There’s no doubt a majority of people are gonna disagree with me on this on. But it’s something I wanted to talk about and it’s still something debated even today:
Mickey’s Magic Paint Brush: The very same that he used in Epic Mickey. Well, it’s less the Paint Brush itself and more the “Paint Thinner” that the paint brush creates which is capable of melting Mickey’s environment or even his enemies.
A lot of people see it as a be all end all; a weapon that can melt literally anything and everything. Despite this, the stuff I discovered give it a major nerf that I’m sure people are gonna argue/debate me about.
Basically, I’m here to argue why the The Magic Paint Brush’s “Thinner” DOES NOT bypass all forms of durability, nor does it just automatically erase everything immediately.
Plus Paint Thinner cannot melt away just anything on the spot either, as some characters are tough enough to survive the thinner in not just gameplay, but also cut scenes and comics.
A long time ago I heard this argument about the Magical Paint Brush:
“Epic Mickey 2 takes place in the real world, and Mickey’s paint thinner can melt stuff there! If it can melt real world things, it can melt everything!”
… Um… did these people even PLAY the game? Epic Mickey 2 takes place almost ENTIRELY within the waste land. The fact that it’s called the waste land, has the same locations as the Waste Land, and the fact that Oswald and the other citizens of the wasteland are walking around (Keep in mind that inhabitants of the wasteland cannot LEAVE with out a ‘heart’ which no one in the Waste Land has)
I suppose they’re talking about the beginning of the game where Mickey Mouse enters Yen-Sid’s house, and he’s capable of using the paint brush outside of the waste land by melting/painting/manipulating things around Yen-Sid’s house with both paint and thinner.
I think many people misinterpreted Yen-Sid’s house as being the “Real World”, which lead to this confusion.
Till this day I am still hearing people say that the “Magic Paint Brush” negates/bypasses all form of durability, and while I’ve always been skeptical, after researching the Epic Mickey Lore I found out more about it:
In these games, it turns out that Mickey Mouse resides within the “Cartoon World”, which is essentially a world inhabited by not only Mickey and friends, but also many other Disney characters outside of the Mickey Mouse cast from their various other films during the years such as Peter Pan, Beauty and the Beast, Pinnochio, ect.
This is further elaborated on in the game “Epic Mickey; Power of Illusion” which is part of the Epic Mickey series of games in which the antagonist “Mizerabel” (A former forgotten villain from the game “Castle of Illusion” that winded up in the Wasteland) uses her powers to pull the inhabitants of the “Cartoon World” into the wasteland so she can use their powers to end the cartoon world:
According to Warren Spector (Who was pretty much the one who put the story for Epic Mickey together and had a huge part in it’s development); “The Cartoons living in the cartoon world have no idea that they are cartoons made for people to watch. Once the characters that live in the Toon World become forgotten, neglected, retired, ect; they are sent to the Wasteland.”
So why am I bringing this up? What does the Cartoon World have to do with Yen-Sid’s work shop? Well it’s simple:
Yen-Sid’s home (the same place where he keeps the Wasteland as well as the magic paint brush and where the opening of Epic Mickey 2 takes place) is NOT part of the real world; it’s part of the toon world itself. Yes, Mickey travels to Yen Sid’s house through unconventional means via mirror, but remember; it’s the TOON world. Magic and weird cartoony stuff happens there all the time.
Still not convinced? Let’s talk about Yen-Sid:
Yen-Sid’s name is a reference to Walt Disney himself (Yano, DISNEY backwards) who’s a real world person. Does this make him a real life person who resides in the real world? Yes, he did create the Wasteland, but that doesn’t mean he’s a cartoonist and he’s never addressed as such. According to the comic book “Tales of the Wasteland” (Which is canon and takes place before the events of the first game):
“Walt Disney’s boundless imagination resulted in a creation whose potential even he didn’t realize: Yen Sid, the formidable Wizard from Fantasia, who is basically Walt’s alter ego. It was Yen Sid who crafted Wasteland as a home for Walt’s forgotten creations, serving as a benevolent, albeit unseen creator, watching from “on high” and enjoying their antics.
Of course, he could not have forseen that history would eventually repeat itself as his former “sorcerer’s apprentice”, Mickey Mouse, would accidentally have an important role in the destiny of Wasteland…”
Yes, it does say he is “basically Walt’s alter ego” but look at what it says BEFORE that: “Walt Disney’s imagination resulting in a creation whose potential even he didn’t realize: Yen Sid, the formidable Wizard from Fantasia” this implies that Yen-Sid is a CREATION of Walt’s imagination and not necessarily Walt Disney himself. The whole “Walt’s alter ego” part might just mean he’s based off Disney (Since, let’s face it; who here HASN’T made a character based off themselves who is their avatar/alter ego?) but it doesn’t imply he is 100% Walt Disney himself in the flesh.
(Let’s not forget Yen-Sid also appeared in the sorcerer’s apprentice; which is a cartoon that Mickey is famous for even in Epic Mickey, meaning he is even more likely a toon from that world)
So Yen-Sid is a toon, and his work shop is located in the toon world and NOT the real world. What’s this have to do with the magic paint brush?
Well because it turns out that both the wasteland AND Mickey’s world contain a material know as “Toon”. Toon is something that not just cartoon characters in the Disney Universe are made out of, but even a lot of the material that makes up their worlds in general.
When all paint is sucked out from “Toon”, it becomes a different material known as “Inert”. Inert is hollow and transparent (Hence why you can still see outlines/shapes of structures that Mickey melts with thinner during gameplay and why he can fill them with paint later) while cartoon people who are rendered “Inert” are either melted or turned into a petrified statue (Hence what happened to Ortensia after she sacrificed herself to seal the “Phantom Blot” inside of a giant bottle)
And before you say “Well it can still melt EVERYTHING/ANYTHING! It doesn’t have to be made of ‘TOON’ for it to matter!” We have some examples of Paint Thinner not always being effective/reliable:
First off, Thinner seems much less effective on enemies who are made of metal. Yes, it can still melt through metallic enemies, but it takes quite a bit of thinner to do so. A good example is the Mad Doctor during the “Bad Ending” in Epic Mickey 2.
The mad Doctor was completely unharmed by the spray of thinner that Mickey shot and him, and it was clearly a direct hit. Yes, I am aware that the Mad Doctor does die when he falls into an entire pool/lake filled with thinner, but that’s just it; it took more thinner than Mickey’s magical paint brush to generate in order to do him in.
So the magical paint brush truly bypasses all durability, why was it so ineffective here?
Probably because the material that the animatronics in that world are made out of are not made of “Toon” OR “Inert”, but something else entirely.
Even if one can argue that Mickey could generate that much Thinner, there’s no evidence that Mickey’s paint brush can spray out a pool/lake’s worth of thinner, and even if he can he wouldn’t be able to do so quickly. Mickey’s thinner can only spray so much before he needs to wait for it to recharge, and even then it doesn’t produce enough thinner at a fast enough rate for it to accumulate enough to fill an entire pool/lake.
“Well that doesn’t count! It’s plot induced stupidity! Plus that ending is non-canon anyway since it’s the bad ending!”
Alright, well what about the Beetleworx? Those robotic/animatronic enemies from both Epic Mickey games? It’s consistent that most of the time, it can take quite a few sprays of paint thinner to finally melt them down or expose their weak spots. In fact, the bigger the Beetleworx, the more thinner is required in order to melt it down, and they can be a real pain in the but to wear down over time.
In Epic Mickey Power of Two: The one who stands a better chance at fighting the Beetleworx and robotic enemies in general is Oswald himself due to his use of the remote, which is use specifically to deal with the Beetleworx better than Mickey’s paint brush can. On the subject of Epic Mickey 2; bosses like the Blotworx Dragon are SO durable that it takes LOADS of thinner for Mickey’s paint brush to do so and it took three phases for them to properly destroy it. And even then, Oswald has to assist by using his remote to stun the thing.
Again, it’s likely the animatronics in this world AREN’T made out of ‘Toon’ or ‘Inert’, but out of a substance that not even the toons can figure out:
There are also enemies known as “Blockers” who can put up force fields that block Mickey’s thinner from harming them entirely, Mickey needs to use another method to make them open up (Such as Oswald using his remote to stun them/open them up or Mickey hopping on their heads to make them pop open before he can attack again) to reveal the blotling (A smaller squishy enemies made of paint and thinner) inside that’s controlling it. (There are also cages that contain force fields around them that Mickey’s thinner can’t penetrate, so Oswald is needed to use his remote)
Same applies to enemies like “Rockers” and “Shockers” who can’t be hurt by thinner unless they are forced open to reveal the vulnerable blotlings on the inside. (Heck, those animatronic/robotic enemies or enemies piloting mech suits are immune to being pacified by paint as well. They can be slowed down by the paint gunking up their mechanisms, but they will continue to attack no matter how much paint is sprayed on them)
Again, if the thinner could erase literally anything, why can’t it penetrate/erase those barriers and why can they barely do anything to those animatronic foes? Junk DOES end up in the wastelands that isn’t made of ‘toon’ after all, and it’s likely salvaged and use to construct things such as the enemies I just went over.
“That’s just game play! It doesn’t count!”
Alright, well what about the comics? In game, the “Blotworx Dragon” took a LOT of hits before going down, and took the combined effort of Mickey and Oswald to defeat. In the comics, it’s hide was so thick that Mickey’s paint thinner wasn’t enough to erase it. Oswald even explains that that they could only destroy the Blotworx Dragon in a thousand strokes of thinner:
“Well that’s just an adaptation! It’s not canon what so ever! And even if it was it would still be an instance of plot induced stupidty!”
So what you’re saying that the Magic Paint Brush is still a be-all-end-all that surpasses ALL durability and instantly kills anything, despite evidence that it has a hard time eating away at non-toon materials in cut scenes, gameplay, and an official piece of licensed merchandise by brushing it all off as PIS, gameplay only, and/or non-canon? Especially when most of the information seems rather consistent all across?
Well I argue that saying Mickey’s magical paint brush thinner bypasses ALL durability and can immediately melt any foe is a massive no-limits-fallacy, especially when it’s failed to immediately destroy enemies on several occasions and even showed it wasn’t powerful enough to destroy the mad doctor by itself, nor could it do anything against the energy barriers put up by the “Blockers”
I’m not saying Mickey’s paint brush is useless, I’m just saying it’s not the instant win that people often exaggerate it to be. It’s likely effective against other kinds of toons (Possibly even CGI since Rapunzel, a character from a CGI Disney movie, is part of the “Cartoon World” that Mickey comes from and even she got pulled into the waste land in Epic Mickey: Power of illusion)
and for all those who believe me and might ask “Wait, so is the Magic Paint Brush useless against people/objects who aren’t toons/aren’t made of ‘toon’?” and to that I say: Absolutely not.
The magic paint brush can still be used to paint useful things into existence, still gives Mickey other handy abilities unrelated to drawing such as: summoning “Sketches” of Disney characters to attack enemies, making enemies levitate off the ground helplessly so they can be open to attacks, slowing down time temporarily, giving him an attack/speed boost when ever he successfully paints a “sketch”, or just painting anvils over his opponent’s head. (Heck, it’s also shown to be a handy bludgeoning weapon that can bust metal enemies with out breaking)
As for the thinner; I argue that it’s also not entirely useless. Even if it can’t immediately melt/destroy non-toon materials, it can still at least be used to lightly weaken a foundation or lightly shave away armor/durability so he can then switch to another type of attack if he ever found himself up against a non-toon being or some one else the brush couldn’t immediately melt away for what ever reason.
I’m sure people will debate debate as to what constitutes as a “Toon” (Hell, I’ve seen people ponder if the “Dip” from who framed Roger Rabbit could kill the likes of Goku and Superman since they’re hand drawn characters despite the fact that they’re not ‘toons’ in the traditional sense)
But one thing is for sure; the magic paint brush’s thinner would not be effective on real world objects/materials, and odds are if there are things from his own franchise that thinner from his paint brush can’t immediately erase, then there are things across fiction that the thinner would be pretty ineffective against a well.
This is DocMoo signing out.
Crossover Crossfire HQ 