EPIC MICKEY: Unfairly Maligned or Failed Wii Product of Spector's? - by Men-E More
june gloom on 19/8/2012 at 10:04
The Mickey cartoons weren't made for children?
What the actual fuck.
Jason Moyer on 19/8/2012 at 11:23
Yeah I saw that. I'm referring more to the way good animation is integrated with the soundtrack. Ub Iwerks and Clampett/Avery were masters of that. Good cel animation has a rhythm to it. The Rogers/Hammerstein thing Spector is doing with Epic Mickey 2 is certainly neat, though.
Jason Moyer on 19/8/2012 at 11:25
Quote Posted by dethtoll
The Mickey cartoons weren't made for children?
What the actual fuck.
Well, unless they were going to see adult feature films, which was the only way to see cartoons before the 60's, then yes, they weren't made for children. The first real cartoons marketed towards kids were probably the Hanna-Barbera stuff in the 60's, like the Huckleberry Hound show and whatever. Well, that and the Disney feature films I guess, but that was still 1937, past the point of Mickey really doing anything. The whole thing with cartoons featuring tons of jokes that kids won't get didn't start as "pandering to parents" or whatever, it was because adults were the ones going to see them and laughing their nuts off.
demagogue on 19/8/2012 at 11:41
I saw some documentary on this (actually the one on Ub Iwerks IIRC; good doc) and I believe the line was some Decency in Cinema Act, like in the 1920s, that cleaned out nudity and sex humor from all films and cartoons in one fell swoop... Before then, they were rife with it, Mickey being a particularly naughty mouse. I think they were meant as more like general audience, because the naughty bits were still pretty tame and I think they didn't think it would kill kids either, at least a little older ones... Think like Betty Boop.
Yakoob on 19/8/2012 at 16:41
So a guy makes a thread about one of TTLG's "key" developers and their undertalked game and he gets shat on for capitalization? And even if the game is not "conversation worthy" sure lets bag on the poster, not the game. Seriously, TTLG, you disappointed me...
Regarding the OP, I never played Epic Mickey but always felt it was just a case of a typical hype/marketing and game mismatch. A tame, enjoyable Disney platformer hyped as an "epic" game from the creators of Deus Exes, System Shocks and Thiefs. I never bought into that hype so never was bothered by the final outcome and, as I said, never checked it out. Not having a Wii, aside...
Vivian on 19/8/2012 at 17:01
I honestly thought he was marketing. Sorry.
Jason Moyer on 19/8/2012 at 18:29
Quote Posted by demagogue
I saw some documentary on this (actually the one on Ub Iwerks IIRC; good doc)
Was it this one? (
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0179496/)
Just curious because the one you describe sounds like something I'd like to see.
demagogue on 20/8/2012 at 06:21
It's been a while so my memory is a bit hazy, but yes I'm almost positive that was it. Great documentary ... Not just of Ub but on the history of animation period.
Edit:
Quote Posted by Yakoob
A tame, enjoyable Disney platformer hyped as an "epic" game from the creators of Deus Exes, System Shocks and Thiefs. I never bought into that hype so never was bothered by the final outcome and, as I said, never checked it out. Not having a Wii, aside...
Yeah, the quote Spector used was something like "I'm tired of making games about guys in black cloaks", which is fair, but I saw a lot of it as he was just more interested in turning to cash-cow franchises like everybody else... Same reason Randy Smith turned to mobile games and some other examples I can't remember just now. But this isn't to say that even cash-cow franchises don't deserve criticism if they don't make a good game... They still do. Well, ok, maybe it's pointless when it's something like FarmVille, where its players deserve the POS game they get... But for this, it's still in the realm of a respectable game and its players can deserve to have better gameplay for EM2.
faetal on 20/8/2012 at 10:31
To be fair, if you've already hit your peak, and attempts to build on it have failed (Deus Ex -> Invisible War), then why not let the new blood take over as the visionaries and you just concentrate on getting paid?
