As a Disney nerd with a penchant for horror movies, I think I’ve never been more excited for a video game than I was in 2009, when concept art for the original Epic Mickey leaked. It was nightmarish stuff; all shambling animatronic monstrosities and apocalyptic landscapes haphazardly pieced together from the rotting remains of Disney’s beloved theme parks. We saw Epcot’s shattered Spaceship Earth cruising a vast, rust-colored ocean on what was part Rivers of America steamship, part monstrous narwhal; Snow White’s castle balanced high on an impossible precipice amid belching, seething industrial machinery; even a robotic caterpillar with razor-sharp limbs, with Abe Lincoln’s animatronic head clumsily stuck on its elongated neck, while Mickey Mouse’s shocked face wobbled horribly on another nearby one.

It was a tantalising vision of an Epic Mickey that, perhaps inevitably, never came to fruition. But some of that initial gloom was still there – albeit scaled back to more family-friendly levels – when Epic Mickey finally landed on the Wii the following year. Yet even in its decidedly more accessible form, it was a fascinating oddity: a far wilder, weirder and more ambitious undertaking than a licensed video game could ever realistically be, and an obvious labour of love for designer Warren Spector and his team at Junction Point Studios. As a heartfelt ode to nearly 100 years of oft-forgotten Disney creativity, it was a delight, but as a video game, it was less so – a little too much of its magic was lost amid its clumsy platforming gameplay and a deeply frustrating camera. But 14 years later, all of that has been remedied in developer Purple Lamp’s clever remake Epic Mickey: Rebrushed, and the result is something of a revelation; a rare opportunity to revive a flawed relic whose incredible craftsmanship can finally shine.

And that begins, of course, with the beautifully conceived Wasteland, a grim reflection of Disney’s legendary theme parks where Mickey Mouse’s adventures take place. It’s a world of discarded Disney ephemera and home to long-forgotten cartoon characters, from Clarabelle the cow to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (who, ironically, now enjoys a new presence in the Disney parks thanks to his Epic Mickey revival). It’s also a world where a melting Cinderella Castle teeters ominously on the horizon while the decaying American culture of Mean Street looms on either side; where dead-eyed mechanical Dumbos jolt against the crumbling facade of Disneyland’s It’s a Small World ride, and where the Toontown-inspired suburb of OzTown squats in the shadow of Mickeyjunk Mountain – a giant junk heap of Mickey Mouse memorabilia: Pez dispensers stacked on posters that sit next to giant push-button telephones. It’s glorious stuff; a wild, celebratory mix of iconic Disney art and the deepest cuts from the company’s past, all pressed into a coherent, remarkably coherent whole.

In Tomorrow City, for example, Junction Point summons the spirit of Disneyland’s long-defunct Skyway and People Mover rides to create a spaghetti-like, retro-futuristic playground before sending players to the top of Space Mountain for a Tron-style boss battle. Ventureland, meanwhile, is part Jungle Cruise, part Pirates of the Caribbean, nestling comfortably in the world of Peter Pan – and then there’s Lonesome Manor, a delightful blend of Disney’s spooky side that makes the Haunted Mansion fanatic in me swoon. But that’s just the 3D platforming stuff; some of Epic Mickey’s most impressive moments come when it delves into the world of Disney’s beloved cartoons, turning classic rogues like Steamboat Willie, Thru the Mirror, Mickey and the Beanstalk and Plutopia into snappy side-scrolling action. And all of that gets a beautiful, respectful makeover in Epic Mickey: Rebrushed—a makeover that perhaps comes a little closer to the wonderfully spooky spirit of those early concept art pieces, without losing the inviting, whimsical charm of the original.

It’s not that the world of Epic Mickey wasn’t a highlight back in 2010, but Rebrushed certainly makes it easier to appreciate when you’re not constantly having to contend with an unpredictable camera and somewhat turgid controls. And that goes for the rest of the experience, too. Aside from its striking visual improvement and slick locomotion, Rebrushed isn’t a radical improvement, but it’s a thoughtful one, and its clever tweaks help bring some of the original’s other strengths to the fore.

The level design, for example, is pretty fantastic if you don’t mess with the basics. Once you get past the hub-like Mean Street, you’re taken through a series of self-contained mini-levels, from storm-tossed tropical coves to spooky hilltop mansions, each of which offers players a main objective crucial to progression – maybe open this gate or raise that platform – and usually one or two optional quests. It’s all relatively straightforward, kid-friendly stuff – a bit of “go here”, “drag that”, “move that over there” – but it’s a non-linear approach that gives the platform traversal and gentle puzzle solving a compelling exploratory flavor.

But Epic Mickey goes further. Nearly every objective can be achieved in multiple ways, with the choices having real (if rarely particularly dramatic) consequences. For example, when given the choice between turning off a location’s deadly power or stopping the procession of pesky tram cars, the decision feels weightier knowing that either could block off a certain path and prevent you from reaching a handful of collectibles in that particular playthrough. And then there’s Epic Mickey’s morality system, which – while probably the last thing you’d expect in a family-oriented licensed cartoon game – somehow works, and is cleverly integrated into the rest of the plot through Epic Mickey’s core gimmick: a magic paintbrush that can fill in or erase certain parts of the world depending on the player’s whim.

It’s a mechanic that underpins exploration, platforming, puzzle-solving, and even combat, and one that Junction Point exploits in often satisfyingly clever ways. But it feeds into Epic Mickey’s morality system, in that using destructive thinner is generally considered “bad” while paint is generally considered “good.” Frankly, the way the morality system counts your actions and manifests the results is pretty inscrutable. It really just boils down to some slightly different reactions from the wasteland’s inhabitants over the course of your adventure, and one of two possible endings. But it at least gives the whole thing a bit more structure; knowing that there are Effects for your actions and multiple approaches to a given task encourage a more curious, exploratory mindset – and it’s genuinely fun to unravel the numerous paths and secrets of each area. That all of this is radically enlivened by some truly satisfying traversal in Rebrushed, as you jump and splash around with a fluidity and rhythm that the original could never quite muster, only makes it all the better.

In its original guise, Epic Mickey was a bit of a disappointment. Its clever design, admirable ambition and bold take on the source material were undone by a little too much mechanical clumsiness. But Purple Lamp’s clever remake is truly transformative. Could Epic Mickey: Rebrushed have taken things a little further? Add voice acting? Spice up the boring errand missions? Sure, but even without more radical overhauls, what’s here is a delight. It’s perhaps still a little too squishy, ​​too unfocused to truly be considered a classic, but 14 years later, it’s wonderful to see the magic of Junction Point’s wild, weird original finally shining through.