“An entertaining holiday animated feature for the whole family! Featuring many characters from classic Walt Disney films!”
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TITLE: Mickey’s Magical Christmas: Snowed In at the House of Mouse
DURATION: 65 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, DTS 5.1 Digital Surround
COMPANY: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
RELEASED: November 3, 2009
Directed by Tony Craig and Roberts Gannaway
Written by Thomas Hart, Jess Winfield
Featuring the voices of:
Wayne Allwine as Mickey Mouse
Tony Anselmo as Donald Duck/Huey/Dewie and Louie
Bill Farmer as Goofy/Pluto/Practical Pig
Tress MacNeile as Daisy Duck/Chip/Dale
Russi Taylor as Minnie Mouse
Carlos Alazraqui as Panchito
Jody Benson as Ariel
Ernie Sabella as Pumba
Kevin Schon as Timon
Robby Benson as Beast
Corey Burton as Ludwig Von Drake/Mad Hatter/Grumpy/Captain Hook
Eddie Carroll as Jiminy Cricket
Michael Welch as Pinocchio
Jonathan Freeman as Jafar
Jennifer Hale as Cinderella
Pat Carroll as Ursula
John Cleese (Narrator for “The Nutcracker”)
Peter Cullen as Eeyore
In this full-length adventure, a huge snowstorm leaves Mickey, Minnie and many other friends stranded leading Mickey and his guests at the House of Mouse to whip up an impromptu party that includes instilling a “Humbugâ€-quacking Donald Duck with the holiday spirit. Everyone shares their home movies and even grumpy Donald starts to smile when they realize the “Best Christmas of All†is the one you share with friends and family.
In 2001, Disney released “Mickey’s Magical Christmas: Snowed In at the House of Mouse”, a Christmas special from the House of Mouse TV Show.  And like most Disney releases, once it’s released, don’t expect to see another release again for years. And in this case, 8 years later (2009) and right in time for the holidays, “Mickey’s Magical Christmas: Snowed In at the House of Mouse” is back.
This Christmas episode is about how all the Disney characters (characters from nearly every Disney animated film) are stranded at the House of Mouse (a night club) due to a snow storm. So, Mickey being the gracious host that he is, is trying to bring home that Christmas spirit and entertain his guest. The problem is that Donald Duck is not having a great time is like the scrooge at the Christmas party. So, Mickey tries to make Donald happy and entertain his guest by showing classic Disney animated shorts which include:
- Donald On Ice (1999) – Donald tries to learn to skate, while Huey, Dewey and Louie try to build a snowman. But unfortunately, Donald’s inability to skate tends to ruin the triplets chance at building their snowman.
- Pluto’s Christmas Tree (1952) -Mickey cuts down a Christmas Tree and doesn’t know that the Chipmunks: Chip & Dale are living in the tree. Unfortunately, Chip & Dale tend to drive Pluto nuts and thus Pluto does what he can to get the Chipmunks.
- The Nutcracker (1999) – A young girl (played by Minnie Mouse) receives a present (which is a wooden mouse) and dreams for it to become real, so she can dance with him.
- Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983) – The popular Disney Christmas animated short features the story of Scrooge McDuck and how he’s mean to everyone for Christmas until he learns a lesson from the Spirit of Christmas past.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“Mickey’s Magical Christmas: Snowed In a the House of Mouse” is an animated full-length feature that features nice, vibrant animation during the more modern “House of Mouse” television show. But each time the feature switches to the animated shorts, you get mixed results in terms of picture quality due to some of these animated shorts being over 30/50-years old. But overall, the classics due show a difference in animation quality but for those who enjoyed animation like “Mickey’s Christmas Carol” or even the older classic animated short “Pluto’s Christmas Tree”, although not digitally remastered, these classics due hold up well on DVD decades later.
As for audio, “Mickey’s Magical Christmas: Snowed In a the House of Mouse” is featured in DTS 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1. The series is primarily front and center channel driven and personally, I didn’t notice any surround or LFE usage but dialogue is clear and understandable.
Subtitles are presented in English SDH.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Mickey’s Magical Christmas: Snowed In at the House of Mouse” comes with the following special features:
- Premiere Episode of House of Mouse – (23:07) An episode of “House of Mouse” featuring various Disney characters from popular animated films visiting the House of Mouse nightclub. Meanwhile, Pete buys the building of where the House of Mouse is located and wants to shut down the cartoon club.
- The Sounds of Christmas – (2:33) A Disney sound engineer teaches children how to make sounds using objects and how they were utilized in certain animation.
- SingAlong “Deck the Halls” – (1:50) Karaoke SingAlong to “Deck the Halls” with animation from “Pluto’s Christmas Tree”.
- SingAlong Song “Sleigh Ride” – (1:57) Karaoke SingAlong to “Sleigh Ride” with animation from “Mickey’s Christmas Carol”.
I watched “Mickey’s Magical Christmas: Snowed In at the House of Mouse” with my toddler and he absolutely loved it and wanted to watch it again. And as a holiday family feature, it is an entertaining release that will be fun, due to the number of Disney characters seen throughout the feature.
With that being said, for those who own the recent release of Walt Disney Animated Shorts Collection or other Disney releases probably have the animated shorts on previously released DVD’s. Those who own the original release from 2001, there is really is nothing new on this DVD with the exception of the new trailers. In fact, if you are a fan who mainly wants this release for its holiday-related animated shorts, then you may want to check out the just released “Disney Animation Collection 7: Mickey’s Christmas Carol” which comes with “Mickey’s Christmas Carol”, “Pluto’s Christmas Tree” and two other Disney classics.
But with this release of “Mickey’s Magical Christmas: Snowed In at the House of Mouse”, if you are a “House of Mouse” fan, you do get the premiere episode of “House of Mouse” and other short entertaining holiday special features. I do admit that I wished that the DVD release had more interactivity like other Disney releases with games or something extra.
Overall, “Mickey’s Magical Christmas: Snowed In at the House of Mouse” is entertaining for young and old as it does feature newer and older animation and if you don’t own these animated shorts on another previously released Disney collection, it’s worth checking out. But if you do have these shorts already, it’s kind of hard to recommend it as the majority of the content in this feature are those classic shorts.
So, for parents who are looking for a Disney holiday release, as mentioned earlier, my son loved it and wanted to watch it again. So, yes it is an entertaining and fun Disney holiday release. I recommend Disney fans looking for a an animated holiday release to also purchase a copy of “Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas” (2004), if you don’t own it already.