Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas is a collection of three animated Christmas stories starring classic Disney characters. Each story is introduced by an unseen narrator (Kelsey Grammer) and explores a different aspect of the Christmas spirit. Younger viewers may be shocked by the second story's plot about whether Santa Claus exists or not or saddened by the third story's retelling of The Gift of the Magi, but overall this Disney Christmas special is funny and appropriate viewing for the whole family.
Disney Cartoon About Christmas Spirit
The first Disney cartoon in this holiday special for kids – Stuck on Christmas – shows Donald's nephews enjoying Christmas Day so much that they wish that every day could be Christmas. Waking up the next morning, they find that their wish has been granted, and soon Huey, Dewey, and Louie are dealing with the monotony of living the same series of events over and over.
Fans of classic Disney characters will be glad to see Daisy Duck and especially Scrooge McDuck given roles in this newer Christmas cartoon, and its slapstick humor is true to the previously established relationship between Donald and his nephews (a particularly funny recurring joke shows a carefully prepared Christmas morning breakfast cascading down on Donald's head day after day). Children sad to see Christmas Day pass may think twice about wanting every day to be special after seeing Huey, Dewey, and Louie live out a holiday over and over, and the fact that it takes the boys' behaving nicely to their relatives for one of the Christmas Days to break the spell teaches a nice lesson about appreciating family during the holidays, no matter how annoying one's relatives are.
Disney Cartoon About Santa Claus
The second Disney cartoon in this animated special – A Very Goofy Christmas – explores the question of whether Santa Claus exists or not while also presenting a special relationship between a loving father and son. After villainous Pete makes Goofy's son Max begin to doubt that there is a Santa, Goofy goes to great lengths to prove that Santa does exist. After several failed attempts, Max in turn dresses up as Santa in an attempt to cheer his father up. Eventually the real Santa does show up to give Max exactly what he wanted.
Some parents may not want younger children to begin to doubt the existence of Santa, even though this cartoon does ultimately show that Santa is real to Goofy and Max. The way Max and Goofy care for each other is touching, however, and parts of this animated Christmas special will entertain viewers of any age, including the moment when Goofy thinks he has finally photographed Santa Claus on a neighboring roof, only to discover that what he is actually watching is a Beagle Boy robbery in progress.
Disney Cartoon About Spirit of Giving
The third and final Disney cartoon in this holiday special for children – Mickey & Minnie's Gift of the Magi – is a straightforward retelling of the classic O. Henry holiday story The Gift of the Magi. In this animated Christmas story, both Mickey and Minnie are extremely poor, and although both work hard at their jobs, neither is able to afford a gift for the other.
Mickey wants to purchase Minnie a gold chain for her watch, but he must sell his harmonica to buy it. Minnie, meanwhile, sells her watch to buy Mickey a harmonica case. Even though both gifts are ultimately useless, Mickey and Minnie are still happy because the gifts were given with love and they each cared about each other enough to give up their most cherished possessions.
Younger children unable to grasp irony or understand the worth of the love behind the gifts may focus on what Mickey and Minnie have given up and be sad at the end of this Christmas story. At heart, however, this story is a good chance to teach a lesson about the spirit of giving and what it really means when people say that it is more important to give than to receive.
Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas Review
Overall, this animated Disney Christmas special will both entertain and teach children during the Christmas season and at other times of the year. The hand-drawn style of animation may seem old-fashioned to children accustomed to the three-dimensional computer-animated look of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and the animation of the segments that make up Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas are not as richly detailed or executed as the animation in older Disney cartoons like Mickey's Christmas Carol, but it is still a cut above many other animated television specials. Bonus DVD extras include a Deck the Halls music video by SHeDAISY, Sing-Along versions of Deck the Halls and Jingle Bells, and a DVD Storybook version of The Gift of the Magi.
Families searching for other funny animated Christmas specials starring classic cartoon characters may want to check out Bah Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas.
Renee Carver - Renée Carver has an Elementary Education degree and over ten years of experience writing and editing children's educational products.
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