(Disney Interactive)
When Disney’s latest technological offering hits shelves today, many people will find themselves wondering just who that Mickey clone with the funny ears is.
Well it’s actually Mickey who is the clone.
For the first time in over 80 years, Oswald, Mickey’s precursor and the character who served as Walt Disney’s inspiration for the beloved mouse, will be playing a major role in a Disney production. In this case, Oswald appears in Disney’s Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two video game.
Because it has been over 80 years since Oswald was first introduced, there are many things that the world does not know about the mischievous rabbit, such as he served as the template for Mickey and that he was recently reacquired by Disney in a trade that sent one of the legendary sports broadcasters to NBC in order to bring Oswald home.
Oswald, or Oswald the Lucky Rabbit as he was known way back in 1927 when Walt Disney created him, was the first animated character that the legendary cartoonist conceptualized. In 1928, Disney lost the rights to Oswald in a dispute with Universal, and rather than fight, Disney went on to create Mickey Mouse and the rest is history.
“People like to think about Walt Disney as always being this legend, but in 1927 he was a 26-year-old animator who had never really done anything too successful,” Warren Spector, creative director at Junction Point Studios, the company responsible for making the video game franchise, told The Post.
Oswald was lost in the shuffle, becoming forgotten as years past, but the long-eared rabbit still remained dear to Disney’s heart.
Fast-forward to the mid-2000’s when the NFL’s broadcasting contracts came due and NBC won the rights to air the Sunday Night Football game and Disney (which owns both ABC and ESPN) retained the rights to Monday Night Football.
NBC, which wanted Al Michaels to call their Sunday night game of the week, made a deal with a ABC, which involved sending the rights to Oswald back to Disney in exchange for Michaels, whose broadcasting career his highlighted by years of Monday Night Football and of course, the immortal “Do you believe in miracles?” call from the 1980 Olympic gold medal hockey game between the United States and the then-Soviet Union.
Like that, the deal was done.
“Trading a human being for a cartoon character, that’s pretty nuts,” Spector said. “You can’t make that stuff up.”
Jump ahead another five years and Oswald is finally ready to make his big return, only it won’t be in a cartoon. Oswald’s “debut” comes in a video game, Disney’s Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, signifying just how far the gaming industry has come that an animation juggernaut like Disney is rolling out a “new” character in a video game.
“We’re an entertainment medium on par with TV, movies and music,” Spector said. “Disney’s commitment to has been incredible. Disney has been in it consistently since the beginning.”
The man in charge of bringing Oswald to life is Spector, who describes himself as “obsessed” with Oswald and Mickey.
“If you love animation, you kind of have to love Disney,” Spector told The Post. “So when they came and asked me if I wanted to do a Mickey Mouse game, it was like ‘who says no to that?’
“They’re going to let me work with one of the best known actors in the world, if you look at it one way, and then let me bring back Walt Disney’s first ever character. I look at it as being a footnote in history.”
There is some pressure, Spector admitted.
“It’s a huge responsibility,” Spector said. “You don’t want to be the guy who screws [Mickey Mouse] up. Everybody has a relationship with Mickey Mouse. With Oswald, how many chances do you get to come back from obscurity? The fact that Disney trusted us with that task, is pretty incredible.”
In addition to his debut, Oswald is also getting a voice for the first time. Oswald will be voiced by renowned voice actor Frank Welker, who has lent his vocal chords to such beloved characters as Scooby Doo and Garfield in the past.
As if the sheer size and anticipation of Oswald’s video game debut wasn’t enough, the lucky rabbit has begun to pop up in other Disney venues. Oswald Ears are currently being sold in Disney Parks, the first time ears other than Mickey Mouse’s have been sold, and Oswald even has his own “pumping station” at California Adventure.
“We have to keep on pushing so we can get [Oswald] into movies, cartoons and television shows,” Spector said. “That would be my dream for this little guy”
Disney’s Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two hits stores on November 18 and is available for the Xbox 360, PS3 and Nintendo Wii.
asulla-heffinger@nypost.com