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

This movie wasn't awful by any means but it was pretty boring. The main problem I have with this movie was that there's really no story whatsoever, it's just a bunch of shorts linked together. Whoever decided to make this was really lazy and he/she put little effort into the film.

Okay...so I'm a Disney fan.

This is a great holiday movie with a touching lesson. (that may be a bit overused in holiday movies. Christmas is all about friends and family)

I have to admit, the whole reused segments and in between animation is kind of boring, but they are classic tales from Disney and the in betweeners are fun to watch! It's not everyday you watch movies with loveable characters side-by-side. I think it's great that the other characters are able to chat with each other and take a break from their movie lives. It's just like actors and actresses getting together at a club and watching other performances for a change.

The classic tales retold with that Disney magic is great and the classic features mix well with the newly animated (though not the best animation) shorts.But...

What are you other people talking about??? You obviously haven't seen the Saturday morning show, HOUSE OF MOUSE, which the movie is based on!!!! Watch the show and you'll understand why all the characters are there and why cartoon shorts are shown! Mickey and Donald run a CARTOON club! Of course there will be cartoons shown!

With that said...this was okay for a Disney movie. It wasn't the Disney company's best holiday movie(Once upon a Christmas was much better!!), but they seem to be running out of material. I mean- Cinderella II, Hunchback II, Lady and the Tramp II, etc., coming soon- Dumbo II, Mulan II, 101 Dalmations II: Patch's adventure[or something like that], Tarzan and Jane...okay, it's weird I know all this stuff...Disney is running low on their magic.

Anyway, to sum it up...Magical Christmas was great and shouldn't be shunned so much by people who probably think Anastasia was Disney movie(believe me, most people think it is)

Before I rip this thing apart, let me clarify that I do NOT, as many have accused, hate the Disney Company. It's just that they're kind of like what a real-life Godzilla would be like. WAY too big and often making mistakes that shouldn't ever been allowed to happen. This video is one of them.

I got a little disillusioned with the Mouse when their direct-to-video-sequel thing started. They're rumored to have about eight more planned for the next few years. At some point, I guess, somebody decided it would be funny to have EVERY Disney character ever in one movie. And so we have... this THING. This monstrous THING!!!

If the "Snookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show" couldn't do it for you; if the ZOOG things that stole the Disney Channel couldn't do it for you; heck, if you are *looking forward* to "Back to Neverland"; then this will break you into a weeping blob of protoplasm faster than you can blink. This here is the magic bullet for any Disney detractor. You Disney fans finally know what we Looney Tunes fans went through with "Space Jam".

The only saving grace is that for some reason, some wise fellow decided to use "Pluto's Christmas Tree" and "Mickey's Christmas Carol", in their entirety, to pad out this video. Fast-forward to those parts and only watch them if you are forced to sit through this.

I have no idea what this was supposed to be, but the end result was atrocious. It certainly seems to fit in nicely with the current Disney run of "cheapquels" being cranked out at furious pace to squeeze a few more dollars out of their "properties", quality be damned. Certainly whoever produced this misaligned heap of bouncing blobs set to jarring and annoying music was hired by ghouls in suits or possibly accountants to do a dirty job, and no love went into it whatsoever.

The direct-to-video animation is clumsy, the characters are ghastly and vague impersonations of themselves; worse, the storyline is retarded, so much that even my 5-year-old nephew (who made me watch this awful thing) could see that it was dumb and didn't "feel" like any of the classics. The characters all have the same personality of ill-defined bouncing blobs without motivation, and the "story" couldn't have taken more than a few minutes to work out. Indeed, this thing has all the sincerity of a street hustler and all the charm of a corporate powerpoint presentation.

The music was apparently provided by a handful of lounge entertainment dinosaurs armed with cheap Casio synths.

I don't think Mickey's Magical Christmas:Snowed in at the House of Mouse is the best Christmas movie nor is it among the best Disney has ever done. It is though a decent movie and worth seeing if you like the show House of Mouse(I do), if you love Christmas(once again I do) or if you like Disney(once again I do). This has been compared to House of Villains. I will say I liked them both equally, both had their faults but both have their virtues. I feel Snowed in at the House of Mouse is less rushed and has the better combination of shorts, while House of Villains had the better story and animation.

So what were Snowed in at the House of Mouse's faults? While less rushed, which is in some ways a good thing, the story does drag and does revolve a little too much around the shorts. The animation on the whole is pretty decent, but I did not like how Belle and the Beast were animated, Belle is deflated and Beast is ripped of his majesty. Also, it is a little too short.

However, the animation as I have said apart from Belle and the Beast is decent, there are some nicely drawn characters and the backgrounds are lovely and colourful, and it sticks reasonably true to the animation style of the show like House of Villains does. The animation in the shorts though is better than the animation inside the House of Mouse I feel. The music is very nice too, especially loved the end song, and the ending was better than that of House of Villains(it wasn't as abrupt). There is some nice dialogue, without being too sappy or going overboard with the humour, the voice work is pretty much excellent and it was wonderful seeing Disney characters such as Lumiere, Jiminy Cricket, Ariel, Jafar and Peter Pan again, and Mickey, Donald, Minnie, Daisy and Goofy of course. What made this film though was the cartoons. Donald on Ice was amusing, and matches the humour evident in the early Donald Duck cartoons. Mickey's Christmas Carol and Pluto's Christmas Tree are both Christmas classics, while the take on the Nutcracker was a lot of fun, especially for Donald's Mouse King which was hilarious.

Overall, I liked this film. It's nothing extraordinary, but it is not a bad way to pass an hour or so of your Christmas holiday. 7/10 Bethany Cox