Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas

Of course there's a Santy. Otherwise, we'd have a lot of jobless elves running around. Just one of many humorous quotes from Once Upon a Christmas, another of Disney's anthology Christmas specials. Unlike Winnie the Pooh, this one has consistently good animation and features a wider variety of our usual gang.

Opening the first of our three shorts is something familiar to us all, a wish that Christmas happened every day. However, as Huey, Dewey and Louie find out this isn't always a good idea. It's sort of a variation of "Groundhog Day" and spends it's time pointing out Donald's card, that Christmas isn't about the tree, the presents or snow but about the love and warmth we share with our family.

Our second story features Goofy and a much younger Max as they dare to ask the question. Is Santa Claus real? Max isn't quite sure if he believes or not, and Pete is hardly any help as he only enforces the more adult view that Santa is not real. However, good old Goofy in all his more child mind set believes in him right down to the core. Even when things get dark and all hope seems lost, Santa himself arrives to brighten their hope and renews their belief.

Our final story is a classic Mickey and Minnie one as our two favorite mice try and find each other just the perfect gift. It plays out much like "Gift of the Magi" and has almost a classic Mickey short feel to it, but with that extra little Christmas twist to things and serves as a pleasing finale to the movie.

One final note is that aside from the characters mentioned above, we are also treated to seeing Pluto, Chip an' Dale, Uncle Scrooge, Daisy and Aunt Gerdy. The latter of which seems to be a newer character to the Duck family.

Three Musketeers (Disney)

Mickey, Donald and Goofy once again team up, this time as the Three Musketeers in this feature length outing.

We open to our narrator, who introduces us to the story through his comic book and with the help of a song he wrote. All of the songs are a bit peppy, and have comical twists to classical music including Beethoven and Tcaikovsky. Sometimes it's a bit too comical, though it is a rather fun new approach to songs that might otherwise lose the interest of the target audience.

Our three heroes it seems are actually working as janitors for the Musketeers, which is lead by the villainous Pete (complete with his peg leg!). Quite quickly we learn that he is our villain, despite it being rather obvious, and that he plots to become King by kidnapping Princess Minnie Mouse with the help of his three goons and his lieutenant Clarabelle.

Through the short movie, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy learn what it takes to be Musketeers and never give up even after failing twice to hold their own. But when they work together, they easily save the day.

Fun songs aside, I actually enjoyed the rare use of Clarabelle instead given how her role could easily have been neglected. Even then, for a rather straight forward plot the Three Musketeers is a fun romp and one of the far better direct to video releases that Disney has put out.

Mickey's House of Villains

I'll admit, when I heard this was coming out I was pretty excited. Who couldn't be? A feature length film centered around the villains. When I finally saw it there was a mixture of feelings, surprise, excitement and a bit of confusion. While it was still a huge step in the right direction for giving the villains some spotlight, part of me was a bit surprised at how it was done. Though now that I look back, it does make sense.

What follows is a longer than normal episode of House of Mouse. For those not in the now, House of Mouse is a nightclub run by Mickey and the gang where all of the various Disney characters can come and dine while watching cartoon shorts.

Now, House of Mouse may not be the most amazing t.v show put out by Disney I still have to give them a lot of credit for actually dipping into their older shorts from time to time to use in this show. That aside, it's also rather fun getting to see everybody in the same location, Cruella and Hook rubbing shoulders with Maleficent etc.

Back to House of Villains. The choice of shorts is actually pretty fun, though I do have to question what they were thinking adding in a short of Goofy in a yellow leotard. Then again that is pretty scary so it's fitting. Aside from that we also are treated to "Lonesome Ghosts", "Trick or Treat", and "Donald and the Gorilla" for the older Walt made shorts. As well we get a few Mickey Mouseworks notably one where Mickey and Pluto are in a crazy house.

While the shorts themselves are quite entertaining on their own, the plot of Jafar leading the villains to take over is just as much fun. The real showstopper however is when all of the villains join together to sing "It's Our House Now" as they kick out our favorite mouse and all the more friendly characters.

For the villains, we really do get quite the helping of them as pretty much every Animated Classic villains makes an appearance even if for a brief moment, Monstro aside given how he's a whale. What I enjoyed was scanning the crowd to pick out who was present and spotted a few lesser seen characters such as Lucifur and Big Bad Wolf.

If you're a fan of Disney, Villains or Halloween this is definitely for you and worth a look.

Mickey's Treat

It's October, which means the Halloween marathon is kicking into gear today! Going to start out with something most people won't watch, at least if they do not have young children.

So. Mickey's Treat. Much like "Enchanted Tales" this show is much more enjoyable as a young child. The basic...story is that Mickey and the crew are going to Pete's Halloween party. On a regular basis the story halts so that he can ask for the viewers help. Very slowly we make our way over the Candy Corn Patch and through the spooky woods. Upon arriving at the Tower, Mickey pulls a rabbit out of his hat to help them gain entry to the party. Nowhere near the best of Halloween specials that we've seen from Disney, especially compared to Disney's Halloween Treat.

Avoid it unless you're a hard-core Disney fan, Halloween fan or just can't help the curiousity and check it out.

Goofy World of Sports

The first of many Disney today! The Goofy World of Sports is a fairly old vhs compilation, and the opening sequence itself is rather enjoyable as it shows a number of scenes from various shorts. Though for me, some of this is more than likely nostalgia kicking in.

First up is Olympic Champ in which we join Goofy as he attempts various Olympic events with...little success as we could predict. One highlight is during the pole vault demonstration, in which our narrator asks poor Goofy to wait in mid-air so that he can describe things but quickly become distracted with telling a poem. In the end, Goofy lands in a well earned pile of trophies.

Next up we join Donald as he tries to golf, though the pranks of Huey, Dewey and Louie provide him with much trouble. From phony golf clubs that do a 1,000 tricks to hiding a cricket in a fake golf ball the troublesome trio do their best. After Donald becomes tied up, they proceed to sink their own balls in a variety of ways, though Donald only manages to get his bill stuck as we close.

Moving onto Skiing, we join Goofy and the Narrator once more. First we watch Goofy as he tries to prepare for learning to ski, having some difficulty with getting dressed. Once on the slopes many gags ensue as the lovable Goof does his best to try and stay on his feet while showing a variety of things from basic walking to the much more advanced ski jumps.

The final short is Aquamania in which Goofy attempts to take on water skiing, and boating in general. His rarely seen son joins him this trip, when Goofy or "Mr. X" as he's called here purchases a boat and is quite promptly entered in a water skiing race.

The four shorts are quite enjoyable, though personally most would rank in the middle for me. Some out there are not quite as fun, yet there are better shorts out there showcasing our two main stars. The animation is, I assume, quite good by the standards of the shorts back then though since I viewed an older vhs things weren't quite as good as they could have been. The shorts and the humor inside them more than make up for it though.