>>82568739What's funny is that that's exactly what happened to Oswald before he came back to Disney. Universal sanitized him hard, to the point where he's completely unrecognizable, completely missing the point as to why it worked for Mickey. Disney sanitized Mickey in such a way as to make his as versatile as possible, not to make him bland.
Take Super Mario for example. Mario is the everyman capable of doing anything and being everything, because he's a blank slate. The moment he's gets a personality quirk that sticks, then he's defined by that from then on, limiting what he can do. An apt example of this would be Sonic, since speed is all there is to him and it defines him, therefore limiting what he can do. He can't work outside his main games and formula.
Mickey is also this. Mickey can be a sorcerer, a clock cleaner, a ghostbuster, a key blade wielder, and more because they made him as versatile as possible, which is required of a mascot in order to make him last.
