Back in 2001, the Disney Channel had a short-lived animated television series called House of Mouse. It featured Mickey Mouse and almost every main character from all the Disney animated films interacting with each other at Mickey’s nightclub called the “House of Mouse.” The series only lasted a year, but it did spawn two full-length holiday DVDs. Released on DVD in 2001 as well, Mickey’s Magical Christmas: Snowed In at the House of Mouse was one of those holiday-themed DVDs from the HOM series. Not 8 years later the same title is being re-released on DVD with a new front cover. Is there any difference and what exactly is this film all about?
In Mickey’s Magical Christmas: Snowed In at the House of Mouse, the setting is Christmas Eve. Mickey and all of his animated friends from various Disney movies and shorts are all at “The House of Mouse”, which is a nightclub run by Mickey Mouse. After the Christmas Ever show has finished, and Mickey and everyone else inside are surprised to learn they’re all snowed in. They decide to hold a holiday party right then and there. The big problem is that Donald Duck is not in the Christmas spirit. So it’s up to the House of Mouse gang to try to cheer up Donald with cartoons.
The basic storyline that ties everything together is, of course, Donald Duck not being in the Christmas spirit. This just feels like a desperate way to market this as a full-length adventure. The heart of this DVD is really four smaller animated shorts. The most famous of them all is the Oscar-nominated 1983 featurette Mickey’s Christmas Carol, in which Scrooge McDuck is visited by his late partner (Goofy) and three ghosts (Jiminy Cricket, Fun and Fancy Free giant Willie, and Pete) to change his miserly ways. Then, there is the 1952 short Pluto’s Christmas Tree, in which 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 a new home. Those are followed by two newer 1999 Mickey Mouse Works cartoons. One being Donald on Ice, in which 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. Finally, Disney’s animated version of The Nutcracker, in which 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. In between these cartoons, there are various bits back at the “House of Mouse” with all the Disney characters making Christmas wishes and sharing what they’re thankful for, Ludwig von Drake explaining the science of Santa, and, of course, a happy musical ending where everyone, including Donald, sings “The Best Christmas of All.”
In 2001, this was a good collection of Christmas shorts. That DVD was the first time you could have the 20-minute Mickey’s Christmas Carol short on DVD. The same thing for Disney’s Christmas Tree. But in the 8 years between these two DVD releases, both of those two shorts have been released on DVD three more times, in which the more complete versions of them were included. The best part of this DVD and the House of Mouse series to begin with was the interaction between all the famous Disney characters. But that is only a small minority with stuff you can see elsewhere unfortunately being the majority.
2009’s DVD release of Mickey’s Magical Christmas is just a way for Disney to sell this DVD to a new generation of youngsters. There is really nothing new about this DVD when compared to the 2001 release, except for the cover art, the ability to “FastPlay” through all the trailers, and earn some Disney Movie Rewards points. Unfortunately, more than half of this DVD has become available on other Disney DVD releases in recent years, which makes this release almost worthless if you already have Mickey’s Christmas Carol on a newer DVD. Now if you have never seen any of this material before, Mickey’s Magical Christmas is a nice collection of Christmas-themed Disney shorts. Every family should definitely watch these shorts this Christmas, but the odds of you having to buy this new release to do that, is slimer than Disney would like you to believe.
The video is given in “Family Friendly” widescreen color with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. That basically means the pictures gets stretched out to fit widescreens. But the animation and colors are mostly bright and beautiful. The quality is less, of course, when the older cartoon shorts appear on screen. But no major problems with the transfer here.
The audio included is available in either English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound or English DTS 5.1 Surround sound. There are subtitles available in English as well. The dialogue and music come out loud and clear. No major problems here either.
Premiere Episode of House of Mouse –
This is apparently the full 23-minute first episode of the short-lived Disney House of Mouse series called “Stolen Cartoons”. Various Disney characters from popular animated films visit the famous nightclub. But the club’s landlord, Pete, looks to close down the House by preventing Mickey and friends from fulfilling the lease’s “show must go on” clause. Although the cartoons eventually go missing, we still get to see a “Pluto Gets the Paper” short involving cement, a “Donald’s Dynamite” magic stage act, and Hickory Dickory Mickey in which Goofy’s alarm clock keeps Mickey up the night before he is to drive Goofy to the airport. Donald also briefly gets put in charge of the club, which he is really excited about.
“The Sounds of Christmas” Featurette –
This runs 2 1/2 minutes and it features Wayne Allwine, the voice of Mickey Mouse from 1983 until his death earlier in 2009. Allwine shows a rehearsed group of five youngsters the props used to create sounds for classic Disney animation. He then leads the kids in making sound effects for an adapted version of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. This is really fun to watch.
Sing-Along Songs –
There are two songs from the Sing-Along video A Very Merry Christmas. You can do your 2 minute karaoke version of “Deck the Halls” with footage from Pluto’s Christmas Tree, and then another two-minute karaoke version of “Sleigh Ride” with footage from Mickey’s Christmas Carol. A Mickey head in Santa cap bounces on the animated lyrics.
It will be hard recommend this DVD to anyone, except for those that are hardcore House of Mouse fans or those that don’t already have 2001 version of this DVD or the 3 additional DVDs that feature Mickey’s Christmas Carol and Pluto’s Christmas Tree. If you don’t have any of these shorts on any other DVD, then go ahead and get this DVD set, because this DVD is good entertaining Christmas fun for the whole family.
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment presents Mickey’s Magical Christmas: Snowed In At The House of Mouse. Directed by Tony Craig and Roberts Gannaway. Written by Thomas Hart and Jess Winfield. Voice Cast: Wayne Allwine (Mickey Mouse), John Cleese (“The Nutcracker” Narrator), Peter Cullen (Eeyore). Running time: 62 minutes. Rated: NOT RATED. Released on DVD: November 3, 2009. Available at Amazon.com
