Mickey: Il était deux fois Noël

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.

I saw a clip of this and knew from the start that this was different from the same old Mickey Christmas movies that they come out with every year knowing it will sell. This one is an exception, the animation is flawless (literally), the colors are magnificent, and the stories are solid. The special features are a for little kids, but the movie is for all ages. You would think this is a cliché, wimpy Mickey Mouse movie (quite the contrary);however, if you're looking for a landslide from boring Disney movies I would recommend this this. This is also has a hint of sarcasm in this movie which is extremely rare for a animated Disney movie. Comedy is one of the many reasons you should see this movie.

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.

'Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas' is a nice animated film with a series of stories that feature some of our favourite Disney characters: Micky, Minnie, Daisy, Donald, Scrooge McDuck, his nephews Huey, Louie and Dewey, Goofy, his teenage son and the girlfriend. The stories follow the traditional Disney style and the only difference in presentation is that this time the animation is done with CGI rather than drawings. While it was refreshing to watch and the animation wasn't done in a bad way by any means, I still prefer they use their traditional drawing method and leave the CGI to Pixar films. I miss the Disney drawings and that's what Disney's best at. I hope they don't continue making CGI movies especially those featuring the classic characters. The film itself was fun to watch. It works as a brilliant winter holiday movie. The narration is very poetic and the songs have good lyrics. It was great to see those lovable characters we haven't seen in a long time. A nice little reunion.

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.