See Why Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp Really Want You to Play Disney Infinity 2.0

Updated on 11/12/2014 at 3:46 PM

It's been just over a year since our favorite Disney and Pixar characters joined forces in the magical world of Disney Infinity. Since then everyone from Mike Wazowski and Lightning McQueen to Jack Sparrow and Queen Elsa have come together to play in the virtual play box as players created their own game narratives.

Now, just in time for the holidays, Disney's back with Disney Infinity 2.0, and not only is the system more intuitive, but it's also packed with characters that fans will love. The new Marvel starter pack ($75) and Toy Box story pack ($60) are full of improvements that even the most strident fans can appreciate and characters that fans have been waiting for. "With the first version of the game, we felt the toy box mode was a lot of fun, but we heard from players that it was daunting when they first entered that mode of play," John Vignocchi, executive producer of Disney Infinity, told us. "Some were overwhelmed with the amount of options and the amount of things that they could do." So what was the company to do? How could it make the game more accessible for players of all ages?

In version 2.0, animators worked to create additional character movements that better reflect the characters we know and love from the films. Developers also worked on a new "skill tree and attribute system" that are more true to the characters. "So, you're going to be able to unlock, for example, the ability for Maleficent to fly around the toy box, and you're going to be unlocking a special barrage of arrows that Princess Merida has, and Stitch has got a great one, too, where he actually grows out his other two arms and quad wheels to attack enemies on the screen," Vignocchi says.

Read on to see what Vignocchi said are the most popular Disney Infinity characters, which characters celebrities had a hand in creating, and which Disney character he'd like to add to the lineup in the future (hint: it lives at a Disney theme park).

You Won't Believe Why Stitch and Princess Merida Were Chosen For the Toy Box Starter Pack

According to John Vignocchi, executive producer at Disney Interactive Studios, while developing the original version of Disney Infinity, they ran a poll on their social media channels asking fans which characters they'd like to see. "We had an overwhelming number of responses with Stitch as the number one most requested character and Princess Merida as the number two most requested character," he said. "Not a lot has been done with Stitch as a character from a consumer products perspective or from an events perspective around the company, so we were surprised to learn that, and in fact we're delighted to offer our fans the chance to play with these characters."

Your Favorite Disney Theme Park Rides Are Now Part of the Game

Disney is certainly more than movies and characters. It includes theme parks and resorts, too. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of It's a Small World, developers decided to work the famous ride into one of the game's power disks. "We decided to pay homage to that and include it inside of Disney Infinity," Vignocchi said. The company is also incorporating the Main Street Electrical Parade into the game. Some of the park highlights are unlocked via power disks, while others are unlocked during game play in the toy box.

And the Most Popular Infinity Characters to Date Have Been . . .

You guessed it, Elsa and Anna! Yeah, we were surprised, too, and so were the developers at Disney. As Vignocchi noted, "We were delighted to find that while we had initially thought that our split between boys and girls was going to be 70 percent male and 30 percent female, it actually came closer to about 55 percent male and 45 percent female, and we attribute that to this incredible lineup of strong female characters that we integrated into the game. Even a year after the launch of the film, Elsa is still the number eight highest-selling Disney Infinity figure — even with the launch of the new movies, Marvel superheroes, and the new Disney originals."

Angelina Jolie Made Sure Maleficent Would Be the Strongest Character

"In celebration of the release of Maleficent, we decided to include the contemporary version of the evil queen, the Jolie version, inside of the game," Vignocchi said. "She is actually one of the strongest characters inside of the game. She has the highest damage per second, or DPS, as we call it in game development terms, and she also has one of the strongest super moves in the game.

"She can hold her own against Iron Man and Thor and these other various characters, and then Angelina Jolie had actually been the first celebrity to reach out through our studio channels for a copy of the first version of Disney Infinity and the various characters. So, when we were just wrapping up the first one, we had heard that and used that as an opportunity to inquire if we could include Maleficent out of the game."

Just How Much of a Say Did Johnny Depp Have in Jack Sparrow's Development?

"Johnny Depp was heavily involved in the creation of our Jack Sparrow figure that of course came with the Disney Infinity 1.0 starter pack," Vignocchi shared. "It's actually funny. One of our anecdotal stories about Johnny was when we had sent the original prototype of Jack Sparrow over to him to review, he had said that it looked great, but he wanted to make sure that every one of the rings on Jack Sparrow's hand was the appropriate color of the rings that he actually wears in the films. If you actually look at the figure itself, you can see every one of them are painted differently.

"That's part of the magic that I think may get overlooked by people at times and we start thinking about all of the different properties that we have across the Walt Disney company and then of course all the different people that we need to interact with in order to gain approvals on these various figures and how they appear in the game. It's a daunting task, but one that our team loves doing."

And Who Would Disney Like to Add to the Lineup?

None other than the legendary Michael Jackson, aka Captain EO from Epcot. "It will be a difficult one to get clearance on, but one I absolutely want to pursue one day," Vignocchi revealed. "So we've got that one, but of course with the recent acquisitions with Marvel as well as Lucasfilm that just broadens Disney's already impressive catalog of IPs. I mean there's lots of other characters from Marvel, and of course when you start looking at the various universes that Lucasfilm has created over the many years that they've been in business, there's great characters there that would make for compelling and fun game play. So, still a lot of work to do!"