The game focuses on Mickey Mouse, who accidentally damages a world created by Yen Sid for forgotten characters and concepts and must save it from the Blot.

The game's key feature is a magic paintbrush, which Mickey wields, that has the ability to draw or erase objects using paint and thinner.

[6] Both fluids have limited reserves, adding a strategic element to gameplay: players must compromise between making various tasks harder or easier to accomplish.

Mickey examines the model after Yen Sid leaves and, not knowing what it actually is, starts fiddling with the brush to make a self-portrait of himself, but inadvertently causes it to become a monster made of ink.

Upon seeing Yen Sid approaching, Mickey quickly tries to clean up the mess, but in his haste, spills the entire thinner bottle onto the paint spillage as he flees back to his house.

After many decades of fame following the incident, the same ink monster from before enters Mickey's bedroom and abducts him, dragging him through Yen Sid's workshop and into the ruined world, now known as Wasteland.

Throughout his journey, Mickey fights Blotlings, the Blot's minions, and Beetleworx, the Mad Doctor's evil robotic creations.

After traveling through the Gremlins' village in pursuit of Oswald, Mickey confronts the clock tower of It's a Small World, now driven insane after hearing the attraction's featured song non-stop for years.

To do so, they journey to the Moonliner Rocket in Tomorrow City, only to discover that the Mad Doctor had stolen essential parts from it to use for his plot, so Oswald sends Mickey and Gus to collect them.

Upon defeating him, it is revealed that the Mad Doctor had transfigured himself into a Beetleworx in order to survive the Blot's revolt and conquer Wasteland, before he is sent flying after Gus removes the last rocket part from his hovercraft.

After acquiring all the parts, Oswald has Mickey help repel an attack staged by the Shadow Blot on the summit of Mickeyjunk Mountain.

As a backup plan that involves using a paint-laden firework display at the castle against the Blot is formulated, the monster soon captures Oswald, Gus, and Ortensia, forcing Mickey to enter its body to save them.

Oswald and Ortensia land in Mean Street while Mickey is sent flying through a portal in the sky above the castle that takes him out of Wasteland and back to Yen Sid's workshop.

[11] When the concept was pitched to Bob Iger, then-president and COO, he lamented that Disney didn't own the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and could not produce the game.

His chance came in 2006 when television sportscaster Al Michaels expressed interest in joining NBC (which had merged with Oswald owner Universal Pictures by this time) to call play-by-play for Sunday Night Football, even though he had just signed a long-term deal with Disney-owned ESPN to continue on Monday Night Football.

Iger initiated a trade with NBC Universal that would allow Michaels to be released from his contract in exchange for the rights to Oswald and other minor assets.

Graham Hopper of Disney Interactive then suggested dropping the development of the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions completely, and instead releasing it solely on the Wii.

A separate collector's edition was released in Italy, which included the Walt Disney Treasures: The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit DVD set and Epic Mickey: The Graphic Novel.

[25][26] Epic Mickey marks Oswald's second appearance in video games after Férias Frustradas do Pica-Pau (released in Brazil only).

Present at the party was designer Warren Spector, Peter David, and actors Jennifer Grey and Kyle Massey, who had recently completed the eleventh season of the U.S.

[34] IGN gave it a score of 8/10, criticizing its camera, control issues and lack of voice acting, but praised its charm, story, art design, and lasting appeal for the players.

They compared the paintbrush abilities to that of the water jet pack from Super Mario Sunshine and found it frustrating how the levels reset back to their original state after leaving.

Giant Bomb gave a negative review with 2/5 stars saying: "Never mind these heightened expectations, though: even on its own merits, Epic Mickey is a platformer that feels about a generation behind, though one with just enough flashes of inspiration to keep you constantly aware of its wasted potential".

[49] On November 30, 2010, the release date in North America, the game was completely sold out on the Disney Store website by the afternoon.

[51] In August 2011, Destructoid posted an article that speculated that a sequel, Epic Mickey 2, was in development and showed possible box art for the game.

[52] These rumors were further encouraged when Disney France and Warren Spector invited the French media to an "epic project" taking place on March 27, 2012.

Gametrailers.com also stated that their March 22, 2012 episode would include a "world-exclusive preview of Warren Spector's new epic adventure" and that it would be "notably significant".

[54] Following this, on March 20, 2012, the official French Nintendo magazine posted a comment on Twitter, revealing that Disney had plans to create a companion to the main sequel for the 3DS, under the name Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion.

Spector said: "I'm such a geek about musicals, I love the co-op and next-gen stuff, but for me, when a character breaks into song, which they do on a regular basis in this game, it's magic".

At the February 2024 Nintendo Partner Direct, publisher THQ Nordic announced that its Austrian-based studio Purple Lamp had been developing a remake of the game titled Epic Mickey: Rebrushed, set for release later that year.