Mickys turbulente Weihnachtszeit

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.

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.

I know the 3-D/CGI worshippers will dislike my heresy, but if ever there was a place NOT to use CGI, this is it. Most of these characters have been around for almost 75 years in their hand-drawn form, and that's what made them special. There was no need to re-make our favorites into what looks like plastic McDonald's toys, and these should be stuffed back into the bag (Santa's?). I'm glad I finally found a place to rent a copy rather than buying one, and it's obvious that the rental houses agree with my assessment, as I had to check on Netflix, two Blockbusters, and one Hollywood video before I could find a lone copy at a third Blockbuster. Please Disney, don't fix what ain't broke.

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

I rented this, watched it, and I really enjoyed it. I wasn't expecting much, but I was surprised. Each of the stories were very good, and they each had a moral at the end.

The first one is about Daisy Duck and Minnie Mouse fighting for the spotlight at a ice skating competition, the second one was about a Christmas gone wrong at Donald Duck's house, the third about Goofy and his son Max, who is bringing his girlfriend over for a visit, and is afraid that his dad will embarrass him. The fourth one is about Donald's trouble with spreading Christmas cheer, and finally, the fourth - the best one - about a fight that is resolved between Mickey Mouse and Pluto through an intervention from Santa and a few of his wisecracking reindeer. All in all, I loved this, and I think I may add it to my Disney DVD collection! Recommended!