当迪士尼遇上任天堂－－米奇化身动作英雄

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在明年推出的基于任天堂Wii主机的《米奇史诗》游戏中，米老鼠被打造成一个动作英雄。

　　迪士尼的米老鼠在动画《威利汽船》中首次登场的超过80年之后，他准备要在一款电脑游戏中作为主角实现回归。对他长达一年的翻新使他变成一个依旧保持经典外形的三维卡通人物。
　　More than 80 years after he first appeared in Steamboat Willie, Disney's Mickey Mouse is poised to make his return as the lead character in a computer game. A year-long makeover has transformed him into a vintage-looking yet three-dimensional cartoon character.

　　迪士尼希望米老鼠像超级玛利奥和音速小子索尼克那样成为世界上最知名的动作英雄之一，并且利用游戏专营权及其商品建立起米老鼠新一波的名声。他在现代依然是一只时髦的老鼠.
　　Disney hopes to establish Mickey as one of the world's best-known action heroes such as Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog and then build on his new wave of fame with a games franchise and merchandise. And he is a modern mouse for modern times.

　　“我们把米奇从属于他的、安逸舒适的卡通世界中拉出来，并且把它带向一个我们叫做“卡通荒原”的世界。”游戏的设计者沃伦·科特说。
　　"We've pulled Mickey out of the world of cartoons which is where he belongs and feels comfortable and safe and we pull him into a world we call the Cartoon Wasteland," says game designer Warren Spector.

　　科特开发的游戏“迪士尼米奇史诗”（the Disney Epic Mickey game），将在明年任天堂的Wii平台上首次推出，是迪士尼神奇王国（Magic Kingdom）快速成长的电子游戏部门推出的最新一部。
　　He developed the Disney Epic Mickey game, set for launch on Nintendo's Wii console next year, as the latest instalment from the Magic Kingdom's fast-growing videogames arm.

　　迪士尼互动工作室（Disney Interactive Studios）总经理格雷厄姆·霍珀说：“这是从我的一个想法开始的。当我几年前来到这个公司的时候，我们在电子游戏方面处理米奇的方式并不适当，米奇的潜能比我们所释放出来的要大很多。”
　　Disney Interactive Studios general manager Graham Hopper says: "This started from a belief that I had when I came into this business a few years back, that we were not treating Mickey properly in the videogames space and that he had a lot more potential than we had unlocked.

　　当迪士尼想出"卡通人物被投到混乱世界“这一新面貌后，游戏大师斯佩克特想到“卡通荒原”这个点子。在里面，米奇会遇到很大的麻烦，同时这个世界也需要被拯救。
　　When Disney came up with new-look "cartoon character thrown into turmoil", game guru Spector built on the idea of Cartoon Wasteland where Mickey has big problems to solve and a world that needs saving.

　　米奇抛弃了他的朋友并凭着自己的名气使他们黯然失色，深感内疚的米奇在荒原漫游,并且要面对那些被他抛弃的朋友。故事情节让神奇王国回溯到华特·迪士尼在1927年创作的第一个卡通明星——幸运兔奥斯瓦尔德。在米奇史诗游戏里，奥斯瓦尔德成为在米奇出生之前卡通荒原中最早的居民。迪士尼的游戏预告片段描绘了一幅黑暗却又熟悉的二线明星画面。
　　A guilt-ridden Mickey roams the wasteland and faces up to friends he cast aside and eclipsed with his own fame. The storyline allows the Magic Kingdom to revive Walt 　　Disney's first cartoon star created in 1927, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. In the Epic Mickey game, Oswald becomes the earliest inhabitant of Cartoon Wasteland after Mickey is created. Disney's preview material on the game paints a dark yet familiar picture of a b-lister.

　　“奥斯瓦尔德让其他来到卡通荒原的退休卡通人物感到很舒适，他们加入到这片神奇的土地里。岁月流逝，正如留在卡通荒原的奥斯瓦尔德那样，他憎恨看到米奇变得越来越流行。”上面写道。更糟糕的是，米奇做出了一个“无意却又严重的错误”，不小心毁坏了奥斯瓦尔德那安逸的世界。
　　"Oswald makes the Cartoon Wasteland comfortable for other retired characters as they join him in this magical land. Years pass, and as Oswald dwells in the Cartoon Wasteland, he becomes resentful watching Mickey's popularity swell," it says.To make matters worse, Mickey makes an "innocent yet terrible mistake" and inadvertently devastates Oswald's comfortable world.

　　斯佩克特之前的游戏包括科幻冒险游戏Deus Ex，他相信他的米奇游戏会反映出华特·迪士尼对于他所创造的角色的情感。
　　Spector, whose previous games include sci-fi adventure Deus Ex, believes his Mickey game reflects Walt Disney's affection for his characters.

　　“迪士尼的档案是一个令人难以置信的资源，它在很多方面透露出迪士尼不忍心放弃脚本和艺术概念的性格。接着很容易想到他不忍心看到他创造的其中一个孩子……被遗忘，永远的消失，因此是这个想法的力量，华特想象力的力量 ，形成了这个地方——卡通荒原。”他说。
　　"The archives at Disney are an incredible resource and reveal a lot about a guy who couldn't bear to part with scripts and storyboards and concept art. It's an easy next step to say he couldn't bear to see one of his creative children ... forgotten and lost forever and so the power of that idea, the power of Walt's imagination called into being this place, the Cartoon Wasteland," he says.

　　米奇拯救荒原关乎到这个人物的根基。迪士尼恢复了圆臂圆腿的“橡胶管米奇”，并且希望利用经典的迪士尼打入现有的时尚界，现在在名流如维多利亚·贝克汉姆的T恤上已可以看到有复古的米老鼠图案装饰。
　　The Mickey saving the wasteland is a character close to his roots. Disney has revived the "rubber hose Mickey" with rounded arms and legs and hopes that will tap into an exsiting fashion for vintage Disney, that has seen the retro mouse emblazoned on the T-shirts of celebrities such as Victoria Beckham.

　　“这绝对代表着经典米奇的流行，非常成功，这绝对会有帮助。”游戏部门经理霍珀说。
　　"There is definitely a trend for vintage Mickey which is very successful and that will definitely help," says games division boss Hopper.

　　不过首要的是，推销米奇要与销售游戏相关。迪士尼互动工作室在2007年得到了斯佩克特的公司，现正通过利用迪士尼收藏的大量现有角色或者创造新的角色，来从相当强劲的电子游戏市场中获益。
　　But above all, the Mickey push is about selling games. Disney Interactive Studios, which acquired Spector's business in 2007, is working to benefit from a relatively robust videogame market by using existing characters from Disney's vast library as well as creating new ones.

　　“它正成为公司的创意引擎，”霍珀说，“迪士尼从影棚起步，随后进军电视业和出版业，而电子游戏将成为公司的下一个创新支柱。”
　　"It is becoming a creative engine for the company," says Hopper. "Our company started as a film studio, we have added television capabilities since then and publishing and videogames are going to be the next creative pillar of the company."