I feel weird pointing this out, because the detail is subtle, but itās been bothering the hell out of me while I play Disneyās (extremely good) take on Animal Crossing. In my defense, though, Mickey Mouse is one of the most iconic and recognizable characters on earth, and video game graphics practically let you see into peopleās pores now. Itās hard not to notice that something is off in the world of Dreamlight Valley, especially when you grow up with these characters.
The Mickey Mouse design featured in Disney Dreamlight Valley is the standard if not classic scheme weāve all come to know and love. Our favorite mouse boy is wearing oversized yellow shoes, bright red shorts, and big āol white gloves. Heās mid-sized, so Goofy towers above Mickey quite easily. So far, so good. The issue lies entirely within Mickeyās eyes.
Thereās something wrong with Mickeyās right eye. The larger oval is misshapen, and slightly smaller than the left eye. The pupil, however, remains the same size. As Mickeyās eyes move about, the effect becomes unsettling: itās as if his eyes are too narrow or close together. Sometimes, itās like his pupil is getting crushed by his eye, or like it doesnāt fit somehow. The game will make the assets clip into each other during some moments, depending on what you do.
Mickeyās eyes are also designed to follow you as you move around, and heās shorter than you, so heās always looking up. I donāt think this is intentional at all, but the result is that Mickey looks like he wants to murder me half the time. His stare is both wrong and weirdly vacant, like a messed-up painting thatās stalking you around the house, ready to abduct you when youāre not looking. Which admittedly might be great for a game set in Disneyās Haunted Mansion, but just feels wrong here.
Iām sorry if you didnāt notice this before and now you canāt unsee it, because like I said, itās a small detail. And I apologize if you still canāt see it at all. Iām not sure I would have seen it at all were I not playing alongside a bonafide Disney adult (my girlfriend), who then immediately informed me that Disney has internal guidelines for how Mickey Mouse should be depicted so she knew something was very wrong here. I know Iām not crazy, though. āThereās a certain pose he does too where the lower part of his eyes sink in,ā one Redditor wrote in a thread on the Dreamlight Valley forums discussing this very phenomenon
Read More: Disney Dreamlight Valleyās Scrooge McDuck Is Way Worse Than Tom Nook In Animal Crossing
Now Iām left to wonder: Mickey, just what did happen to Minnie, who is missing at the start of the game? Whatās fertilizing the garden that your beloved wife loved oh-so-much, HMM??
