Inside The Mouse Castle 12-15-2014 - Club 33 Meets 21 Royal Street, Oswald's 'Empty Socks' and 'Star Wars' Trading Cards

Le Salon Nouveau at Club 33.

Is there a new restaurant opening next door to Disneyland's Club 33? Is it just a private dining room? Is it for Club 33 members only? Will it ever be open to the general public. What the hell is the fuss all about?

In the latest Inside The Mouse Castle, Anthony and I take on the growing controversy (that seriously doesn't need to be one) over the announced opening of 21 Royal Street. It's a small dining venue for groups of no more than 16. It's geared for Club 33 members, but Disney hasn't ruled out opening up reservations for non-members at a later date. Time will tell. What we do know is it will be open for business sometime in January or February. Stay tuned. 

Also on today's show:

• A long lost Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon was discovered in Norway. Empty Socks was the 12th of 26 Oswald shorts released by Walt Disney from 1927 to 1928.
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens trading cards? Sure, why not? Entertainment Weekly gave us a tease from J.J. Abrams identifying who some of the new characters are in the recently released trailer. Will there be an actual set of Episode VII trading cards? We can only hope.
• At an event sponsored by Variety last week, Bob Iger announced that upcoming theme park attractions based on Star Wars would use the newer movies as their inspiration. I guess that means there no speeder bike races on Endor anytime soon.
• A new trailer for Pixar's Inside Out has been released. It's good.  I mean really good.

• Will Spider-Man ever make the crossover into the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Apparently Marvel and Disney have been talking to Sony about it. That's one of the less traumatic revelations to come out of Sony's uber-embarrassing mass hacking. There's still time to work Spidey into Captain America: Civil War. Just sayin'.

Enjoy!

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Inside The Mouse Castle 09-02-2014 - The Disneyland Half Marathon, Oswald at Disney California Adventure and Finding 'Lava'

I'm back from Anaheim with all the news from the Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend. Meanwhile, Anthony is up to his fourth viewing of "Guardians of the Galaxy," which returned to number one at the U.S. box office in its fifth week of release.

Also in this episode of Inside the Mouse Castle:

• Oswald the Lucky Rabbit will begin making character appearances at Disney California Adventure on September 14. Can Duffy please go now?

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit at DCA.
Photo courtesy the Disney Parks Blog.

• On Saturday, 101 dogs decked out in Disney duds invaded the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World as part of the Disney Side Dog's Day. The event featured a doggy dance party, a walk down Main Street to Cinderella Castle and a costume contest. Animal Planet was on hand to shoot footage for the upcoming special America's Cutest: Disney Side Howl-O-Ween hosted by John O'Hurley.

It's a Disney Side Dog's Day at Walt Disney World
with Pluto, Animal Planet host John O'Hurley and a few friends.

• The Story of Frozen: Making a Disney Animated Classic airs tonight on ABC. You know, just in case you haven't heard anything about the film.
• Pixar released the first film clip from Lava, the animated short opening with Inside Out next June. It's the story of a lonely, love-starved, musical volcano, or as Pixar describes it, "a musical love story that takes place over millions of years."
  

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'Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two' Doesn't Live Up to Expectations

I've spent the last couple of days revisiting Wasteland, the mythical world of forgotten Disney dreams, in the new Epic Mickey installment, Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two.

A few hours into the game, I was already tiring of it.

Despite the added dimension of tandem play between Mickey Mouse and his new best friend Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Epic Mickey 2 really breaks no new ground in the franchise. Like its predecessor, it looks great with plenty of clever and imaginative visual treats that will impress any bona fide Disney geek (I'm particularly fond of the Pink Elephants on Parade that populate various hidden rooms and secret passages on Mean Street, Epic Mickey 2's twisted take on Main Street, U.S.A.), but that still doesn't change the fact that the game is bogged down with tedious and repetitive game play that feels exactly the same as the first installment.

In Epic Mickey 2, the intrepid mouse is called back to Wasteland to help save it once again from epic destruction. This time, the world is being ravaged by earthquakes and strange forces that the villainous Mad Doctor from part one says he can fix (in song, no less) with the help of some friends with heart. Has the Doc turned over a new leaf? Should he be given a second chance? Personally, I don't trust him--and neither do the characters of Wasteland.

Equipped with his trusty magic paint brush, Mickey sets out to repair the damage and solve puzzles using paint to build and create and thinner to erase and destroy. By his side, he also has Oswald, who can use a remote control to activate machines and zap bad guys with electricity. Oswald automatically tags along with Mickey in single-player mode, but he's definitely more useful when he's under the control of a second player. How the duo uses the tools at their disposal determines the direction of the game play. There are always choices to make that affect future outcomes.

If most of this sounds familiar, it's because it is. The Power of Two is basically the first Epic Mickey with a two-player mode and different scenery. It does make some improvements from the original, like better camera movement and real dialogue in place of the gibberish characters used to spout (Frank Welker does a fine job voicing Oswald). It also adds interesting new areas to explore like Disney Gulch (Frontierland), Fort Wasteland (Tom Sawyer Island), and especially the best lands of the bunch, Rainbow Falls and Rainbow Caverns, which are at once homages to Disneyland's Mine Train and the Seven Dwarfs' Mine. I was also partial to this boss encounter with a maniacal, mechanical Pete's Dragon in Main Street Electrical Parade mode.

Still, this is all window dressing for a game that makes you slog through quest after repetitive quest--all reminiscent of the original Epic Mickey--to get to the good stuff. This may play well for gamers who missed out the first time (Epic Mickey was only available on Wii; Epic Mickey 2 is available across all major game console platforms), but if you've played Epic Mickey already, The Power of Two is going to feel more like an expansion pack of additional worlds than a full-blown original game.

I had high hopes for Epic Mickey 2. I came away disappointed.

Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two will be available tomorrow for Xbox360, PS3, Wii, Wii U, PC and MAC.

Related Stories:
Back to the Wasteland: Mickey and Oswald Reunite for 'Epic Mickey 2'
From Wilderness to Wasteland: Frontierland's Warped Virtual Makeover

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From Wilderness to Wasteland: Frontierland's Warped Virtual Makeover

Aerial view of Frontierland, 1960

I'm continually fascinated and impressed with the level of imagination that goes into creating the Wasteland worlds in the Disney Epic Mickey video games. This alternate universe of forgotten characters, merchandise and theme park attractions is a visual delight full of subtle and not-so-subtle Disney references. For me, the game play is almost incidental to just looking around and exploring the bizarre, kitschy environments that Warren Spector and his team of game developers have concocted.

The next installment of the series, Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, will see Mickey Mouse and his famed predecessor Oswald the Lucky Rabbit team up to save Wasteland from certain destruction. At this weekend's Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) in Seattle, gamers got a hands-on opportunity to explore Fort Wasteland, a new virtual locale based on the Frontierland of long ago. Think Salvador Dali meets the Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland and Fort Wilderness (with a touch of Indian Village and Bear Country thrown in) and you kind of get the idea.

Compare the Fort Wasteland game play to this 1964 footage from Disneyland (jump to 3:03 to see Frontierland). From moose heads to totem poles to weird rock formations, it's fun to spot where the game developers got their inspirations from.

Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two will be available November 18 on all major gaming platforms. You can pre-order now on Amazon.

For more Fort Wasteland concept art and screen shots, please visit our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/themousecastle.

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Back to the Wasteland: Mickey and Oswald Reunite for 'Epic Mickey 2'

Mickey Mouse and Oswald, together again.

This fall, Mickey Mouse returns to Wasteland and makes nice with his cartoon rival Oswald when the video game adventure Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two makes its debut. It promises to be an improvement on its predecessor.

Epic Mickey was a popular title for Disney Interactive Studios and game developer Junction Point when it was released in 2010, but it was criticized for issues with its POV camera that made it difficult to navigate Mickey through the twisted alternate reality of forgotten Disney characters and theme park attractions. Gamers were also disappointed that Mickey (along with all the other characters) didn't speak except for uttering squeaky gibberish.

Both these issues are expected to be remedied in Epic Mickey 2. Game play will be more fluid and not only will the characters talk, they'll also break into song. The Power of Two isn't just going to be an epic adventure. It's going to be a musical.

OK, I'm in.

I'm a fan of the original Epic Mickey and found the criticisms leveled at it to be mostly nitpicking. The game play to me was almost secondary to the detailed Disney-on-crack levels that designer Warren Spector and his team put together: a forbidding "Mean Street" in place of Main Street, U.S.A., a violent and psychotic "It's a Small World" clock, a jealous and vindictive Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. And, despite the perverse look the game took at its subject matter, it still managed to pay loving homage to over 80 years of Disney movie and theme park magic.

In Epic Mickey 2, Wasteland will once again be fraught with troubles that the intrepid mouse will have to resolve with the use of paint to repair and thinner to dissolve. There will be tandem play that will bring Oswald to Mickey's side with a handy remote control that channels electricity. There will be original songs inspired by classic Disney music and plenty of new and different levels to explore in Wasteland.

Yes, we have screen shots to share:

Unlike the original Epic Mickey, Epic Mickey 2 will be available not only on Nintendo Wii, but also on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

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New Disney Digicomics Reveal Secrets of 'Epic Mickey' Wasteland

"The fun of adventuring is finding out for yourself."

And so begins Disney's latest Digicomic app for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, which offers some clever insight for gamers chomping at the bit for the new Epic Mickey game for the Wii console coming out on November 30.

The app contains character profiles and digital comic book stories about the Wasteland, the magical world created by Fantasia's sorcerer Yen Sid that contains all the lost and forgotten ideas in Disney history.  Wasteland is an off-kilter Magic Kingdom, presided over by Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Disney's first cartoon star.

We discover Wasteland in the time prior to it being decimated by the actions of a certain overly-curious mouse. Here are some of the details, which may or may not factor into the actual game. (spoilers ahead):

• Oswald is a content resident of Wasteland, but he harbors a deep resentment towards Mickey Mouse, who had the amazing career Oswald believes he was entitled to.
• Oswald has 420 children, all named Oswald.
• Oswald's lady love is Ortensia, who looks an awful lot like Dot from Animaniacs.  No word if she's the baby mama of the 420 kids.
• Oswald's best buddies are Goofy and Donald Duck. Not the original characters, mind you, but Audio-Animatronic copies.
• Oswald's feet detach from his body and can be rubbed together for luck. His head and hands detach too. Not sure how lucky that is.
• Horace Horsecollar is a private investigator for the Neighsayer Detective Agency in Wasteland.
• Clarabelle Cow and the Mad Doctor run the Misadventurers Club, a tribute to Walt Disney World's now defunct Adventurers Club. Kungaloosh!
• Wasteland's Haunted Mansion equivalent is called Lonesome Manor. It's named for the 1937 Mickey Mouse cartoon Lonesome Ghosts.
• The It's a Small World clock tower in Wasteland gets annoyed having to play the same music over and over again (just like real life, we suspect).

The Disney Epic Mickey Digicomics app is free and includes one comic book story. Five additional comics can be purchased for $2.99.

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