[Brian,
Wednesday October 21, 2009 at 7:07pm]
I'm a mortal lock for the next Sports Guy Mailbag
(At least, the next one after he sees my email)
From Game Informer, current issue, page 61.
"Specter wanted Oswald the Lucky Rabbit [1] to be the centerpiece of Epic Mickey. But that wasn't possible until a years-old dispute was resolved. 'Disney didn't own the rights to Oswald,' Spector explains. 'So there was no way I could use him as a character in this game.' But Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney, went to NBC/Universal, which after 80 years owned the rights to Oswald, and TRADED AL MICHAELS, a human sportscaster, for the rights to a cartoon rabbit."
(Technically this is old news, but since I hadn't heard about it, I'm assuming Simmons hasn't either).
[1] The first character created by Walt Disney (prior to Mickey).