Starring:
Wayne Allwine as Mickey Mouse (voice)
Tony Anselmo as Donald Duck (voice)
Susan Blakeslee as Cruella De Vil (voice)
Corey Burton as Captain Hook (voice)
Pat Carroll as Ursula (voice)
Jim Cummings as Pete, Kaa the Snake (voice)
Bill Farmer as Goofy, Pluto (voice)
Jonathan Freeman as Jafar (voice)
Tress MacNeille as Queen of Hearts, Si, Am (voice)
Russi Taylor as Minnie Mouse (voice)
James Woods as Hades (voice)
Special Features:
Reel Of Misfortune Game – Test your knowledge of Disney’s greatest villains
Hidden Villains – Find the Sneaky Scoundrels
Fright Delight – Disney’s Spookiest sound effects in Surround Sound
Other Info:
English, French, and Spanish Languages
1.33:1 Full Frame
Running Time: 70 Mins.
Dolby Digital
Captions Subtitles
Synopsis:
This is a feature length version of the animated TV series “Mickey’s House of Mouse”. The premise of this Saturday Morning cartoon is that Mickey Mouse hosts a dinner club in which the characters from all of Disney’s animated films come and hang out. Between old and new Disney cartoons, the characters do little comedy bits to lead into the next segment.
On this DVD, it is Halloween at the House of Mouse. While Mickey hosts all of Disney’s spooky cartoons from past and present, the villains from the movies conspire to take over the club. They include Jafar from Aladdin, Hades from Hercules, Ursula from The Little Mermaid, Captain Hook from Peter Pan, Cruella DeVille from 101 Dalmations, and many more. It’s up to Mickey and the gang to take the club back over and restore order.
The Movie:
This DVD is actually pretty misleading. It looks like a full feature where the villains take over Mickey Mouse’s club. You’d expect the fight with the bad guys to take up most of the movie. In reality, that’s only a small portion of the show. It lasts maybe 10 to 15 minutes max. And what you won’t figure out is that this is a Halloween feature. Nowhere on the packaging is it indicated that this is a holiday special of any sort.
The film starts out in the club establishing that it is Halloween night. Then Mickey introduces most of the new and old Halloween cartoons that Disney has to offer. Not that this is bad, but it wasn’t what I was expecting, either. I imagine other DVD buyers will be expecting something different, too.
It was fun to see some of the old Disney cartoons again. Features include one where Donald and his nephews take on an escaped bear in their house. Another shows a witch and Huey, Dewy, and Louie team up to teach Uncle Donald a lesson about playing tricks instead of handing out Halloween candy. Also featured is the classic Disney cartoon with Mickey, Goofy, and Donald playing ghostbusters. It’s funny to see Goofy utter the phrase, “I ain’t ‘fraid of no ghost” years before the movie from the 80’s. These cartoons are still funny years later and both my children and I enjoyed watching them. It’s a real testament to the talents in Disney’s animation department.
New cartoons include a new version of Donald being shown up by his nephews on Halloween. It’s both shocking and funny to see Donald terrorize the kids wearing a hockey mask and a hook for his hand. Another is in the format of the old instructional cartoons featuring Goofy. This time around we are instructed on the proper ways to haunt a house. We see scenes of Goofy as a ghost haunting Donald’s new home. Another cartoon shows Mickey move into a new home full of futuristic gadgets run amok. There’s also a parody of Fantasia showing dozens of tiny Goofy fairies causing flowers to close for the night. However, things go wrong when a nasty little kid tries to capture them like fireflies.
All of these new and old cartoons are strung together by scenes in Mickey’s club as we see the villains take over and then eventually get overthrown. It’s a cool little novelty to see all these characters from the different films interact. (After all, that’s the whole gag of the TV series.) Where else can you see Gaston from Beauty and the Beast get in a conga line with the crocodile from Peter Pan? Or the snake from Jungle Book sing a song while intimidating Winnie the Pooh? Or Wizard Mickey battle Aladdin’s Jafar? It all comes together in a fun little package. The gimmick is fun while you get a great mix of old and new Disney Halloween animation. Kids and adults should enjoy it.
The Extras:
The extras on this DVD are understandably light. There’s a trivia game where you must spin a wheel and answer questions about the Disney villains. Kids should enjoy that. There’s also a video featurette showing scary scenes and sound effects from old Disney cartoons both with and without music. It’s intended to give your sound system a workout, and it does. You can also find trailers for “Treasure Planet” and other Disney films on this DVD.
The Bottom Line:
If you can get past Disney trying to sneak a Halloween video in as a major cinematic event featuring the team-up of the villains, then you just might enjoy this DVD. It’s got old and new Halloween cartoons that kids and adults can sit down and enjoy together.
