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4[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/epic_mickey_nf.png]]
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7''[[MemeticMutation Kill the mouse. Take his house.]]''
8
9Yeah, ''VideoGame/EpicMickey''. Joining the NightmareFuel-ish ranks of [[{{NightmareFuel/Disney}} the family tradition.]]
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11Picture everything you loved as a kid about Creator/{{Disney}}. Now picture it in a broken down AmusementParkOfDoom. Basically, you get this [[VideoGame game]]. [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids We're as surprised as you are that it only got an E rating.]]
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14* Creator/WarrenSpector is [[InvokedTrope actually aiming for this in the first place]]: after speaking of luring people in with nostalgia and then surprising them, he stated "On top of that, I really want to scare kids. I want to go to [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Disneyland]] and see a 10 year old kid crying: oh mommy, [[{{Foreshadowing}} the clock tower's going to come to life and eat me!]] That's my fondest dream. [[{{NightmareFuel/Disney}} Disney scared the pants off me when I was a little kid.]] Creator/{{Disney}} needs to scare kids!". Going by NightmareFuel, the fact he's doing this on purpose makes this title, although only potentially, as scary as a ''Franchise/SilentHill'' game, especially considering the fact that this is the guy who brought us the legendary and terrifying ''VideoGame/SystemShock'' series.
15* Some of the early ConceptArt had this effect as well, even more so when coupled with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2U3dQBjE8Q the rumored released soundtrack]] which sounds like a twisted and [[MindScrew mind screwing]] version of the soundtracks Creator/{{Walt|Disney}} used in his older movies. [[http://i.imgur.com/LMacW01.jpg For example, there's a cyborg-like]] EldritchAbomination of a mash-up between Disney characters. Of course, [[FanArt fan artists]] took the concept and ran with it, [[http://attacksloth.deviantart.com/art/Why-Didn-t-Daddy-Love-Me-139521712?q=sort%3Atime+gallery%3Aattacksloth&qo=1 with]] [[http://gblastman.deviantart.com/art/Epic-Mickey-Brainless-Mickey-146718728 very]] [[http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/9451/1097817-1249353002411_super.jpg predictable]] [[https://www.deviantart.com/kokorotoyume/art/Oswald-s-Question-263850797 and]] [[http://azurawatson93.deviantart.com/art/Epic-Mickey-INKIFIED-Oswald-170139626 definitely]] [[http://gregthecatofgordawn.deviantart.com/art/Epic-Mickey-is-now-Inky-132618555 unsettling]] [[http://winter-freak.deviantart.com/art/Don-t-Forget-Oswald-139664655 results]] [[http://nekoama.deviantart.com/art/It-s-Oswald-Time-139594923 as]] [[http://xxboogiepopxx.deviantart.com/art/LOST-and-FOUND-140300347 well.]] [[http://sso02v.deviantart.com/art/I-m-So-Cold-139477110 Yep.]]
16** [[http://kotaku.com/5325198/this-looks-like-art-from-warren-spectors-steampunk-disney-game The initial concept art]] implied a more steampunk-style Creator/{{Disney}} [[VideoGame game]]. The twisted, blasted landscapes and run-down [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Disneyland]] landmarks are one thing, [[http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/kotaku/2009/07/steamgoof.jpg but this]] is quite another, what with the elephant-bot (which looks like it came right out of '[[color:pink:Pink]] elephants on parade') with hooks for hands, soulless dead eyes, and a skeletal, spindly torso which barely even resembles an elephant, and the equally horrifying no-eyed-one-armed WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}}-bot on the right. Also the disney-character-mashup that borders on BodyHorror. As far as official art goes, there's [[http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/8427/7558epicmickey2d00cover.jpg later artwork]] from the cover of Game Informer, and, for an even scarier version of the Phantom Blot, [[http://www.wiitalia.it/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/phantom-blot-epic-mickey-disney-videogame-wii.jpg there's the one that wouldn't look out of place in an]] Music/IronMaiden album cover.
17** The developers originally planned to put the song "It's a Small World" in it, only played [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tyOZP62lzM backwards.]]
18* ConceptArt of Mickey's powers had him [[http://hamilton74.deviantart.com/art/Epic-Mickey-Attacking-193974282 firing ink and thinner from his hands rather than a brush]], evoking a LovecraftianSuperpower-vibe. [[http://hamilton74.deviantart.com/art/Thinner-Mickey-193969166 Thinner Mickey]]'s concept art had him with fangs and claws similar to Julius Mickey from ''WesternAnimation/RunawayBrain'', and the ink bubbling and melting off of him to reveal the lineart below.
19* [[http://hamilton74.deviantart.com/art/Epic-Mickey-Storm-Blot-193975504 This concept art]] of Oswald mixed with the Blot, back when he was going to be the main villain.
20* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WtL4B-V0J4 The opening sequence]] has Mickey Mouse essentially being dragged to a [[CrapsackWorld hellish dystopia]] by an EldritchAbomination.
21* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK7k7AZVMYA The cutscene right after the opening sequence]] is arguably even worse. Mickey, strapped to the Mad Doctor's table, is threatened by a robot with a creepy eye, wielding giant scissors, a drill, and a chainsaw, all of which stand mere inches from his face. He then nearly has his [[MacGuffin heart]] ripped out of his body. The terror factor is lessened somewhat by the fact that the [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking final tool]] is [[NightmareRetardant a toilet plunger]], but even then, ''Series/DoctorWho'' fans familiar with [[NightmareFuel/DoctorWho the Nightmare fuel they have to deal with themselves]] may argue that [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E6Dalek being plungered to death is a legitimate concern.]]
22* In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVuYJ09HXgI another cutscene,]] [[{{Sidekick}} Gus]] has a {{flashback}} to the [[WorldWreckingWave thinner spill]] that started the whole {{plot}} off in the first place. In the {{flashback}}, we see four extras watching, essentially, a tsunami of thinner overtake the area they're in. Three of them run out of the way, but one stands rooted to the spot, watching. When the wave passes, he's not there anymore.
23** In the Japanese version, the tsunami is replaced with a gas that is shown transforming Dark Beauty Castle into its decayed state shown in the game.
24* This [[http://doope.jp/media/10q3/img1825_02.jpg picture]] reveals [[EldritchAbomination the Shadow Blot's]] true form: big enough to squash you like a bug, who [[spoiler: at the end of the game you've got to fight it from the inside]].
25* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUzEkepSQqg The Clock Tower]] and the [[SlasherSmile demented]] [[http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/2316/clocktowerg.png grin]] it sports. The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtKKDjPJVHo music]] doesn't help matters, either, which in turn are made worse by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2zwo2Vjr1s adding the lyrics being sung by children:]] this idea, as a little piece of trivia, was originally going to be used in the game. Music aside, the Clock Tower is also made immensely disturbing because of how you fight it when using [[color:green:Thinner]]: [[spoiler: basically, you have to melt the [[color:blue:blue]] metal armour it has covering its brittle mechanical hands, so that when it pounds the floor to attack you, the force shatters them apart. Not only does the impact look very painful (anyone who's ever broken their arm by hitting something will concur), but the hydraulic pipes that line the exposed arm [[LudicrousGibs start bleeding profusely]]. Its face even starts bleeding after intense damage; then, after breaking its arms up completely, the tower mutters a few lines about how his time is up, then, in a mini-cut-scene, one of the arms falls off, its face falls into the thinner lake, and the remaining arm stump blindly feels for its missing head before falling off itself. You then have to walk on them to leave the area. Finally, in the ending, where you see what happened to everyone after you left, you can see the clock tower still in pieces floating in the thinner lake, [[AndIMustScream unable to move and eternally in intense pain]].]] The "WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids" aspect is all over the place with this boss. Making matters worse is that it's the CANON choice as Mickey is shown using Thinner to beat it in the novel, graphic novel and the intro for ''2''.
26** Notice how the Clock Tower's yellow face is washed away in the beginning of the boss fight. This means that you're not only fighting a creepy SlasherSmile: you're fighting the equivalent of a smiling skull.
27* Mickey literally melting after being unable to escape the thinner pools. Because thinner is this game's equivalent of the Dip from NightmareFuel/WhoFramedRogerRabbit, and even Oswald's kids can fall in there.
28* The Asian dragon head around all the toon backdrops is creepily realistic.
29* [[spoiler:Ortensia]]'s [[AndIMustScream fate]]: TakenForGranite. She is revealed to be fine at end.
30* The three towers of Dark Beauty Castle you have to set fireworks in, where [[EldritchAbomination the Shadow Blot]] goes out of his way to make [[JumpScare scary entrances at every turn.]] The last level takes place [[spoiler: inside the Shadow Blot]], where you have to retrieve [[spoiler:[[MacGuffin Mickey's heart]].]]
31* The enemies that can only be found in the last level are [[spoiler: lost cartoon souls trapped inside [[EldritchAbomination the Shadow Blot]]]] and as such show such features as their [[ZombieGait zombie-like gait]], their gurgling sounds, and their vaguely cartoonish shape. They can't actually die, but they are literally [[spoiler: destroyed once you clear the Bloticles from their area of [[EldritchAbomination the Blot]]. These are Creator/{{Disney}} Toons, just like WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}}, Horace, or Mickey himself.]] [[{{Sidekick}} Gus]] says, "It looks like they melted... I hope that freed them... somehow...". In a sense, they got their freedom via CessationOfExistence. The graphic novels confirm this by way of Animatronic Daisy showing up as one of the Lost Toons in the first one and then she shows up in the graphic novel for 2, alive and well.
32* It's subtly shown that [[WesternAnimation/OswaldTheLuckyRabbit Oswald]] [[spoiler:originally planned to steal [[MacGuffin Mickey's heart]] after he found the pieces of the Moonliner Rocket.]] He has a [[{{Pun}} change of heart]] by the end, but that doesn't make it any less unsettling.
33* Mickeyjunk Mountain, at first, is just a cool mountain made entirely up of retro Mickey merchandise; it stops being "cool" as soon as you realize that this is [[WesternAnimation/OswaldTheLuckyRabbit Oswald]]'s hideout, so Oswald most likely built the entire thing, having spent all that time collecting Mickey stuff and trashing it to make a sort of a mocking monument. Basically, its an unsettling Mickey-based StalkerShrine. Then, we find out [[spoiler: that [[EldritchAbomination the real Shadow Blot]] is imprisoned at the peak.]] As you travel higher up the mountain, [[color:blue:blue]] smears start to appear on the ground. Take a good look at them. The ground has been stained with the paint of dead bunny kids. You can still see their terrified expressions. In the highest outside level of Mickeyjunk Mountain, where you turn and see on the side of the mountain what essentially is a colossal Mickey Mouse skull. And if you go over to the bars separating you from the thinner river, it's staring right at you.
34** Said Mountain is also made unsettling by the disembodied Mickey heads (like the Mickey spray cans you have to paint in), thanks to their venture on {{uncanny valley}} with their giant, black, unblinking eyes.
35*** Those "spray cans" are actually gas masks. And like the rest of the stuff in this zone, [[http://youtu.be/Lv_NpnX8Z5o?t=3m2s they existed in the real world]], though even the Disney Archives only has pictures and an incomplete piece of one.
36*** Also, Oswald's kids basically eat blotlings for breakfast. No, really. They literally just eat them alive when one gets close enough. Considering what we learn about Blotlings in Epic Mickey 2...
37* The [[spoiler:true]] Shadow Blot is eerily reminiscent of [[{{WesternAnimation/Fantasia}} Chernabog.]] Additionally, towards the end, he takes over Dark Beauty Castle and thus also decides to imitate [[WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty Maleficent]], with his horns curving and ink oozing from his arms to resemble long robed sleeves.
38* WesternAnimation/TheMadDoctor himself. The things that he implied for cutting up Mickey (scissors, drill, chainsaw) [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking before settling for a plunger]] is funny at first, but had he not needed his heart, he probably would have gone for the first three methods just to satisfy his own sadistic interests, the same as he did when he tried to cut off Pluto's head so he could stick it to a chicken's body in [[WesternAnimation/TheMadDoctor the original short]].
39* In the Ticket Booth area after Slalom, at the very beginning of the game, one might notice that some of the dolls are arranged like either some of the dolls jumped off a building and others are looking at their broken bodies from the top of the building, or the dolls on the building have pushed the broken dolls off.
40* The Bloticles worm their way around, and through, everything you see, as well as suck up all the paint around them by merely existing. And [[spoiler: you see them in every friendly region you've been to. That is, they've invaded every corner of Wasteland. Nowhere is safe. Everywhere you go, the Bloticles are there.]]
41* [[WesternAnimation/PeterPan Captain Hook]] [[spoiler:turning his crew into robots]]. Thankfully, you can reverse it and if you do, you gain a humorously heartwarming cutscene.
42** Around the ship you battle him on, you can find multiple ''[[DemBones human skeletons]]'', all who appear to have been tortured in some way or the other. That's extremely dark for a Disney game.
43* Near the beginning of the game, you'll be given an option: Save Gremlin Calvin, or get some E-Tickets. If you go for the E-Tickets, Calvin's launched and won't reappear later in Gremlin Village. [[NothingIsScarier This particular moral choice doesn't get an epilogue, so exactly what happened to him is up to you.]]

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