Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas

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.

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.

'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.

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.

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