Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas

Computer graphics are used to shorten production times. In an ideal world they don't shorten artistic content but this is not an ideal world. The Christmas 2004 Mickey mouse "film" is not ideal either. It's simply trying to rerun old glory and just doesn't do it for me. Sure there's all the competency one would expect from Disney. It's cute, and the CGI animation is very good but it just doesn't say or show anything new. I don't expect anything amazing from what is in effect a film annual, you understand, just a little bit of freshness would make it good for me.... but it ain't there. I can see Walt sleeping in the front row on this one. If you just want a Mickey Mouse film, choose something else - this isn't a good example.

In "Belles on Ice", ice skating Minnie Mouse gets the spotlight and Daisy Duck is not happy. They battle for the spotlight until they join to perform together. In "Christmas: Impossible", Donald Duck and his nephews are having Christmas dinner at Uncle Scrooge McDuck's mansion. The boys selfishly eat all the cookies and Uncle Scrooge warns them about Santa's list. In "Christmas Maximus", Goofy's grown son Max is coming home with his girlfriend Mona. In "Donald's Gift", Donald wants to relax from gift shopping but is forced to go to the mall. In "Mickey's Dog-Gone Christmas", Pluto causes chaos as Mickey sets up for the Christmas party. Pluto runs away and joins up with Santa's reindeers. This is very different from the first one. First of all, it's in 3D CG animation. It's hard to remember whether the animation is up to snuff for its day. It's definitely not good enough for today. It doesn't have the surface work but cartoons can skip that stuff to some extend. The sad part is that it's not timeless. Old painted animation can be timeless. This is from a certain era and it won't be a classic. The various stories are very Christmas. The only disturbing thing is Mickey yelling at Pluto. That's an odd note to strike. Pluto running away could be done in another way. I really like the simplicity of the first ice skating story but the others don't reach that level. It's fine for a home TV movie.

Christmas is my favourite holiday ever, mostly for nostalgic reasons, and I decided to check out this film because I love Christmas movies(Miracle on 34th Street, Its a Wonderful Life, Scrooge, Muppet Christmas Carol) and I loved Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas. And while this is hardly the best Christmas movie, it is a heart-warming and touching one. I was pleasantly surprised. The animation is surprisingly effective, I was skeptical of it being in CGI but the characters actually do not look robotic and the colours and backgrounds are exquisite. The music is wonderful too, hearing songs and music like that always make me feel warm and tingly inside particularly in the Christmas season. The dialogue isn't cloying, in fact it is funny and touching, and I loved the stories. The first one, the one with Huey, Duey and Louie and the last one are the best, the latter being the most touching. In fact the only story that didn't quite work for me was the one with Donald losing his Christmas spirit and cares, the change to Donald's character was rushed I felt and I just didn't like that side to Donald, he was really mean-spirited in this one. The real delight were the characters, Mickey, Goofy, Donald, Daisy, Minnie, Donald's nephews and Scrooge McDuck are always a delight, and just seeing them was a delight in itself. In fact, my only other real complaints are some parts that drag and that the narration occasionally got a tad over-eager, it wouldn't have hurt to have brought Kelsey Grammar back as his narration was note-perfect. Other than that, it is a very nice Christmas film. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Where 'Once Upon a Christmas' was a standard Disney cartoon with the famous characters as you are used to seeing them, this film presents five computer-generated shorts including a battle on ice with Minnie Mouse squaring up to Daisy Duck; Mickey Mouse losing Pluto after an argument, whereby the hapless dog gets adopted by reindeer; and Donald Duck's nephews causing havoc in Santa's workshop at the North Pole. The other two shorts - Donald Duck losing the Christmas spirit; and Goofy's son Max trying to impress his girlfriend even while his dad is around, are less memorable, but still good. The CGI animation doesn't sit well with Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Pluto, and so takes some getting used to - however, once this obstacle is overcome, the film can be enjoyed, and with modern touches will probably entertain the little ones more than its predecessor.

I normally dislike CG animation. Its graphical perfection makes it too artificial for me. "Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas," however, is perfectly suited for CG animation. There is a colorful vibrancy and liveliness to it that makes it much more festive. Consider the sad alternative: second rate hand-drawn animation rivaling that of Saturday morning cartoons. That being said, the animation here is top-notch. Disney is no-doubt attempting to flex its CGI muscle as it transitions away from hand-drawn animation (also, see the theme park commercials, Mickey's Philharmagic, etc.). Also, it should be noted that comparing the quality of this animation with that of a big budget Pixar movie is extremely ignorant. CG animation has its own costs and it would be poor budgeting to spend that much on a video feature. Regardless, it does not suffer from the lack of that detailed a polish. The stories themselves are entertaining, and there is a surprising amount of wit and imaginative storytelling written into the script. My only complaint is that it would be nice for Disney to create a full feature Mickey Mouse film. Short stories work fine, but it ends and starts again too soon to create any audience involvement.

The stories are not as good as the ones in its predecessor and the animation is mediocre, however it is appropriate for children.

Jingle... jingle... I've waited quite a time for this one to happen and it was a logical evolution step (getting Mickey into 3D). And it worked. Disney Australia did a great job on this one and I'm really looking forward to more animation in 3D from them. The short stories are full of beautiful animated Christmas spirit. They have a nice humor and they tell you what really is important about Christmas (well, except they don't talk about Jesus Christ). I think this DVD will be part of our every-year-watch-it collection for Christmas times. So I really recommend buying this DVD. I think the production value is very high and that Disney has to make two more DVDs like this to earn money with this. Hohoho everyone, have fun.

Some complaints have been made about the computer animation, but at least these are new shorts and not just old ones thrown together with a thin story line. I liked seeing these characters animated this way. Not that this computer animation is better (or even as good) than the traditional, but having never seen these classic characters like this was interesting. The overall content is very good. The weakest story is the first one with Minnie and Daisy. The best one, by far, is the last: MICKEY'S DOGGONE Christmas. This short in itself is worth the price of the DVD. Santa's reindeer Donner steals the show in this fast, fun and very funny short.

Mickey's Twice Upon A Christmas came out on DVD last week and I was a skeptic. Sure, Pixar and Disney have had (mostly) homeruns with their computer animated films. Sure, their are currently two computer animated films dominating the US domestic box-office,.....a death knell for traditional animation unfortunately. Still, I've enjoyed most of these films. Why not a computer animated Mickey, Donald, & Goofy? Well, why not indeed. Mickey's Twice Upon A Christmas, is a good holiday family film. It isn't too cloyingly sweet, it's probably got more in common with recent Mickey/Donald/Goofy films than with Mickey's Christmas Carol (my personal fave), but, it certainly tries and actually has good stories (it's an anthology of mostly, fluffy yule-tide tales). I liked the Pluto/ Reindeer storyline in particular. Anyway, how does a CGI Mickey look? Surprisingly good. A few years ago a company released another ,...ahem,...homage to a classic Christmas special about a certain reindeer with a red nose. It stunk and it was CGI. Not so with this movie. Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas uses computer animation well and it looks good, has a good storyline, and is overall successful and worthy to add to your collection of Disney DVD's. I certainly hope we don't just get CGI animation from Disney or other companies anymore, although, it really looks like we may,...*sigh* But, if the quality is like Mickey's Twice Upon A Christmas it'll definitely soften the blow. So, warm up some Cocoa and pop this one into your DVD player over the holidays.

The first one was simple yet heartfelt while the second seems cheap and more mean spirited. This's Disney's first computer animated Direct-to-Video done without Pixar and it shows. It's not the worst but it's not great. The characters designs look off. There're 5 stories unlike the previous 3 and as previously mentioned they're more mean spirited. The first story begins with Minnie and Daisy I've skating while their respective boyfriends watch which starts out nice but slowly and slowly Daisy gets jealous and tries to sabotage Minnie's routine leading to both of them trying to outdo each other. It gets really uncomfortable seeing them like this. They make up at the end after almost hurting everybody around them and themselves but it doesn't feel earned at all. I know that Daisy's a diva but I don't think she would intentionally sabotage her friend or anyone else like that. This seems very out of character when you think about it. There's another story that's also mean spirited in that it focuses on Donald trying to relax after a long day from work but unfortunately he gets forced to go Christmas shopping with Daisy and his nephews much to his frustration and when he finally snaps he gets unfairly blamed and humiliated afterwards. In the end he gains the Christmas spirit but again it doesn't feel earned considering the events that led up to the ending. I get that you should have a holiday spirit and cherish your loved ones but at the same time you really sympathize with Donald. I'd rather he be by the fireplace enjoying his hot chocolate rather than go to the store having all of this commercialism shoved in his face. It feels very shallow. The last story involves Pluto running away after Mickey kicks him out of the house in frustration for accidentally destroying it while trying to complete Mickey's Christmas tree. He then gets adopted by Santa and his reindeer which still leaves him empty inside much to their confusion. Meanwhile, Mickey feels guilty for his previous action and tries looking for him while by handing out lost posters to people passing by. A running gag is this grumpy dog who appears in all of the shorts and interacts negatively with each of the main characters in someway or form. They reunite in the end. There're 2 more but it's pointless talking about them as the formula's the same in some way or form. The movie's not bad but it's a far cry from the previous one. It's one of those movies where when you watch it you don't feel warm inside but cold and uncomfortable. The characters act unusually shallow and materialistic and the lesson learned at the end doesn't feel genuine. What's funny is how in the first movie one of the shorts builds Santa up as to whether he exist or not. Here Huey, Dewey And Luey mail themselves to his workshop and him which gives us a look at Santa who looks like what you'd expect. He doesn't stand out from the rest, if anything he's a run of the mill Santa. I'd suggest you skip this movie and instead just stick with the first one because this doesn't really know what the Christmas spirit is about. It's shallow and materialistic. Nothing more than a disappointing follow up to a simple yet charming Christmas special.