24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A fun holiday release but not much difference from the 2001 DVD release, November 4, 2009
This review is from: Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse (DVD)
In 2001, Disney released "Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed In at the House of Mouse", a Christmas special from the House of Mouse TV Show. And like most Disney releases, once it's released, don't expect to see another release again for years. And in this case, 8 years later (2009) and right in time for the holidays, "Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed In at the House of Mouse" is back.
This Christmas episode is about how all the Disney characters (characters from nearly every Disney animated film) are stranded at the House of Mouse (a night club) due to a snow storm. So, Mickey being the gracious host that he is, is trying to bring home that Christmas spirit and entertain his guest. The problem is that Donald Duck is not having a great time is like the scrooge at the Christmas party. So, Mickey tries to make Donald happy and entertain his guest by showing classic Disney animated shorts which include:
* Donald On Ice (1999) - Donald tries to learn to skate, while Huey, Dewey and Louie try to build a snowman. But unfortunately, Donald's inability to skate tends to ruin the triplets chance at building their snowman.
* Pluto's Christmas Tree (1952) -Mickey cuts down a Christmas Tree and doesn't know that the Chipmunks: Chip & Dale are living in the tree. Unfortunately, Chip & Dale tend to drive Pluto nuts and thus Pluto does what he can to get the Chipmunks.
* The Nutcracker (1999) - A young girl (played by Minnie Mouse) receives a present (which is a wooden mouse) and dreams for it to become real, so she can dance with him.
* Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983) - The popular Disney Christmas animated short features the story of Scrooge McDuck and how he's mean to everyone for Christmas until he learns a lesson from the Spirit of Christmas past.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
"Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed In a the House of Mouse" is an animated full-length feature that features nice, vibrant animation during the more modern "House of Mouse" television show. But each time the feature switches to the animated shorts, you get mixed results in terms of picture quality due to some of these animated shorts being over 30/50-years old. But overall, the classics due show a difference in animation quality but for those who enjoyed animation like "Mickey's Christmas Carol" or even the older classic animated short "Pluto's Christmas Tree", although not digitally remastered, these classics due hold up well on DVD decades later.
As for audio, "Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed In a the House of Mouse" is featured in DTS 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1. The series is primarily front and center channel driven and personally, I didn't notice any surround or LFE usage but dialogue is clear and understandable.
Subtitles are presented in English SDH.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
"Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed In at the House of Mouse" comes with the following special features:
* Premiere Episode of House of Mouse - (23:07) An episode of "House of Mouse" featuring various Disney characters from popular animated films visiting the House of Mouse nightclub. Meanwhile, Pete buys the building of where the House of Mouse is located and wants to shut down the cartoon club.
* The Sounds of Christmas - (2:33) A Disney sound engineer teaches children how to make sounds using objects and how they were utilized in certain animation.
* SingAlong "Deck the Halls" - (1:50) Karaoke SingAlong to "Deck the Halls" with animation from "Pluto's Christmas Tree".
* SingAlong Song "Sleigh Ride" - (1:57) Karaoke SingAlong to "Sleigh Ride" with animation from "Mickey's Christmas Carol".
JUDGMENT CALL:
I watched "Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed In at the House of Mouse" with my toddler and he absolutely loved it and wanted to watch it again. And as a holiday family feature, it is an entertaining release that will be fun, due to the number of Disney characters seen throughout the feature.
With that being said, for those who own the recent release of Walt Disney Animated Shorts Collection or other Disney releases probably have the animated shorts on previously released DVD's. Those who own the original release from 2001, there is really is nothing new on this DVD with the exception of the new trailers. In fact, if you are a fan who mainly wants this release for its holiday-related animated shorts, then you may want to check out the just released "Disney Animation Collection 7: Mickey's Christmas Carol" which comes with "Mickey's Christmas Carol", "Pluto's Christmas Tree" and two other Disney classics.
But with this release of "Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed In at the House of Mouse", if you are a "House of Mouse" fan, you do get the premiere episode of "House of Mouse" and other short entertaining holiday special features. I do admit that I wished that the DVD release had more interactivity like other Disney releases with games or something extra.
Overall, "Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed In at the House of Mouse" is entertaining for young and old as it does feature newer and older animation and if you don't own these animated shorts on another previously released Disney collection, it's worth checking out. But if you do have these shorts already, it's kind of hard to recommend it as the majority of the content in this feature are those classic shorts.
So, for parents who are looking for a Disney holiday release, as mentioned earlier, my son loved it and wanted to watch it again. So, yes it is an entertaining and fun Disney holiday release. I recommend Disney fans looking for a an animated holiday release to also purchase a copy of "Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas" (2004), if you don't own it already.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
And now it's time to play our favorite game show, "Name that Character!!", November 4, 2009
This review is from: Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse (DVD)
When Disney brought Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and essentially the entire casts of animated features to Saturday morning and other daytime TV in 2001, it was done in grand style with an effort to create something that would please fans and young viewers, being hip as well as classic.
It's a testimony to those involved with House of Mouse that such an impossibly tall order was carried off so much of the time. Sure, the new animation is markedly different from vintage stuff, but even the Wonderful World of Disney combined the flowing, straight line animation with the "scritchy" xerox look of the early '60s. The main issue is, does the final product entertain?
My son sure loved it, and he's seen very little of House of Mouse because it's not on TV much and there are precious few DVDs. I found myself laughing out loud at the rapid fire gags and "inside" jokes on Disney characters. Most of all, for me it was fun to spot characters like the Gingerbread Man from Cookie Carnival and Elliot from Pete's Dragon.
That's not to say that House of Mouse is uneven -- the Brian Setzer theme and overall rock/swing music is a great way to keep it fresh yet classic. The references to Backstreet Boys and the like are no different than big band crooner nods in '40s cartoons.
Unlike much animation for television, House of Mouse contains lots of purely visual sequences, short as they are, and short cartoons, which are also shorter than the theatrical type. These cartoons abound with gags -- clearly a lot of work went into them by people who, by and large, generally cared about the early work and actually liked it. I can forgive occasional lapses in graphic quality because of the sheer beauty of the comical poses, especially for Donald. Clearly these poses are the foundation of animation that by necessity is produced in and out of the country. It's inspired by the work of the Disney masters, and probably was researched by the series staff.
Mickey's Magical Christmas is a special House of Mouse that extends to feature length, containing new cartoons as well as Pluto's Christmas Tree and Mickey's Christmas Carol. As a bonus, the premiere episode of House of Mouse in included -- a very funny story in which Donald takes over the 'toon club.
This DVD is also a bit of a tribute to the late Wayne Allwine, who voiced Mickey since Christmas Carol and is heard throughout. Surely it was unintentional, since this is a DVD reissue, but Wayne also appears on camera, guiding guests through the Disney sound effects department, where he worked with Jimmy Macdonald and from whom he took on the mantle of Mickey's voice. This DVD is worth having just for his short bonus feature, "The Sounds of Christmas."
I sure would like to see more House of Mouse on DVD and so would my kids...
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