the premiere, Brenda Song and Amanda Leighton would reveal that they would reprise their roles as the voices of Anne and Polly from Disney's animated series Amphibia.

Recording sessions
Most of the film's cast would record their voices separately, througth Iwan and Welker would record their voices together, as MacMullan would feel that their characters' dyanmic would benefit if their actors worked together. Christopher Lloyd, Dave Witterman, and Benedict Cumbertbatch would improvise some of their lines during recording.

Animation
Most of the film would be animated with traditional animation, aside from the scenes taking place in the Cartoon World, which would be animated with computer-animation. According to director Lauren MacMullan, the different animation styles used in the film would be used in order to showcase the contrast between the Cartoon Word and the Wasteland, as he would feel it would make sense to animate the Wasteland with traditional animation as it has been "forgotten" in comparation to the more used computer-animation. According to MacMullan, the animation on the scenes set in the Wasteland would be strongly inpired by films such as The Three Caballeros (1944) and early Disney shorts in order to "further evoke the feeling that the Wasteland is full of things everyone forgot and left behind".

As scenes in the Cartoon World feature characters from animated Disney series, which are made using hand-drawn animation, the animators from those series would be brought as consultants in order to create computer-animated models for the characters that resemble their hand-darwn animated counterparts.

Additionally, a brief flashback with Oswald in the Cartoon World as he's forgotted would be animated with hand-drawn animation, which producer Dorothy McKim would say it would be due to the fact that, at that time, computer-animation wasn't invented, and the filmmakers would feel it would make more sense if the scenes in the Cartoon World were animated with the most popular animation at the time the scene takes place.

Due to his experience with both hand-drawn and computer animation, and due to having animated Mickey in the 1983 featurette Mickey's Christmas Carol, Mark Henn would serve as Mickey's supervising animator. Henn would draw inspirations from the 1930s Mickey Mouse shorts for Mickey's appearance in the Wasteland, while his appearance in the Cartoon World would closely resemble his appearance in the 2013 Mickey Mouse TV series. Andreas Deja, Oswald's supervising animator, would draw inspiration from both the original Oswald shorts and the cinematic sequences of the original videogame for Oswald's appearance in the film, as he would want Oswald to "look just like in the game yet at the same time be physically ready for a fight". due to the shorts' slapstick nature.

Will Finn, the supervising animator for the Blot, would describe the character as "a quite hard job to do", as "his body has to look like its always leaking, yet without really leaking. Its like he was sweating, yet the drops are part of him, and never once they truly fall to the ground. And he has to feel like both a liquid and a solid". Goldberg would draw inspiration from his work as animator for the Genie in Aladdin (1992) in order to "make Will Ferrell's performance felt througth the animation", while the character's appearance in the climax would be strongly based on the character Chernabog from Fantasia (1940). Eric Goldberg would be the supervising animator for Gus Gremlin.

Music
Alan Menken would compose the film's score, which would contain motifs from the videogame's score by James Dooley. According to Johnston, Menken would be hired "as [he] felt natural that the studio's oldest composer scored a film starring its oldest characters".

Menken would say that his score's style would be "changing, reflective of the set", with a score more akin to his recent films during scenes in the Carton World, while his score for the scenes in the Wasteland would be more akin to his earliest scores for The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. For the flasback sequence at the start of the film, Menken would compose a score "very much like those of" Wilfred Jackson and Bert Lewis, who composed Mickey's first released short, Steamboat Willie. Menken would also briefly quote the opening theme for The Owl House, composed by T. J. Hill, for the scene in whch Mickey meets Luz and King, as well as James Newton Howard's score for Treasure Planet for a sequence in Tomorrow City.

Critical reception
The film would have an aproval rating of 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The critical consensus would read, "A wonderful adaptation of a great game that manages to retain its soul in spite of its alterations, Epic Mickey is a visually stunning and emotionally affecting tale that manges to tell a great story by taking its source's characters and concepts and giving them a new look in many ways." On Metacritc, the film would have an weighted average score of 71 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Trivia

 * While Lauren MacMullen would make her feature directorial debut with this film, she had previously made her directorial debut in the 2013 Mickey Mouse short Get a Horse!.
 * MacMullen would be the second female direct if a Walt Disney Animation Studios feature film, after Jennifer Lee, who previously directed the first two Frozen films.
 * She would also be the first female director to direct a Walt Disney Animation Studios film enterily by herself, as Jennifer Lee worked with Chrus Buck on the Frozen films.
 * During the opening sequence featuring Mickey in the Cartoon World, a wedding photo of Mickey and Minnie would be briefly seen, implying that the two are indeed married. This would be further suggested by the fact that both Mickey and Minnie live together, and sleep in the same bed.
 * This would be the first WDAS film to feature characters from a Disney Television Animation series.
 * According to director Lauren MacMullen, Amphibia creator Matt Braly would serve as a consultant for Anne and Polly's appearance in the film.
 * During the opening sequence featuring Mickey in the Cartoon World, a wedding photo of Mickey and Minnie would be briefly seen, implying that the two are indeed married. This would be further suggested by the fact that both Mickey and Minnie live together, and sleep in the same bed.
 * According to MacMullan, the actions of the characters having a "choice and consequence"-role in the movie would be inspired by the game's ending, which showed the positive/negative consequences of the player's decisions in the game. He would felt that featuring such a plot element would "help keep some of the game's essence in the movie" and create a more character-driven plot.

Easter eggs

 * Througth the Wasteland, several "Wanted" posters featuring Disney Villains, such as Ratigan from The Great Mouse Detective (1983) and McLeach from The Rescuers Down Under (1990), would be seen.
 * Several characters from Disney Television Animation would appear at the start of the film, such as Moon Girl, Darkwing Duck, Gosalyn Mallard. Devil Dinosaur, etc.
 * Mickey's first words upon arriving at the Wasteland would be "Hot Dog", a nod to his first lines in the short The Karnival Kid.
 * In the Cartoon World there would be several Hidden Mickeys, while the Wasteland would instead feature "Hidden Oswalds".
 * According to director Lauren MacMullen, this would be in order to further show the contrast between both worlds.
 * While unlocking a door to Tomorrow City's Tomorrow Square, Oswald would use the following color pattern: Red, yellow, green, red, blue, blue, blue, red, purple, green, yellow, orange, red, red. This would be a reference to The Spectrum Song from the first episode of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, "An Adventure in Color/Mathmagicland".
 * The scene in which the Blot is sucked back into the Wasteland would be inspired by the Honred King's death in The Black Cauldron (1985).