Disney Illusion Island Interview: Returning To Mickey And Friends Is A Dream Come True For Dlala
Dlala Studios’ CEO AJ Grand-Scrutton revealed to his team that they’d be working on a Mickey Mouse game on the day that Battletoads launched in August 2020. “We had a Zoom party because it was [during] the lockdown,” Grand-Scrutton explains. “I said ‘Hey just so you know, the next thing is…’ and then I clicked on a slide. Everyone lost it. I have a wonderful picture of the Zoom call with all of their faces [freaking out]. It’s amazing.”
Grand-Scrutton and his team are massive Disney fans. He keeps his copy of Castle of Illusion in the original box next to his desk, and his team of designers and artists have all been influenced by the legacy of the House of Mouse. The trailer for their upcoming game, Disney Illusion Island, premiered during the D23 Expo’s Disney and Marvel Game Showcase this past weekend. The similarities to 2013’s Mickey Mouse Shorts are clear, but Grand-Scrutton says it pulls from Mickey’s entire history. “Mickey’s whole legacy is a massive influence,” he says. “All the way back to Steamboat Willy and through to the new shorts. What I really loved was the sense of cheeky fun of the new stuff and trying to combine it with the pure brilliance and slap-stickiness off [things like] Lonesome Ghosts and Thru the Mirror.” Grand-Scrutton says Illusion Island is made by “a bunch of Mickey fans who have digested a load of Mickey Mouse, you’ll see that fandom come out.”
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Like Battletoads, Illusion Island is being entirely hand-keyed by Dlala’s artists. Grand-Scrutton describes the game as a “playable cartoon,” and says that art has probably been the most labor-intensive part of the game. “When you’re creating a world
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