Saturday, April 17, 2021

Animation Celebration Saturday - Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers

Disney, 2004
Voices of Wayne Allwine, Bill Farmer, Tony Anselmo, and Russi Taylor
Directed by Donovan Cook
Music and Lyrics by various

Disney tried for years to get a feature-length movie featuring Mickey Mouse and the regular shorts characters off the ground. This originally came into development in 1983, but languished in the back of the studio vaults until their ambitious The Search for Mickey Mouse with cameos from many other characters was scrapped. This finally made it to home video in 2004 as one of the last direct-to-home-media Disney animated films. How does this adaptation of the famous Alexandre Dumas book fare with animal protagonists? Let's start onstage with our turtle narrator (Rob Paulsen) and find out..

The Story: Mickey (Allwine), Goofy (Farmer), and Donald (Anselmo) long to become Musketeers, like the ones who saved them from being attacked as children. Mickey is considered to be too small for combat, Goofy not intelligent enough, and Donald too cowardly. Princess Minnie (Taylor) demands bodyguards after a safe nearly lands on her, and Captain Pete (Jim Cummings) decides Mickey and his buddies are perfect. Mickey and Minnie fall in love right away, but her lady-in-waiting Daisy (Tress MacNeille) reminds her that she must marry royalty. 

The trio have bigger problems than Mickey's love life. Someone is determined to eliminate or imprison Minnie before the night of the big opera. Mickey and the other three have to figure out who's behind these dastardly doings...and learn the true meaning of "one for all, and all for one!"

The Animation: Nothing spectacular, but it gets the job done. It's colorful and often very funny, with little comic details like characters fixing plumbing and talking on phones that wouldn't have existed in 17th century France. 

The Song and Dance: If you're a fan of Disney's "Sensational Six" or the shorts and comics revolving around the regular characters, have I got a treat for you. This is fast and funny, with some hilarious gags and really cute numbers based on opera and classical music. Allwine and Taylor (who were married for years in real-life) do well showing the sweeter and feistier side of Disney's famous mouse pair, while Anselemo has more fun with all the vocal pyrotechnics of Donald's freak-outs. Cummings has a ball as the hilariously evil Pete, and April Winchell gets a rare chance to play Clarabelle Cow as a villain in what amounts to the Lady DeWinter role. 

Favorite Number: We open with the actual Musketeers marching and dueling in time to their credo "One for All, and All for One." Minnie and Mickey fall for each other hard on "Sweet Wings of Love." Goofy gets an appropriately, well, goofy ballad later as he charms Lady Clarabelle with "Chains of Love." The finale is based around songs from The Pirates of Penzance, and it's a literal riot, with Mickey and his friends trying to keep Pete and the Beagle Boys from sneaking off with the trunk holding the royal ladies. 

What I Don't Like: First of all, the turtle narrator is unnecessary and a bit annoying beyond taking part in a few numbers. Many opera and operetta aficionados may not be pleased with the often-silly lyrics added to opera and classical music scores, either. Oh, and did I mention this is a direct-to-home-media movie? While the animation is nice and the script is decent, it's still not on a par with what you'd expect from Disney on the big screen, or even later on streaming. 

The Big Finale: Recommended for younger kids (and kids at heart) who love the Disney characters and opera fans who can get in the right satirical spirit. 

Home Media: Easy to find on all formats; it's at Disney Plus with a subscription.

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