My Own Personal Nerdy Disney and Animation Scrutinizing Analyses: "Disney`s Infinity" - The Videogame Property Who Was a Vehicle For Disney, Pixar and their Acquired Franchises Like Marvel and Star Wars

Hi folks! Welcome to my My Own Personal Nerdy Disney and Animation Scrutinizing Analysis blog. A blog where I'm analyzing several Disney films, Disney or Animation in general! These entries are just meant to be my analyses. Not reviews or statements. Just fun analyses! Though I'll make some personal remarks now and then, the content of these entries are meant to be depicted objectively. They're made for entertainment purpose only and the pictures/clips are copyright Disney or other companies.

Make sure to leave a comment if you like this site! And if there's something you think could be improved, please let me know. But in a constructive way, please. And just a note; I'm not a Native English writer, so my incorrect grammar may be notable.

And finally; If you haven't seen the films, beware of spoilers! And the funny lines aren't meant to be nothing than funny. So I hope you won't find them offensive. If so, I apologize

To Infinity and Beyond has been used too many times :)

Yes, humans are still on top of
the food chain :)

By discussing Disney`s videogame division, if you`re going to mention a game franchise from Disney that has managed to stand on it`s own merits, it` Kingdom Hearts from 2002. That franchise became such a brand that it managed to shed light upon a division that Disney rarely known for: The video game franchise. However, if there was another game during the last years who also managed to become a franchise of it`s own, it was Disney`s Infinity series. Released in August 2013, Infinity has become one of the most relevant and popular game franchises from Disney. But it was incredibly successful and was a hit.

I (Wreck-it-Ralph) was too tall
for belonging to this squad :)

Of course Infinity is amongst Disney`s evergrowing jungle of different franchises. But at least it`s something that honors Disney`s legacy and it`s characters, just like Hearts. And it`s not something that disgraces the Disney Universe. But since we live in an era where Disney have cross-franchised brands, it included the Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars characters, as well. And sure, since Disney does like to include all of their characters in a gathering now and then, Infinity was essentially another vehicle to include all of their characters.

General Information About Disney`s Infinity

All of these cups are made
from Chip :)

Disney Infinity was an action-adventure sandbox toys-to-life video game series from Avalanche Software and Disney Interactive Studios. Released on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, Wii U, PC and Nintendo 3DS in August 2013 (originally it was going to be released in June, with the back-to-school season). The idea came of Avalanche's work on Toy Story 3 video game. Based on the open world section named The Toybox-mode that was well-received. Disney vetoed it first, but when 3 was a hit and the time came to make a sequel, the idea was greenlit again. Originally it would`ve been set at Star Command. Disney Interactive's president John Pleasants challenged the team to come up with the idea. Which evolved to be a vehicle for Disney`s whole universe.

This is how Get a Horse was
made :)

The initial pitch, which was smaller, called for each toy to have a different design, to better reflect the variety of toys kids play with. But coming up with a unified look made the figures look like they belonged together stylistically. The crew spent time on the design language to bring it to the essence of the characters with few lines. The stylized look of the characters was based on Avalanche’s Jeff Bunker, who worked with Pixar and Disney (and crew of Disney’s live action films) to make sure the characters matched the originals. At the time, it was only Avalanche who focused on videogame consoles, while the rest of Disney Interactive’s were devoted to mobile and online platforms. And yes, Disney invested more in the game than they did with any other title, making it a risky bet. And it was also modeled after another game with physical toys, Skylanders.

How To Play the Disney Infinity Games

We`re not holding lasers, we`re
holding ice with water :)

Disney Infinity was a action-adventure games with physical toys, open-
world creation and story-driven gameplay. Characters, playsets and other features were brought to the game using figurines and discs with the included Infinity Base. With the exception of non-human characters, as Cars, each character had a double jump (unless in a vehicle) and a default set of attacks, and a unique ability. Sulley and Jack Skellington could roar to scare, while Violet and Randall turned invisible. There were two main modes: Play Set and Toy Box. Each playset was a self-contained world with its own play, based on a film or series. And they had their own unique campaign, which could be played with up to two players. The playsets were accessed by placing the relevant playset piece onto the Infinity Base. Characters from one world couldn`t enter another, but players could still put any characters together in Toy Box mode. Toy Box was a sandbox mode players could customize and explore. That users could only access toys and characters in a given Play Set, so sadly there was be no way to bring toys to other worlds.

This glow behind me helped
me to find my talent in Pixie
Hollow :) Just like Tinker Bell.

Toy Box mode allowed players to create their own game in an open-
world arena. Players could mix and match everything unlocked within the playsets (characters, weapons and gadgets). By unlocking new content in the playsets, players could build their own worlds and make their own game. There were various adventures in that mode, which taught the player to use tools. Players could also earn "spins" by playing through playsets or leveling up their characters. Which was used to unlock additional items. The mode supported online multiplayer, in which players could play around with items that only the other player has, only in that session.

Since I love gold, my color is
yellow :) Duuh :)

When the figurines were placed on the Infinity Base, the characters were imported to the game, while world discs unlocked Play Sets. Power Discs wee discs that could be placed on the Infinity Base along with their characters to add new elements. Players could use three environment enhancements (Hexagonal Power Discs) that could only be used in the Toy Box mode and up to two character enhancements (Circular Power Discs) per character. The environment enhancements could alter the terrain, change the background "sky," add new vehicles or weapons. The character enhancements would alter things to the character as damage done, replenish health, allow for faster experience gain for leveling and so on. One Power Disc was included with the Starter Pack, while other discs were sold in blind bags containing two discs. To play Infinity, gamers needed to purchase a $75 starter pack with three figures and a reader pad.

The Characters Who`ve Appeared on Disney`s Infinity and Comparisons to Kingdom Hearts

We can also surf in tree
branches :) Just like Tarzan :)

As aforementioned,

Disney`s Infinity was a vehicle for many Disney characters. And while it didn`t include all of them, at least it managed to included various of the relevant characters. And yes, much to what could`ve been a dismay to purists, the live action renditions of both Alice and Maleficent have been included. And also including both Marvel and Star Wars characters. And sure, it would`ve been awfully tempting to compare it to aforementioned Kingdom Hearts for serving a similar purpose. Yet of course that comparison is shallow, since both games are different on their own rights.

Yes, this will be a
dysfunctional race :)

The first playset (Disney Infinity 1.0) included Pirates of the Caribbean, Monsters University, The Incredibles, Cars, The Lone Ranger and Toy Story in Space and included Mr. Incredible, Jack Sparrow, and Sulley. It had characters like Agent P (Phineas and Ferb), Phineas, Anna, Elsa, Jack Skellington, Lone Ranger, Mickey, Tonto (The Lone Ranger), Tantor (Tarzan), Wreck-it-Ralph and Vanellope. The second playset, Disney Infinity 2.0 (released September 23, 2014), included The Avengers, Spider-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy. It`s starter pack contained figured of Iron Man, Thor, and Black Widow, and characters in the game were Stitch, Maleficent, Donald Duck, Tinker Bell, Merida (Brave), Hiro Hamada, Baymax (Big Hero 6), Aladdin, Jasmine, Ronan the Accuser, Spider-Man, Nova, Iron Fist, Venom, Nick Fury and the Green Goblin.

I know that I should`ve bended
to be on your size, Mickey.
But I`m too old :)

The third installment, Disney Infinity 3.0 (released August 30, 2015), included Star Wars: Twilight of the Republic, Star Wars: Rise Against the Empire, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Inside Out, Finding Dory and Marvel Battlegrounds. And it also incldued Mulan, Olaf, Quorra, Sam Flynn (Tron), Judy, Nick (Zootopia), Spot (The Good Dinosaur), Baloo, Merlin and Alice and The Mad Hatter (Peter Pan was originally going to be included, but was discarded).

The Reception and Cancellation of the Infinity Series

We`re sad that black and white
isn`t as cool anymore :)

However, the reception of Disney`s Infinity has been a success. Selling 294,000 copies in the US during its first two weeks. Three million starter packs were sold of January 2014. It was nominated for the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards in 2014, but lost to Just Dance 2014. Disney Infinity received generally positive reviews from critics except for the 3DS version (Steven O'Donnell of Good Game: Spawn Point compared it to Minecraft). However, the overall prize of the game with it`s accessories were given complaints. However, unfortunately the franchise was discarded in early 2016, despite how the reasons why are not clear. The following game was set to be called Disney Infinity 4.0: Kingdoms and would have featured Aladdin with Yoda and Rocket Raccoon in Agrabah. And other famous Disney characters would be running around Agrabah.

This is our way of giving high
five :)

However, Disney continued to release concept art of characters, including Marvel's Doctor Strange, Spider-Gwen and Moana. An anonymous source uploaded some footage to Vimeo. Disney still launched action figures based on the art style of the games. While Avalanche Software closed down on May 11, 2016, it reopened under Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. However, Gold Editions of the three previous games in the series were released for Microsoft Windows (via Steam) on December 9, 2016, with the existing figures and playsets.

Epilogue

At the end, Disney`s

Infinity is nothing but another entry to Disney`s ever-expanding jungle of franchises. However, it`s still a honorable version. Despite that it was a short-lived franchise, it`s still a relevant one, due to how it isn`t that terribly long ago since it was relevant. However, it`s still a pity that it was a short-lived and couldn`t last longer. And yes, it`s still hard to believe that more than a decade has passed since it`s release. But since this entry was written to synergize with it`s Belated 10th Year Anniversary in 2023, there`s nothing left to wish Infinity Happy 10th Year Anniversary and may you continue to have many more.