Movie Info
Movie Name: Mickey’s Magical Christmas: Snowed In at the House of Mouse
Studio: Walt Disney Television Animation
Genre(s): Animated/Musical/Family/Seasonal
Release Date(s): November 6, 2001
MPAA Rating: G
Guess we’re not going anywhere
It is Christmas Eve, and Mickey and all his friends are celebrating at the “House of Mouse”. The annual Christmas show is over, but Mickey discovers that they have been snowed in. Now, Mickey is trying to make the best of the situation and trying to teach his friend Donald about the spirit of Christmas by telling some of his favorite tales.
Directed by Tony Craig, Roberts Gannaway and Rick Schneider, Mickey’s Magical Christmas also goes by the longer title of Mickey’s Magical Christmas: Snowed In at the House of Mouse. The movie was direct-to-video and spun off the Disney Channel Disney’s House of Mouse TV show. The movie was made up of newer and old cartoons and framed with House of Mouse activities.
Donald is just on edge of a workplace rampage
Mickey’s Magical Christmas is essentially a clip show. The House of Mouse series revolved around Mickey Mouse running a dinner theater and presenting cartoons. Here the film shows off the newer cartoons of “Donald on Ice” and “The Nutcracker” from 1999 with the classic cartoons of “Pluto’s Christmas” from 1952 and a replay of the extended short Mickey’s Christmas Carol which was released in theaters with The Rescuers in 1983.
The fun of Mickey’s Magical Christmas is what made Disney’s House of Mouse fun. The mixing of Disney’s classic and “modern” characters at Mickey’s dinner theater is fun. You have Jafar from Aladdin hanging out with characters from Fantasia and Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty the butt of jokes by people like the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. The genre blending is almost something you’d find the popular video game series Kingdom Hearts.
Merry Christmas to all!
The Donald cartoon isn’t very memorable, but “The Nutcracker” is fun (I like that Donald has to play the Mouse King to his objection…and does it just by wearing Mickey ears). The classic Pluto cartoon with Chip and Dale always seems to float around Disney Christmas specials. Mickey’s Christmas Carol is a fun edition to this film, but it feels unbalanced due to its length but Disney has always had a problem with it since it is too short for a feature but too long for a show. The little shorts within the special range from fun to so-so.
Mickey’s Magical Christmas: Snowed In at the House of Mouse is fair, if not harmless Christmas fun. It doesn’t rise to anything more than an average (if not a little above) Christmas special. Kids will probably enjoy it, but there are better Christmas shows out there.
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