Disney teaches an old mouse new tricks

LOS ANGELES -- For decades, the Walt Disney Co. has largely kept Mickey Mouse frozen under glass, fearful that even the tiniest tinkering might tarnish the brand and upend his $5 billion or so in annual merchandise sales. One false move, and Disney could have New Coke on its hands.

Now, however, concerned that Mickey has become more a corporate symbol than a beloved character for recent generations of young people, Disney is taking the risky step of recasting his image for the future.

The first glimmer of the makeover will be the introduction next year of a new video game, Epic Mickey, in which the formerly squeaky-clean character can be cantankerous and cunning, as well as heroic, as he traverses a forbidding wasteland. And at the same time, in a parallel effort, Disney has quietly embarked on an even larger project to rethink the character's personality, from the way he walks and talks to the way he appears on the Disney Channel and how children interact with him on the Web - even what his house looks like at Disney World.

"Holy cow, the opportunity to mess with one of the most recognizable icons on planet Earth," said Warren Spector, the creative director of Junction Point, a Disney-owned game developer that spearheaded Epic Mickey.

The effort to re-engineer Mickey is still in its early stages, but it involves the top creative and marketing minds in the company, all the way up to Robert A. Iger, Disney's chief executive. The project was given new impetus this week with the announcement that, after 20 years of negotiations, the company had finally received the blessing of the Chinese government to open a theme park in Shanghai, potentially unlocking a new giant market for all things Mickey.

Disney executives are treading carefully, trying to keep a low profile, as they discuss how much they dare tweak one of the most durable characters in pop culture history to induce texting, tech-savvy children to embrace him. Disney executives will keenly watch how Epic Mickey is received.

While Mickey remains a superstar in many homes, particularly overseas, his static nature has resulted in a generation of Americans - the one that grew up with Nickelodeon and Pixar - that knows him but may not love him. Domestic sales in particular have declined: Of his $5 billion in annual merchandise sales in 2009, less than 20 percent will come from the U.S.

"There's a distinct risk of alienating your core consumer when you tweak a sacred character, but at this point it's a risk they have to take," said Matt Britton, the managing partner of Mr. Youth, a New York brand consultant firm.

In Epic Mickey, the title character is still adventurous, enthusiastic and curious. "Mickey is never going to be evil or go around killing people," Spector said.

But Mickey won't be bland anymore, either. "I wanted him to be able to be naughty - when you're playing as Mickey, you can misbehave and even be a little selfish," Spector said.

In many ways, it is a return to Mickey at his creation. When the character made its debut in "Steamboat Willie" in 1928, he was the Bart Simpson of his time: an uninhibited rabble-rouser who got into fistfights, played tricks on his friends and was amorously aggressive with Minnie.

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