Epic Mickey: Rebrushed (PS5)

After Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two and its companion game, Power of Illusion, failed to meets sales expectations in 2012, the Epic Mickey franchise was shelved, cancelling the in-development Epic Donald along with it. This development also led to the character of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, who was reacquired from Universal just for this series and reintroduced to a new generation of fans, to be relegated mostly to cameos in other Disney works, including a cancelled Disney+ series, until the company suddenly started paying more attention to him around his entry into the public domain. 12 years later, both the Epic Mickey franchise and Oswald were given a second chance with the announcement of a remake of the original game for modern platforms, dubbed Epic Mickey: Rebrushed (Rebrushed). As someone who enjoyed the original, this announcement got me excited, and I had faith in Purple Lamp as the developer due to their work on SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated. As someone who became an Oswald the Lucky Rabbit fan as a result of the original game, I was further surprised when I noticed that, according to the back of the box, Rebrushed is an official Oswald the Lucky Rabbit product.

 

A small, but interesting bit of branding.

Due to the proximity of its release to my birthday, I received the PS5 version of Rebrushed as a gift, at which point I felt hyped enough to play it as soon as possible, and found it to meet my expectations and more.

Stubs - The Man with Two Faces

The Man with Two Faces (1934) Starring: Edward G. Robinson, Mary Astor, Ricardo Cortez, Mae Clarke, Louis Calhern. Directed by Archie Mayo. Screenplay by Tom Reed and Niven Busch. Based on the play The Dark Tower by George S. Kaufman and Alexander Woollcott, produced by Sam H. Harris Theatrical Enterprises, Inc. (New York, 25 Nov 1933). USA Black and White. Run time: 72 minutes. Drama.

Films based on plays are nothing new. The Dark Tower is a mystery drama by George S. Kaufman and Alexander Woollcott, first produced in 1933. The play ran at the Morosco Theatre in New York from November 25, 1933 until January 1934.

The film version, entitled at various times: The Strange Case of Mr. Chautard, Dark Victory and The Dark Tower, was in production from March 5 until April 4, 1934.

Silent Hill 2 (2024)

Note: This review contains spoilers for Silent Hill 2.

In the decades since its release in 2001, Silent Hill 2 (SH2) has earned and maintained a reputation as one of the greatest survival horror games ever made thanks to its powerful storyline that tackled taboo subjects in a mature way. Fast forward to today and ten years after the 2012 release of Silent Hill: Downpour, Konami announced a full series revival, which included two SH2 projects: a remake also called Silent Hill 2 (SH2R), developed by Bloober Team, and a film adaptation, Return to Silent Hill, directed by Christophe Gans, who had previously directed the original Silent Hill film adaptation. Despite involving former Team Silent members Masahiro Ito and Akira Yamaoka throughout development, SH2R fought an uphill battle. Although Bloober Team had experience with horror titles like Layers of Fear, Observer, Blair Witch and The Medium, these titles usually had a mixed reception at best. Add to that the lack of pre-order bonuses for physical copies and the negative reception to early trailers, which included some differences in presentation and character models. Fortunately, confidence grew as the October 8, 2024 release date grew closer and the game released on PS5 and Steam to positive reception, as well as selling 1 million copies within the first three days.

Personally, I had faith in SH2R from the moment of its announcement, as I could sense the team’s passion behind the project, though I followed the development with more cautious optimism. When it released, I also had a hard time finding a physical copy on day one, but I fortunately found a store that still had a number of them left. Throughout the following playthrough, I felt impressed by what Bloober Team had accomplished and, when it ended, I took a little time to process my full opinion before writing this review. As of this post, I can confidently say that while SH2R isn’t a flawless masterpiece, and neither is the original, I think Bloober Team knocked it out of the park and made me even more excited about the series' future.

Second Look - Resident Evil Village (PS5)

Note: This review contains spoilers for Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and Resident Evil Village.

It should go without saying that the strong reviews and sales numbers of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (RE7) led to a sequel in 2021, also the latest game in the series, Resident Evil Village (RE8). At least, that would be the typical story. In reality, RE8 entered development at the tail end of RE7’s production with the idea of continuing the previous game’s story and style. Early on, the development team came up with the concept of the village setting, as well as drawing influence from Resident Evil 4 (RE4) in making it a central game element. They also developed the game with more of a mixture of action and horror after observing reactions to RE7’s horror and deciding that dialing back and spreading out the scares would make it more approachable for newcomers. For accessibility, the title also emphasized the “village” aspect rather than officially designate it as Resident Evil 8 (even though that’s exactly what it is). Despite the change in approach, the end result garnered strong critical reception and sales over time.

As someone who started with the Winters storyline, I enjoyed RE8 when it came out, in spite of its flaws, and coming back to this game in my journey through the Resident Evil (RE) franchise didn’t change my opinion that much. Like my replay of RE7, however, what really changed was my perspective on its gameplay and how the story fit in with the overall timeline. Not only did I better appreciate some of its improvements over certain gameplay systems from its predecessor, but also its influence from RE4 and one specific twist that prompted all of these RE reviews in the first place.

Stubs - Island of Lost Souls

Island of Lost Souls (1932) starring: Charles Laughton, Richard Arlen, Leila Hyams, Bela Lugosi; Directed by Erle C. Kenton; Screenplay by Waldemar Young, Philip Wylie. Based on the novel The Island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells (London, 1896). Producer: None Credited. Run time: 70 minutes. Black and White. Drama, Science fiction, Horror

While Universal gets credit for the early 30s craze for horror film with Dracula in 1931, they were not the only studio to make that genre of films. Paramount Pictures had released Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) and wanted to make a follow-up with more horrific and sexual themes. On June 1, 1931, Paramount paid $15,000 (equivalent to $300,500 in 2023) for the rights to H. G. Wells' novel The Island of Dr. Moreau, first published in 1896. Along with the novel, the studio also had access to an unproduced play by Frank Vreeland that was based on Wells' story and titled His Creatures.

The Paramount version of the story differed from the H.G. Wells novel The Island of Dr. Moreau, on which it is based. One of the differences was the addition of a character called The Panther Woman. This was used in pre-production as publicity with a talent search for the actress to play the role. Paramount publicist Arthur Mayer developed a contest that involved giving the winner a trip to Hollywood, $200 (equivalent to $4,470 in 2023) a week for five weeks, a home at the Ambassador Hotel, and a role in the film.

A copy of the form women could fill out to be considered for the role.

Contestants were required to be between the ages of 17 and 30 years old, to be in good health, between 5 feet 4 inches and 5 feet 8 inches tall, and not have worked, or be related to anyone who had worked, at Paramount. In his memoir, Merely Colossal, published in 1951, Mayer claimed that the contest attracted 60,000 contestants. There were four finalists; Lona Andre, Gail Patrick, Kathleen Burke, and Verna Hillie and the judges were Cecil B. DeMille, Rouben Mamoulian, Ernst Lubitsch, Norman Taurog, Stuart Walker, and Erle C. Kenton, who took over directing the film from Taurog.

On September 29, 1932, Kathleen Burke was summoned to the casting office and told she had won the contest. Two days later, the film went into production. There was location shooting on Catalina Island for a week, and on the SS Catalina, which encountered real fog as called for in the script. Shooting lasted until early November, with retakes of the scene of Ruth with Ouran on December 8. Bela Lugosi was added to the cast in October, replacing George Barbier as the Sayer of the Law. The film was first released in Chicago on December 23, 1932.

Second Look - Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (PS5)

Note: This review contains spoilers for Resident Evil 7: Biohazard.

Following the mixed reception of Resident Evil 6 (RE6), in spite of its high sales, Capcom realized it needed a change in direction going forward with the franchise, which included cancelling a sequel meant to continue in RE6’s footsteps. Jun Takeuchi, who had experience with the series since the original Resident Evil (RE1) and produced Resident Evil 5, took over the project and helped brainstorm ideas for the next game, which led him to an isolated setting in the vein of both RE1 and The Evil Dead. As development proceeded with this concept in mind and under the direction of Koshi Nakanishi, which included a first-person viewpoint, the team created the RE Engine (“Reach for the Moon” Engine) for smoother next-gen game development and later made the game VR-friendly. Despite some misgivings from fans based on the Beginning Hour demo, the final 2017 release, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (RE7), received near-universal praise and sold well enough to warrant a sequel of its own, Resident Evil Village.

As I’ve mentioned in other Resident Evil (RE) reviews, RE7 was my formal introduction to the series after a couple false starts. Despite some flaws and my general aversion to horror games, I loved it and played it multiple times across both the original release and the later Gold Edition release, which has all of the DLC on the disc (sans Not A Hero). My journey through all of the pre-Winters RE games inevitably led me to another replay of RE7, this time through the free PS5 upgrade. I had always viewed RE7 as one of my favorite survival horror games and, perhaps as expected, this latest playthrough didn’t really change that. What did change, however, was my appreciation for this entry’s accomplishments in light of the rest of the series’ ups and downs. As a consequence, however, some of its flaws did stick out a little more.

My Hero Academia: You're Next

Note: This review contains spoilers for My Hero Academia and My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission.

Although the My Hero Academia manga has ended (arguably on an unsatisfying note), the anime isn’t yet finished, with a recently concluded seventh season and final upcoming eighth season to wrap everything up. In the meantime, animation studio Bones got to squeeze out one final film, You’re Next, which debuted during the seventh anime season. Since the film only just received an international theatrical release, we watched the dub and found that even though it’s not the best of the four films, it’s certainly an entertaining one and an improvement over World Heroes’ Mission.

Before I continue, I’d like to note that although the film is non-canon, it takes place between the Paranormal Liberation War and Final War arcs of the story, which translates to right between Season 6 and 7 for anime-only viewers.