Take A Look at Disney

12/15/14

Christmas: Christmas Impossible (Mickey's Twice Upon A Christmas)

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney and today, we continue our Christmas celebration as we once again visit Huey, Dewey, & Louie in  Christmas Impossible.  Their segment from "Mickey's Twice Upon A Christmas". The follow up  film to "Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas" And yikes,  this was not as good as I remembered.   There are quite a few things that hold me back from completely liking them. And also, the animation has not aged well at all in this film. And we need to address something here.   The animation. Oh dear lord, the animation is just so stiff.
















"Mickey's Twice Upon A Christmas" was the first time, we  saw the classic  Disney characters in CGI on a wide release.  This film came  out in 2004, a year after Mickey's Phillarmagic and two years before  Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.


 



This was a rough transition because other than  Phillarmagic,  we  had not  seen these characters in this form of animation and  well, they had a rough first outing.  It appears from the animation in this film that not much effort was put into   making these characters pop in this new  animation style and I'm sorry but  there is something lost with these characters not being hand drawn as that is where they truly shine brightest. Normally,  something like this wouldn't bug me so much.  Anyway onto the plot of the segment.



The Plot


You may recall how  I've mentioned throughout the Huey, Dewey, & Louie reviews that I wasn't  a fan of how in the early shorts,   the boys were portrayed as being bratty.  This short decides  to go back to that and  have the boys deliver themselves to the North Pole  to put their names on Santa's good list.   Yeah,  I take issue with that.  Now  do like that it was Uncle Scrooge to gave them this message that they need to clean up their act as he was speaking from experience here.  Another problem, I have is that unlike in the segment from this film's predecessor,  Donald did not set a very good example for his nephews and there is a reason why he got a book on manners.   And having said that, when the segment does actually get to the North Pole, it drags and takes forever to get the story going and while the story does eventually get somewhere with the boys trying to find the list.   I just feel like there is too much padding here with them spending so much time looking for it and causing trouble such as knocking the toys over and unloading the sleigh.








I get what this segment was going for and I do  applaud the attempt at the end, when the boys get the chance to put their names on the good list, they don't but instead put Uncle Scrooge's name on the list but by that point, it was too little, too late for this segment to be salvageable.
















Don't get me wrong, it was nice seeing Scrooge get his present at the end of his bagpipe, that he always wanted but still,  this segment had way too many issues here.   I feel like the stuff with Santa is stuff that has been done before in better Christmas specials and this segment  didn't  seem to know what it wanted to do with the boys as it just made them so over the top obnoxious that you are convinced that after Christmas is over, they will revert to the way, they acted before having not learned anything from this experience.



 



This segment for a lack of a better word was boring.   Nothing really  happened  and it doesn't  feel like the boys actually learned anything.  So yeah,  this isn't a segment that I would recommend.





Characters




Main Characters


Huey, Dewey, & Louie  voiced  by Russi  Taylor

















Again,  I don't  feel like  the  boys actually  learned anything  from  their  trip  up north  and  will revert  back to their prankster ways,  once the holiday is over.   Compare that to   "Stuck On Christmas",  where you felt as though,  they actually  learned  something  and learned to appreciate  Christmas for what it is.  Here,    they just wanted to get their names on the  good list, so they could get presents.  I don't  know about  you but   that seems  kinda  shallow  for a Christmas story.   I mean,  don't get me wrong, I could totally see  kids relating to this but there is nothing more to this segment than just that and it suffers for it, greatly.




Supporting  Characters


Uncle Scrooge  voiced by Alan Young
















Scrooge was easily the highlight  here  as Alan  Young  delivered  the best performance  out  of all the cast  members and  you could feel that the cared for his nephews and wanted to see them shape up and change their act.  I'm sorry but Scrooge  with Huey, Louie, and Dewey makes me think of something better that I'd rather watch.






















I  wasn't the only  one thinking  this, was I?




Donald  Duck voiced by Tony Anselmo















Donald  took a backseat  in the story, which is fine  but it  just felt odd that he would reprimand the boys for their actions but then do the same thing. Sending mixed messages there, Donald.



Daisy Duck voiced by Tress McNeille















Daisy  also  had nothing to do in the segment.  You could have taken her out of it and nothing would have been lost.


Santa  Claus  voiced by Chuck McCann















This  take on Santa was fine but again, we've  seen better takes  and   I gotta  be honest,  this Santa was really forgettable.    It would've been nice if there was more interaction with him because   that would have given him more character.  As it stands,    this is one Santa that you'll forget, once the segment is over and I feel like the inclusion of Santa was handled poorly here.



My  Final  Thoughts


If  I were to describe this segment,  I would say that it felt cheap and shallow   and not much effort was put into  it.  Which leads me to believe that to be true of the rest of the movie and that it was just a quick Christmas cash in riding  off being an in name sequel to "Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas", which actually had care and effort put into it.  This here just felt lazy.  Instead of a candy cane, we were given a lump of coal.   Oh well, they can't all be winners.  Join me tomorrow as I go back and do that Prep  & Landing review I promised.   Peace! 

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