“We’re not going to change Mickey’s image so much. People don’t like it when you mess with Mickey. We did a focus test that was really eye-opening for me. There was a biker dude saying, ‘Oh, I’d never play a Mickey Mouse game,’ and then we showed him images of a changed Mickey. I was sitting there thinking, ‘You’re gonna love what we do,’ but he said, ‘No! Don’t mess with my childhood.'” – Warren Spector

I actually had this conversation at E3 with the game designer for Epic Mickey. Me: “So you’re telling me by your choices in the game that Mickey can look more evil?” Designer “No, he stays the same, he is Mickey, we can not mess with that.”