Mickey, le club des méchants

In this halloween special we see that the Disney Villains are trying to take over the House Of Mouse featuring the Villains which are: Jafar, Cruella De Vil, Ursula, Captain Hook, Hades and many more Villains that sing a song called it's our house now, even though Pat Carroll passed away on July 30th from this year for not only being the voice actress of Ursula (The Little Mermaid) and her sister Morgana (The Little Mermaid 2: Return To The Sea), she also voiced the grandmother (My Neighbor Totoro), Grandma Arbuckle (Garfield Thanksgiving and Christmas specials), she also voiced Kookoo (Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers) and Old Lady Crowley (Tangled The Series) (Season 1). She is at least in heaven with Samuel E Wright, the segments were fun, the music is cool and the characters are cool.

For a direct-to-video release, this is surprisingly fun. Sure, it's cheaply produced - it consists primarily of reused segments previously aired or published by the Walt Disney company - but that doesn't mean it's not still a good time.

Production value of the new segments is on par with the TV standard of the time and the shorts interspersed throughout fit in relatively well with the rest of the material. Everything's been restored and remastered to the current standard.

Given the aspect ratios of the original shorts, however, I believe VHS is the best way to view this special. It's not cropped for the widescreen television format (although the shorts hold the integrity of their original aspect ratios as well, for the most part).

If you're expecting a top-tier Disney production, you're not going to find it here. However, if you're just looking to have a good time with the family, this is a really solid compilation of some of Disney's spookier history.

What a great song!!

Anyway, this House of Mouse movie was much better than the Christmas one. The concept and plot of the villians was very interesting. Many of the segments were hysterical. Especially "How to be Ghost" (or something like that). You could tell that "How to be a Ghost" was animated very well. The classic segments were a great addition! Also, the music and animation matched perfectly for the "Dance of the Goofys" and the "Hansel-mickey and Gretel-minnie".

Great movie and the DVD's game was also very well done.

10/10

As a huge Disney fan, I enjoyed this movie. It was fun and entertaining, while being nothing groundbreaking. Just for the record, I love the show House of Mouse, it is one of those shows with a great concept and makes me feel all nostalgic. Mickey's House of Villains had a really interesting idea and made the most of it.

Mickey's House of Villains does have its problems though. The film is too short at only an hour and a quarter or so, and as much as the shorts were so wonderful to watch too much time was spent until the main focus of the story was even introduced. And I also felt they could have done much more with the ending which felt rushed.

Flaws aside, the animation is great I feel and sticks to the style of the show. I especially liked Jafar's entrance from The Cave of Wonders, talk about a stylish entrance. The music is a delight as well, the incidental music is really good, but the song It's Our House Now was not only catchy and entertaining it was the highlight of the film. The dialogue is good, humorous often, and Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald are great to watch. Other than It's Our House Now, two assets stood out. One was seeing those shorts, How to Haunt a House was hilarious, Donald and the Gorilla was delightful for a first time viewer and Lonesome Ghosts is a Halloween classic as is Trick or Treat. Dance of the Goofys was quite cute and funny, and I enjoyed Mickey and Minnie's take on Hansel and Gretel especially for the use of Danse Macabre. The second asset was seeing all those villains, Jafar steals the show, but Ursula, Chernabog, Cruella DeVil, Captain Hook and Hades are also delightful to watch. It was nice to see Maleficent and the Wicked Queen as well, but they should have been given more to say.

Overall, while nothing groundbreaking it is a very entertaining film. 7/10 Bethany Cox

2001's Snowed in at the House of Mouse was better put together. It made more sense. To many short cartoons in the House of Villains, to little club scenes. Jafar says that he's taking over at the start of the film, good opening by the way. Then the shorts, couple more snipplets of the House but nothing gets the story moving. Then at the end Jafar and the villains take over, kick the Fav Five and Co out of the club only to be taken back after another cartoon or two.

The collections of shorts in a HoM shell have the potential to be good if Disney decides to cut down with the cartoons and put more story in the House itself. Next year... Valentines Day, 2004... Eastern. There enough potential themes for future movies.