So I'm disregarding the opening cutscene for a moment bc frankly it doesn't know what it's talking about. The only noteworthy thing the cutscene tells us is Mickey finds the workshop and creates the Blot on the 25th of March in an unnamed year

U might think this cutscene is the only indication we have of when the Thinner Disaster happens, and that's... kinda true, but also not exactly? There are a couple more unintentional hints we get as to some of the cartoons that might have been aired before the Thinner Disaster, and those hints come from Horace and Clarabelle during their introductory cutscenes, when they try to remind Mickey who they are by listing the shorts they were in

Granted, I don't think it's at any point stated or even implied in the game that no toons landed in Wasteland after the Thinner Disaster. It's entirely possible some characters got dumped into Wasteland after the disaster, and thus its ruined state is all they know. However, we do know that both Horace and Clarabelle are in the Tales of Wasteland comic, which is pre-disaster, so they're a good measuring point. Idk exactly how canon the TOW comics are considered to the epic mickey games, for all I know they might be intended to only be semi-canon, but for the sake of my sanity I'm going to go ahead and call them canon because otherwise we're left with. The intro cutscene. And we all know why we aren't listening to that cutscene.

Anyways, Horace mentions three cartoons he starred in: The Fire Fighters (20th of June, 1930) The Barnyard Broadcast (1st of September, 1931) and The Band Concert (23rd of February, 1935). Clarabelle also mentions three cartoons: Mickey's Mellerdrammer (18th of March, 1933) Mickey's Polo Team (4th of January, 1936) and Orphan's Benefit. Orphan's Benefit is the most interesting one here because it was released twice, first on the 11th of August 1934, and then remade in technicolour in 1941 (didn't see a date on Wikipedia, the wiki says it was released on the 22nd of August 1941 but wiki isn't the most reliable of sources and I don't have the time to double check that date) and Clarabelle specifically mentions she was in the original and the remake. Which means as of 1941, Clarabelle was still in the Cartoon World

When exactly these characters were forgotten is really hard to pin down especially considering a lot of characters were definitely still in use in the real world by the time they were in Wasteland in the game, plus the whole "multiple versions of the same character can wind up in Wasteland" thing, someone with more knowledge of Disney's animation history might be able to get us a better idea of when these two characters stopped being used so much, but unfortunately I'm not that person, so I can't give an estimate. What I do know is that all this means the Thinner Disaster had to have happened sometime after 1941, because Clarabelle wasn't even in Wasteland in 1941. There'll likely be a few years between 1941 and the Thinner Disaster too, because we need time for Clarabelle to be forgotten, settle down in Wasteland, and for all the events of TOW to happen. That gives us a bit more wiggle room than "before Mickey's first short was even released" to say the least

Granted, the problem with this is it creates a minor contradiction, in that it's implied (or this is how I read it at least) that Mickey and Yen Sid hadn't yet met when the Thinner Disaster happened, but Fantasia, which includes the Sorcerer's Apprentice, was released in 1940. (Side note, the idea that Mickey causes the disaster before the events of the Sorcerer's Apprentice is hilarious to me bc that means the whole time that was happening Yen Sid was internally going "u fucked up Wasteland. U fucked up my magical art project and now you're fucking up my tower by flooding it. And you're only apologising for one of these things and it's not the world you fucked up. You could've been using my stolen hat to fix the mess you made but no, you're making sentient brooms instead. Walt help me.")

That being said, I'm going to sidestep that detail, because there's nothing stopping me from deciding this was another instance of Mickey going "oh boy I'm gonna follow in my master's footsteps :D" and then upon making the Blot, got the fuck out of there before Yen Sid could catch him and scold him for making a mess again. And if there is something stopping me from thinking that, that sign can't stop me because I can't read, and ultimately the details of the timeline of Mickey's apprenticeship under Yen Sid are a lot easier to be flexible with than the timeline for the Thinner Disaster

Edit: I just noticed that at the end of the game Yen Sid does call mickey his apprentice after having referred to him as an intruder the whole game, including in that very same cutscene. It's possible that Mickey was his apprentice when the Thinner Disaster happened, and he suspected Mickey was responsible, but since he never caught him in the act he couldn't confirm that for certain until Mickey got spat out of Wasteland at the end of the game, hence why Mickey is always "the intruder" in the narration up until Yen Sid finally catches him and can confirm it was him, and then becomes "my apprentice". That's my new excuse for the contradictions at least. I fear headcanon is gonna have to do some very heavy lifting when it comes to the timeline of em no matter what you do

Going back to the intro cutscene, there are things about it I find interesting even if it's not very good for helping us identify when the Thinner Disaster happened. Like the fact there seems to be a bit of a time skip between the night Mickey causes the disaster, and the start of the "passage of time" montage thing, which we can see by the lack of a calendar next to his bed on the night of the disaster and the fact that the dates we do get are different (the disaster happened in March, but the calendar at the start of the montage begins in January)

Do I have any idea what this means? Absolutely not, I'm no game theorist. But it is interesting to me

Anyways, the other thing I find interesting is at the end, just before Mickey gets snatched up by the Blot. I'm far from the first person to notice the date on the calendar is the 18th of November, aka Mickey's birthday (happy birthday! Your present is the sins of your past and the consequences of your actions) but it's specifically the image that accompanies the date that interests me

That's a shot from The Prince and the Pauper, released on the 16th of November, 1990. Two days before Mickey's birthday. Now my instinct is to say this means the events of the game happen in 1990 at the earliest, but like... calendars take time to make. You'll notice whenever you see calendars available for purchase it's always for the coming year, never the current year. Idk maybe this one is different because it only shows one day at a time instead of a whole month so maybe production works differently, but I imagine it'd be really difficult to get a shot of your short film that came out two days ago on your calendar, even if it's a shot that was taken from filming. Meaning there's a chance this calendar was for a year after 1990. Which would place the events of the game on the 18th of November 1991 at the earliest

Side note, this really doesn't matter at all but Mickey has two calendars. The one next to his bed and the one next to the mirror. Two calendars in the same room. And we know he didn't get rid of the one next to the mirror because we can see it when he gets yoinked and the date matches the one next to the bed, even if it's a bit less clear

Like why do u have two calendars. What was the need. Is the one next to your bed a custom one? Are you buying custom calendars showcasing your greatest hits to keep next to your bed? That might at least explain why it shows us Plane Crazy at the start of the montage, but what's the reason if you're going to keep the normal one next to your mirror anyway? I'm far too intrigued by this very minor detail that doesn't matter at all, and the "owns custom calendars" thing is my new headcanon for this lil guy

Most of this post has just been rambling about unrelated minor details in the intro cutscene zfnnxgxgj my bad

AU where Disney's tight control over Mickey slowly erodes and suppresses his personality. The decades of having his character altered and changed and censored, of being told exactly who he is supposed to be and what he is supposed to think and want and feel, begin to wear on him. The standards change all the time as the company change their minds about what a good role model for children looks like, as they flip between how angry he's allowed to be, how sad he's allowed to become, how nice, how scared, at the drop of a hat. It's a lot to keep up with because it isn't enough that he acts the way they want him to on camera, they expect him to be that way all the time because he is a performer and a mascot and it's his job to perform no matter what...

It's hard to keep up. Hard to change himself. Hard to constantly be rewritten

But maybe it will be easier if there's just... less to change

After all, what's the point in clinging to personality traits and likes and dislikes that might be erased from him in a decade anyway?

So epic mickey happens (because of course I'm making this about epic mickey and the Brothers again) and this eroding effect still hasn't hit him, he still has enough of himself left that no one realises anything is going on. Then at some point after both em1 and em2 he spends more time in Wasteland to hang out with Oswald and Oswald starts to notice there's something... odd about Mickey. He doesn't have any preferences, doesn't seem to have many opinions. He goes with the flow to a... really weird degree, and Oswald can't remember the last time he expressed an actual want or desire of his own. And he knows for a fact that's not how Mickey normally is, because he wasn't like that the first time he landed in Wasteland, so what in the world changed? At first he thinks Mickey is just being a people pleaser and he finds it really annoying, but the more it goes on and the more he presses and confronts Mickey about it, the more his annoyance morphs into concern as he realises something is wrong

Mickey for his part doesn't have any idea anything is wrong. He finds it amusing when Oswald presses him for details about his favourite food, colour, clothes, anything, with more and more urgency, because, well, it depends on what Disney needs from him, obviously. Of course it depends on what Disney needs from him. He's the mascot, he needs to be flexible so he can fulfill whatever they require from him

It doesn't give him pause until Oswald's concern starts becoming distress, and he starts insisting everything Mickey is saying isn't normal

So Oswald is the face of the Disney company. Always has been. In this au he has everything Mickey has, the status, the fame, his image plastered everywhere. All of Mickey's friends. The honour of being Yen Sid's only apprentice, even if he's... not very good, much better with electronics and mechanics than he is with magic. Ortensia and his bunny kids are still there, and so is every toon seen in Wasteland in epic mickey. It's something all the toons are very proud of. Sure, Disney isn't perfect, but the one thing they can proudly claim is Disney toons are never forgotten. No matter what, no matter how long it's been since they've been seen on screen, a Disney toon will never be forgotten

And then one way or another, Oswald ends up falling into Wasteland. There's no Blot, no Mad Doctor, no threat that drags him there. It's a complete accident. But when he arrives it's... eerily empty. The whole place is like an abandoned theme park, all the attractions are there, but none of them appear to be working. The colours are vivid, coated in fresh paint, but the mechanics are broken, sloppily slapped together by someone who clearly didn't know what they were doing. Oswald fixes them, of course, but it's unnerving because as far as he can tell, there's no one around to make any of this in the first place. The place is completely dead. The more he travels, the more he finds - not just broken attractions, but dusty stages, abandoned movie sets, empty homes no one has ever lived in - and the more it creeps him out. He gets to Mean Street, and finds a Walt statue, just like the one in the parks, but... he isn't there. There's just an empty space next to Walt where he should be, like someone erased him. Forgot him

Desperate to find a way out, he continues on, climbs a mountain full of old merch and memorabilia of his likeness. It isn't until he reaches the top he finally finds someone: a little mouse toon in red shorts, who looks surprised to see him, and tells him he shouldn't be here. After all, this is a place for forgotten toons

But that shouldn't be possible. Everyone knows Disney toons are never forgotten

The mouse, Mickey, is friendly, although he doesn't seem to have any memory of his life before Wasteland since he can't answer any of Oswald's questions, and immediately offers to help him get home. As they travel, and as they grow closer, Oswald finds scraps of paper tucked away in various locations. He means to ask Mickey about them, but never gets around to it

They get him out, of course. And Oswald takes a second look at the scraps of paper he's been collecting, and for the first time realises they're storyboards, with just the faintest tinge of magic to them. So he takes them to Yen Sid. Maybe these storyboards will help him figure out what happened to Mickey to make him the only Disney toon ever forgotten

Only the storyboards show... snippets of confusing scenes. Flashes of an Oswald trapped in Wasteland, hurt and abandoned and heartless and forgotten. The shortest clip, only a second or two long, is of him kneeling at a statue of Ortensia, weeping. The storyboards are incomplete, the ones he's managed to gather so far aren't enough to tell a complete story, but enough to put him on edge. He doesn't know what's going on, but whatever this is, it involves him somehow

On top of that, Yen Sid informs him of two things: one, his hat is missing. Two, his work on the storyboards has led him to discover the presence of another spell, one that blankets the very world they know. Who cast it, and what it does, he doesn't know, but whatever it is, it's altering reality as they know it; he can't examine or break the spell without his hat, but the storyboards seem to be tied to the spell somehow. They're the only clue they have

With no other leads, Oswald now has to spend time switching between Wasteland and the world he knows, to gather more storyboards in the hopes they'll hold the key to the spell, and to see if he can figure out what happened to Mickey and find a way to free him from Wasteland

Disney as a company is extremely protective of their brand and their image, and as the mascot, that means Mickey similarly needs to be carefully controlled. Which means he doesn't really get to have that much of a personal life

Disney controls his friends. Disney controls his enemies. Disney controls his relationship status. If Disney want to erase one of his friends from his life they can, if they want to shove a new friend at him and tell him this stranger is now going to be the most important person in his life they can. They can make any particular toon a friend or an enemy at any given time, regardless of how he personally feels about said toon. At any moment they can turn around and tell Mickey he and Minnie need to be married and have kids, not just for a cartoon, but in his actual life, and they don't get a say in that. Mickey's life is not his own, because everything is in service of Disney as a company. It doesn't matter if he does or does not want to marry Minnie, because the decision isn't up to him. It's up to whoever is in charge. The higher ups at Disney will maintain an illusion that they care about him solely because he has seniority and he is Walt's living breathing legacy and that legacy is useful for the company's image, but ultimately he's just a tool to them. The mascot they need to make sure stays in line with their image, regardless of his own personal feelings

Like... how many rules and codes of conduct does he have to live by? How many things is he simply not allowed to do, not even because it will make the company look bad, but because it doesn't portray the exact image they want at any given moment? Does their control extend right down to dictating what he is and is not allowed to desire, even once the cameras are off and he's in the privacy of his own home?