Topolino - Strepitoso Natale

This isn't your father's Disney. The original Disney franchise players now reside in the Land Where Everyone is Nice, preschool toons rendered in kiddie-grade Pixarish 3D. Mickey always was a little wimpy but even Donald has been completely Dippified with the Evil Daisy Duck browbeating him at every opportunity. He was a WWII hero for chrissakes, selling War Bonds to defeat the Nazis! Goofy has become a caricature of himself and his goofiness has been choreographed to a perfect death, Huey Dewey & Louie can't stay conniving for more than 30 seconds without guilt spoiling it all, while Pluto would be better off on Animal Control's 3 Day Plan. Its not pretty, what they've done to these old Toons.

The only way to reclaim my interest after this would be Donald doing his popular 'Who's Your Daddy?' with Daisy sparking his enthusiasm. I'd like to see someone with a duckbill pull that off They could've made it an Easter egg, being ducks after all. I can give this one a 7 because kids like it. They don't know any better.

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

'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 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 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!