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

A fun holiday release but not much difference from the 2001 DVD release
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...

Worth it for the classic material
There have been dozens of film adaptations of "A Christmas Carol" -- including particularly good ones starring George C. Scott and Patrick Stewart. "Mickey's Christmas Carol" is one of my favorites. The Disney characters take the roles in Charles Dickens's classic story of greed, ghosts and redemption. This also has the significance of being the first cartoon to feature the Scrooge McDuck character, who was created and popularized by Carl Barks in the Disney comic books. He is voiced here, and in most later appearances, by Alan Young (alias Wilbur from "Mr. Ed".)

You can't find it alone on video or DVD, but last year it was released in part of an anthology movie, "Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse." This movie is worth it for the Christmas Carol adaptation alone, but also has several new shorts and the 1952 classic "Pluto's Christmas Tree," that makes it worth picking up. The framing sequence is so-so -- a take on the "House of Mouse"...

Mickey's Magical Christmas - Snowed in at the House of Mouse
Curiosity won out when I was considering buying Mickey's Magical Christmas on DVD. I thought the idea to make an all star Christmas movie was a good one, I did not know at the time that a TV show of this existed. The animation is the quality of a TV show, but to see many characters that span Disney's long legacy is worth getting the video.

The movie centers around everyone trying to get Donald into the spirit, by showing old Christmas videos. Two of the 4 videos shown are recent, but the real gems are two old cartoons from my childhood. One is about Pluto vs Chip & Dale, when they sneak into Mickey's Christmas Tree and the other is "Mickey's Christmas Carol" (a title that I was hoping would have a DVD release one day, and it surprisingly came this week).

The DTS 5.1 Soundtrack isn't extraordinary, but more than adequate for this type of release. Most of the surround is used to split the music.

Mickey's Magical Christmas will without a doubt keep kids in front of...

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