Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Space Adventure (a J!-ENT Children’s DVD Review)

It’s time for another “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” educational DVD for the young children with “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse:  Space Adventure”. With “Discovery Mode”, children can now use the “Mickey Mote” or DVD remote control while watching an episode and partake in several fun questions about colors, shapes and sizes. Featuring two fun episodes for the younger children plus a Digital Copy and glow-in-the-dark stickers!

Images courtesy of © Disney. All Rights Reserved.

DVD TITLE: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Space Adventure

DURATION: 70 Minutes

DVD INFORMATION: Dolby Digital, NTSC, Family Friend Widescreen (1:78:1 – Enhanced for 16×9 Television), Spanish Language Track, Subtitles: English SDH

COMPANY: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment

RATED: TV Y

RELEASE DATE: November 8, 2011

Featuring the voices of:

Wayne Allwine as Mickey Mouse

Tony Anselmo as Donald Duck

Bill Farmer as Goofy

Tress MacNeille as Daisy Duck

Russi Taylor as Minnie Mouse

Jim Cummings as Pete

Corey Burton as Ludwig Von Drake

April Winchell as Clarabelle Cow

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Space Adventure is a 45 minute, full-length space-themed escapade, geared for kids 2 to 5 years of age, that invites young viewers to discover outer space and use their problem-solving skills while they watch. In this specific adventure, Mickey and pals head to space where they tour the Moon, Mars and the Rings of Saturn as well as meet new alien friends while on the hunt for a unique space treasure.

“MICKEY MOUSE CLUBHOUSE” is a children’s television animated series (presented in CG) that airs on the Disney Channel’s “Playhouse Disney” block targeted towards pre-school children.

The series is created in a similar style as “Blue’s Clues” and “Dora the Explorer” in terms of the main character interacting with the viewer. Disney’s “MICKEY MOUSE CLUBHOUSE” features Mickey Mouse as the main character communicating with his friends and then occasionally looking towards the viewer for help in a variety of adventures. Mickey uses a variety of tools and a compass inside the clubhouse to help them solve their problems and get from point A to point B. And then during the mission, Mickey offers various ideas of paths they can take and asks the viewer which path should he take.

“Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Space Adventure” is the latest MMC DVD release to utilize the “Mickey Mote”, a child-friendly handheld remote to answer fun questions about colors, shapes and sizes. It’s important to note that you can use your regular DVD remote but the “Mickey Mote” is child friendly and will be much easier to use for children.

But the Mickey Mote can be used with Disney Preschool DVD that includes the Discovery Mode and to date, there are more than 11 titles that can be used with the remote control (look at the back of the packaging to make sure).

With this latest release, you get a Digital Copy release of “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Space Adventure” as well!

In this latest DVD release of “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse”, for “Space Adventure”, there are a total of two episodes included on the DVD.

  • Space Adventure – Mickey and friends go to space to look for treasure.  Can you help Mickey and friends get to their destination?
  • Goofy’s Thinking Cap – A never-before-seen episode. Clarabelle is hosting a scavenger hunt and Goofy gets a thinking cap to assist him.  Can you help Mickey, Goofy and friends complete the scavenger hunt?

What is a Mickey Mote?

“Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Numbers Roundup” utilizes the new MickeyMote, a child-friendly handheld remote control, shaped like Mickey ears, that will take children’s viewing experience to a whole new level by providing an engaging interaction with their favorite Disney characters. With multiple levels of play, the new Mickey Mote will provide hours of fun, engaging and challenging adventures for kids age 2-5.

According to Disney:

The Mickey Mote works with any Disney Preschool DVD that includes Discovery Modeâ„¢, the interactive “Watch & Play” feature on the DVD! All parents have to do is program the remote control – there‟s an easy and quick set-up guide in each DVD- and select the Discovery Mode feature on the menu screen. Within minutes, kids will be easily responding to questions, throughout the story, about scenes they just watched (such as “What color is Goofy‟s hat?”) by pressing one of four color-coded buttons on the device — a yellow star, green circle, orange triangle or blue square – to click in their responses. Discovery Mode features include two levels of play, which provides more challenging questions as the child grows.

And Disney does have plans to release more Discovery Mode enhanced DVD titles that utilize the Mickey Mote.

Once families have purchased a Disney Preschool DVD that comes packaged with the Mickey Mote, they can continue to build their Disney Preschool libraries as the Mickey Mote works in compatibility with any Discovery Mode enhanced DVD. For example, kids can immediately use the remote with any of the following titles: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Road Rally, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Mickey’s Adventures in Wonderland, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Mickey’s Choo Choo, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Minnie’s Bow-Tique, Handy Manny: Manny’s Motorcycle, Adventure Handy Manny: Manny’s Big Race, Little Einsteins: Fire Truck Blast Off, My Friends Tigger & Pooh: Super Duper Super Sleuths, My Friends Tigger & Pooh: Bedtime With Pooh

Note: Discovery Mode can also be played using any DVD remote control.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

“MICKEY MOUSE CLUBHOUSE” features colorful CG animated episodes for the children. Nothing too detailed but simple and clean, vibrant colors and literally fun looking, enough for the young children to enjoy. Presentation this time around is in Widescreen (1:78:1). As for the audio, audio is presented in Dolby Digital Surround Sound plus French and Spanish language tracks.

Subtitles in English SDH are offered.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Space Adventure” comes with the following special features:

  • DISCOVERY MODE – Using your Mickey Mote (or DVD remote), viewers can partake in Discovery Mode where they can answer fun questions about colors, shapes and sizes. Children have the choice of selecting Level 1 and Level 2 for more challenging questions.
  • Program Remote – Instructions on how to use your remote control to program the Mickey Mote.

EXTRAS:

“Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Space Adventure” comes with a Digital Copy and also glow-in-the-dark stickers.  Plus a slip cover case.

For families looking for an educational DVD for their children, you really can’t go wrong with “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Space Adventure”. You get a total of two episodes included in this DVD release.

With this latest Mickey Mote DVD release, young fans of Disney will enjoy this space exploration episode of “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” and the fact that many of Mickey’s friends are featured.  From Martian Mickey of Mars to Moon Men Chip n’ Dale and Pluto from Pluto, children can expect a lot of educational fun with this latest DVD.

Also, among the Disney releases targeted towards children, “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” is probably the best out there from Disney that caters to the education of your young child (2-5 years old). Similar to other popular children’s shows which require your children to help the character decide on how to solve a puzzle, it was one thing to allow the child say it out loud but now with the introduction of “Discovery Mode”, using the new Mickey Mote (or your own DVD remote), children have more interactivity with these episodes.

While this release does not come with the Mickey Mote, you should be able to find other DVD’s that do.  But “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Space Adventure” can be used with a Mickey Mote or remote control.

Although you don’t need to purchase a release with the new Mickey Mote, for younger children, it’s quite convenient as it’s pretty big and you only have four buttons: yellow star (up), blue square (left), green star (right and orange triangle (down). A regular remote may be too difficult and confusing for the younger children. For those that are curious about purchasing “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Minnie’s Masquerade” with the Mickey Mote, you will need two AAA batteries.

Programming the remotes are easy, for example, by holding the front of your DVD/Blu-ray remote towards the front of the Mickey Mote, pressing a combination of two buttons on the Mickey Mote starts the programming session and you see a green light on the Mickey Mote front light up. By clicking four times up on your DVD/Blu-ray remote, you will see the Mickey Mote green light flash (this means it learned the up button). Then you repeat by pressing down four times, left four times and right four times for the Mickey Mote to learn all four directions. And if you mess up during the programming, no problem, you can easily repeat it.

On the Discovery Mode, for children, to keep things simple, the Discovery Mode don’t ask what directions to press but more of pressing the color of a button for the correct answer (which is typically a color that is featured on the Mickey Mote). It’s very simple to use, just watch the episode and answer fun questions that are asked throughout the stories.

But this is a pretty big step for Disney as they are really wanting to make these DVD releases interactive and the release of Disney’s new Mickey Mote + DVD Set is a pretty big deal, especially for parents and children who are familiar with the Disney characters and Disney animated shows.

As for the DVD, you get a Digital Copy which probably is great for those who own a laptop, iPad or iPhone (or device that works with iTunes or Windows Media Player), so definitely great for commutes or areas where you want to keep the young children occupied with a fun “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” episode that is educational and fun.

Overall, “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Space Adventure” is an entertaining, educational children’s release and is definitely recommended!