I personally love the holidays and so it brought great pleasure to me
to be lucky enough to get to review Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas. The
DVD is a follow up to the direct to video release Mickey's Once Upon a
Christmas which was released five years ago in 1999.
Like the first release, this is a collection of short holiday themed
cartoons that feature Mickey and friends. I so love feeling like a kid
again watching these shorts especially since Christmas is literally right
around the corner. These shorts are wonderful for the whole family and
of course entertain while reminding everyone exactly why Christmas
exists.
One of the biggest changes here, which I admit was a bit strange seeing
at first, is that these shorts use 3D animation to bring the characters
to life. Just like you'd see in Shrek or Finding Nemo, some of Disney's
most famous characters are now moving in full 3D and boy does it look
grand. Disney used two different computer animation production companies
to make the film possible but I couldn't see a difference if there was
one.
Shorts begin with "Belles on Ice", a short featuring Minnie and
Daisy Duck battling each other on the ice for the audiences approval.
It's cute and wonderfully animated. Next is a bit longer sequence,
"Christmas: Impossible" running at about 17 minutes. Here we have
Scrooge McDuck and his famous nephews learning some important lessons as
the three boys become too worried about getting and forget that
Christmas is about getting. I was a fan of Duck Tales growing up and its a bit
odd seeing them in this form but still I enjoyed it.
Next we have "Christmas Maximus" which brings Goofy and his son
Max into the limelight. Once again a lesson is learned as Max brings
home his girlfriend Mona on their break from college and worries
incessantly about whether Goofy will ruin things with his clumbsyness. This one
runs a bit short at only 6 minutes but features some good singing. Up
next is "Donald's Gift" running at 8 minutes and giving the
cranky duck a showcase of his own. Here Donald suffers from overexposure to
the song "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" with some pretty funny
results.
Finally things wrap up with "Mickey's Dog-Gone Christmas" which closes
out the final 18 minutes of the film. We get Mickey, Pluto and of
course Santa and his reindeer. Mickey scolds Pluto who runs away to the
North Pole leading Mickey there on a search for his best friend. It's
typical Disney goodness but still feels great to watch no matter how many
different ways they put a story as such together.
The film is a wonderful pairing to the original and makes a great
stocking stuff. Disney has done a great job bringing these characters into
3D.
The Disc:
The look of the film is wonderful and the disc features a beautiful
1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen presentation that is simply stunning. Audio
on the disc is equally impressive with Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1
surround tracks which capture the action sequences perfectly and present the
music in full surround glory. This movie just screams Christmas in all
360 degrees.
Extras on the disc are somewhat light but since this was a direct to
home release we aren't surprised. It begins with Backstage Disney which
gives viewers a feature, "Inspiration on Ice." Michelle Kwan
chimes in and we are told how her involvement helped with the film's ice
skating sequence between Minnie and Daisy.
Next up is the Games & Activities section which features a few
different games for the kids or kids at heart. The disc offers "Santa's
Workshop", an elaborately-designed but very simple quiz on what makes
good behavior, "What is Donald Singing?", which is pretty
self-explanatory and quite hilarious and "Santa's Sort", a guessing
game.
Finally there's some deleted scenes with the filmmakers giving
mini-interviews.
bottom line:
A wonderful disc for the holidays with good writing, great voice
acting, some stunning looking artwork and of course the usual Disney magic.
This DVD is the perfect stocking stuffer and should be on every Santa's
list for the kids.
4 out of 5
By - Brian Gray
