Variety reports that Disney is bringing its main man, or mouse, out of the vault and into video games.  Mickey is staring in a new video game called EPIC MICKEY and taking him back to his roots.  The reason for Mickey’s long hiatus was the fact that the more of an icon he became, the less personality he had.

“I want to remind Mickey that he’s a hero — and to be a hero, we need to give him purpose. We need to throw him up against problems worthy of a hero — not just trying to give Pluto a bath,” Spector said. “I want him to be funny. I want him to struggle. I want to ‘age him up’ a little.” But Spector added that the game will enable players to ultimately decide “what makes Mickey cool.”

EPIC MICKEY puts the hero in a Cartoon Wasteland, have to battle against rejected ideas and creative endeavors that have been banished there.  He fights using a brush and paint thinner Mickey makes and destroys parts as he sees fit.  This art-as-weapon game play is adopted from the popular video game OKAMI from Capcom.

“Realistically, all we’re trying to do is make Mickey the game hero he deserves to be,” he said. “In my secret heart of hearts, I would love to see a movie or a comicbook — and I plant that seed everywhere I can around the company and see if it takes root.”

Disney did try to reinstate Mickey as a leading man in the back-from-the-dead short  RUNAWAY BRAIN, and again in MICKEY, DONALD, GOOFY: THE THREE MUSKETEERS.  The effort was short lived, but maybe just enough to get the ball rolling.