Mickey's Magical Christmas - Snowed in at the House of Mouse

Mickey's Magical Christmas - Snowed in at the House of Mouse
by Burny Mattinson, Jack Hannah

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DVD Reviews of Mickey's Magical Christmas - Snowed in at the House of Mouse

DVD Review: Magical Mickey Marketing
Summary: 3 Stars

This DVD is a home video/dvd release extended special episode of the Disney channel's House of Mouse show. The House of Mouse show combines new footage with old cartoon clips.

On the DVD box it says: Full Length Holiday Movie. Look closely at the back of the box and you'll see it says it's approximately 65 minutes long. It was never released to the movie theaters. Many will think it must be a new movie.. even a new direct to video movie because it says so on the box. If you don't get cable t.v. or the Disney Channel/ Toon Disney you won't know what House of Mouse is.

About 25 minutes of this DVD is the Mickey's Christmas Carol short, shown without credits and tied into the new shenanigans at 'the House of Mouse". The older Pluto and Chip N Dale cartoon : Pluto's Christmas Tree and brief snippet of another Mickey Mouse cartoon take up another ten minutes of time. There appears to be a brand new cartoon with Donald Duck on the DVD, and a cartoon I've not seen before that you might call Disney's Nutcracker, which is narrated by John Cleese. Those take up close to 15 minutes on the disc.

That leaves under 15 minutes for new footage and credits. Mickey and his friends have just finished a concert show at the House of Mouse. They get snowed in and decide to celebrate Christmas anyway. Donald Duck doesn't feel the spirit of Christmas so Mickey and his friends- consisting of nearly every single featured Disney character try to cheer the Scrooge like Duck up. They decorate, and then they begin to tell him stories which allow for the showing of new and old cartoon clips and eventually Mickey's Christmas Carol which features Scrooge McDuck and Mickey as Bob Cratchet in an entertaining re-telling of Dickens' Christmas Carol most of us have seen (which isn't better than versions featuring: Mr. Magoo, Alistair Sim or George C. Scott ).

Do you think Donald finds the spirit of Christmas and joins the Disney gang for a brand new
"Best Christmas of All" song? Hey I'm not going to spoil it for you.

The new animation is of course not done as well as it would have been for a major Disney feature, but children will have a good time trying to spot the characters and villains from the Disney movies they probably know very well. Some of the characters do little bits of business.

dvd stuff:

Mickey's Magical Christmas is presented in full frame 1:33:1. The colors are bright and crisp. The older cartoon clips are free from any defects, grain, or telltale print damage. The new material is not as well animated as the older material, but they blend fairly well together.

Audio is presented in 5.1. Dolby and the full spectrum of your home theatre speaker set up are utilized. Even some of the older cartoon clips move some of the sound effects around the room. It's pretty impressive actually.

DVD EXTRAS:

Three Bonus features are included on the DVD and adults will fine the extras easier to watch with their kids then the main attraction.

The Premiere episode of the Disney Cable t.v. channel program : House of Mouse is included. The House of Mouse combines old and newly created segments to showcase vintage cartoons from Disney's Vault. The new material involves many many characters from Disney features that gather at the House of Mouse nightclub to watch M.C. Mickey and gang put on a show. It's a lot like The Muppet Show in many ways. The jokes are funnier and pacing is better on the
Premiere episode than in the main attraction.

SingAlong Songs includes two follow the bouncing ball shorts. The songs are Deck the Halls and Sleigh Ride.

The Sounds of Christmas is a very short under 4 minute feature in which a group of children learn that a variety of objects create the sound effects that are used in Disney cartoons. Hey kids did you know tied up bamboo sticks made the sound of the forest fire in the movie Bambi?

There's also a long preview of the all new Peter Pan movie that's supposed to be out in theaters in February.
FINAL WORD:

If you have little ones in your house-hold who love all things Disney and you want to own a pristine copy of Mickey's Christmas Carol, than this DVD will make an inoffensive program to pass the time for the children. There's too much saccharine for adults to enjoy it very much I'm afraid, but Adults might enjoy the extra material on the disc more than the main attraction and almost enjoy watching it with the kids.

Christopher Jarmick, is the author of The Glass Cocoon with Serena F. Holder a critically acclaimed, steamy suspense thriller.