Topolino, Paperino, Pippo: I tre moschettieri

I picked this up from the video store not expecting much, but I really was surprised. This is sure to become an instant classic. As usual, Disney has the characterization right-on -- Mickey's the straight, normal guy, Goofy's the clumsy goofball who surprisingly has brief moments of genius, and Donald's the loudmouth with a bad temper. Pete was his usual bad self, and his scenes had me cracking up. For example, when he's preparing for a shower at the beginning, he says to himself, "I've been looking forward to this all month!" The songs are based on melodies from classical music, so they're tolerable and stick in your head afterward. Thank goodness for that, because Disney's music has slipped down the drain in the past several years. The comedy is a little slapstick at parts, but has the classical charm of the old cartoons we grew up on. However, as one reviewer said, the turtle guy at the beginning is a little boring, but the rest of the movie more than makes up for it.

All in all, this story of three underdogs really is worth viewing. It is excellent for kids and adults will actually be able to giggle at some parts and enjoy it, especially since it is reminiscent of old Disney cartoons. I was so impressed that I had my adult brothers watch it, and they were impressed and giggled through the whole thing. This movie is proof that Disney still has the ability to make good movies and that Disney's original characters are still capable of starring in their own films. Highly recommended!

Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy have been appearing together in animated skits for the better part of eighty years and have gone through a number of hilarious, and sometimes touching misadventures. I personally am very fond of "Mickey's Trailer," the 1938 Technicolor short in which the three of them made a somewhat haphazard journey taking their mobile home over a mount, especially when Goofy, who was driving, left the motor running as he ran inside to get breakfast. They've also been in a lot of humorous contemporary adventures, so it is rather surprising that their first feature-length movie together is not all that impressive. It's not a bad movie, although there were some things in it I genuinely hated, and its sixty-minute length makes it easily durable, but I really wanted this movie to hit harder. I wanted more laughs, more heart, more of that wonderful sensation that great animation can give us.

In the movie, the three mishaps stumble through predicament after predicament not as window-washers, not as locksmiths, not as painters, but as Alexandre Dumas's Three Musketeers. That is, loosely. To the movie's credit, it makes the appropriate choice of meshing the novel's 18th century setting with contemporary elements: the palace Mickey, Donald, and Goofy tend to is equipped with running water; a trio of hooded villains unsuccessfully attempt to assassinate Princess Minnie Mouse with an iron safe; Donald Duck tears off his uniform to reveal his traditional sailor attire. In the midst of their attempts to protect Minnie, the story is narrated by a singing turtle with a French accent, who stops in now and then with a few too many songs. The songs are a bold move, as they are set to the pattern of classical music. The one I liked the most was "Wings of Love," set to the Johann Strauss masterpiece "Blue Dunabe." I even got a chuckle out of a berating song toward Donald with Beethoven's Fifth thumping in the background. I was not, however, appeased by the opening and closing Musketeer themes—modeled after "Orpheus In the Underworld"—and could not stand for a second "Chains of Love" in which villainous Clarabelle Cow and affable Goofy fall instantaneously in love.

This segues into another problem I have with the story. It does not have much heart or sense of place, because it frequently twists its plot with left-field tricks. One of the movie's lamest gimmicks regards Donald Duck. At the beginning, he's supposed to be a coward, and when faced with danger, instead of losing his famous temper, he physically transfigures from a duck into a chicken. Literally. His beak shrinks down, he grows a red plumage, and he goes "Buck-Buck!" Ignoring the fact that I personally don't like it when Goofy gets a love interest, the romance that sparks between him and Clarabelle is out-of-the-blue, underwritten, and utterly pointless. To just have him escape her by slipping on a banana peel or driving her bonkers with his usual naivety as she attempts to throw him off a bridge would have been far more effective. The chemistry between Donald Duck and Daisy Duck is absolutely nonexistent, making their finale together even more useless. These two characters have worked together very well in the past, in the cartoons, when they are given time to work and play off each other. Not here.

But most saddening is how little is done between Mickey and Minnie. These are two of the cutest, most likable animation couples in history, and the screenplay gives them very little to do. Everything seems forced, as if the filmmakers threw it in because they were expected to. The scene where they first meet, where Mickey arrives as one of Minnie's new bodyguards, starts off charming and then slides into syrupy kitsch. They have a handful of smaller moments, but the big one in the middle still left me wanting more. As much as I liked the "Wings of Love" song, which plays behind them as they bond on a trip back to Paris, I would have preferred to see them banter and charm each other. Yes, they've been doing exactly that for more than seventy years, but that formula has not yet run out of steam. Not for me, at least.

There were some things I did enjoy. I really liked the directing by Donovan Cook; he does a terrific job at staging his animated sequences in wide-screen. Not everything is framed as though for a square screen. The defining moment is where Peg-Leg Pete (playing, obviously, the bad guy) is told that he needs to recruit bodyguards for Minnie. He looks past her and sees our three heroes bungling as they try to wash windows. The shot is brilliantly set in extreme-wide focus, so we see everything. A lesser director would have done it comic-strip style, cutting from Pete to the Musketeers, then back to Pete, then the Musketeers, and so forth. Mr. Cook toggles between wide and close shots very deftly, and his misc en scenes I appealing. I also really liked the usual Disney animation with its plethora of glorious colors in a world that really seems alive with detail. And I did enjoy most of the movie's beginning, with our heroes dreaming about becoming musketeers.

The second half of the movie, however, completely thuds, especially in its limp finale at an opera where the Musketeers battle with Peg-Leg Pete and the hooded figures whom I believe were modeled after the Beagle Boys from "Duck Tales." The twists and turns just do not play out well. Why, if Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are given a feature-length movie, does it have to be so brisk? Why not give them a full 90 minutes? This version of "The Three Musketeers" is not bad per se, but I really wanted something special when Mickey, Donald, and Goofy made their big-time debut together.

Walt Disney's classic cartoon characters are back for a feature-length adventure. This hour-long direct-to-video 'toon features longtime Disney favorites Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Goofy, and Pluto, as well as Peg-Leg Pete and even Clarabelle Cow. These characters all started way back in the 1920s and 1930s, and it's nice to see them dusted off and brought to life on-screen these days, and not merely used to adorn merchandise.

THE THREE MUSKETEERS (2004) is not, as one might expect, an adaptation of Alexandre Dumas's classic story (previously adapted by Disney in live-action in 1993), but is an original adventure that uses Dumas as a jumping-off point. (Mickey, Donald, and Goofy aspire to be musketeers after a childhood encounter with the Dumas heroes.) Set once upon a time in seventeenth-century France, the movie's got Mickey, Donald, and Goofy as misfit musketeers trying to protect Princess Minnie while the duplicitous Captain Pete plots to become king.

The film is fast-paced and cartoony, with lots of gags to keep kids' attention. There's swashbuckling action and some peril, but the henchmen are as hapless as the heroes in this cartoon, so it's entirely kid-friendly stuff.

The music is conspicuously recycled from old classical tunes and other pre-existing (public domain?) songs, including several straight-up Gilbert & Sullivan songs in the climactic scene at the opera house ("Pirates of Penzance"). It seems like a cost-cutting measure for a direct-to-video release. As this movie is clearly aimed at children, one wonders how many of them would realize that the songs are set to famous classical tunes. (And does that matter?) Maybe this will be their first time hearing the music, and they'll forever afterward think of these lyrics. But on the other hand, maybe it's a fun way to expose young audiences to classical music for the first time.

There's an air of postmodernism about the way the film handles Disney's classic cartoon gang, to freshen them up for today's kids. For example, while scribbling "Mickey + Minnie Mouse" in her diary, a lovestruck Minnie realizes that she and Mickey have the same last name. (It's fate!) And, in another scene, Mickey confesses that he doesn't understand a word that Donald says. There's even a scene with Minnie and Daisy eating fast food in the royal carriage.

As the three unlikely musketeers, Mickey is "too small", Donald is "too cowardly", and Goofy is "too dumb". Mickey, primarily a corporate mascot at this point in his career, is bland, bland, bland. Scaredy-cat Donald and idiot Goofy are marginally more interesting, but Pete steals the show as the fourth-wall-breaking villain. Daisy Duck is given a modernized edge as dreamer Minnie's wise and more pragmatic lady-in-waiting. Clarabelle is a henchwoman, for some reason (probably just lucky to be included), but she's got personality and is fun to watch. A French-accented turtle acts as singing narrator throughout the story, and is annoying.

While it's encouraging to see Disney put its classic characters to use, this particular film is rather limp. The breakneck comedy seems designed to entertain antsy children, and it may well do so, but for more seasoned audiences, the gags fall flat and the "all for one" story is not very compelling.

It's a refreshingly short animated movie and if you are in love or like Donald, Mickey and Goofy already, you may have some plus points or head start when it comes to enjoying this, than others have. Having said that, the story should be very well known, except we throw beloved (and not so beloved, see cat) characters at it.

The humor works, the quirks of the characters is there. You get some music and singing too, which may qualify this as musical to some (for better or worse). Animation is ok, jokes are decent too. Nothing too surprising but solid overall

Good things about this film: Very good humour, at least one laugh every few minutes, good use of classical music for songs, good animation, sweet simple images of Versailles, good talent and a good job of Mickey and his friends! :-)

A tortoise in the studio is very excited about his comic about the three musketeers and cannot help "singing along". When the narrator of a TV programme falls down a hole in the floor, the poor tortoise ends up taking the narrator's place and reads out his comic. He begins with Mickey Donald and Goofy struggling to survive in the gutter. Then they meet the royal musketeers...

Good for any Mickey Mouse fan and any lover of classical music used by Disney, people who like good quality humour (both slightly slapstick and humour) and cartoon things which are CGI free!

Enjoy "Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers! :-)

7 and a half out of ten.