A Look at Disney Christmas: Donald's Gift (Mickey's Twice Upon A Christmas)

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney.  I've decided to change plans and continue looking at Duck related Christmas material as we return to Mickey's Twice Upon A Christmas and look at Donald's Gift.  With that outta the way, let's begin.  With this segment, we are looking at the first CGI outing of Mickey and his pals.  And it's not great.  Granted, this movie is now 14 years old and the characters have had enough time in CGI and we have seen better-looking CGI takes.  While I don't watch it,  Mickey and the Roadster Races has some decent looking CGI for a television show.

So,  the animation hasn't aged well but I wouldn't say it aged poorly.  Rather, that it was just a stepping stone to transferring these characters into this medium.  Which is something that Walt was always interested in as he was always interested in innovation with animation and while I will lament hand-drawn animation (not being on the big screen), I think he'd be okay with CGI takes of his most famous characters.  And furthermore, it was a matter of time before we saw these classic characters in CGI. I've seen takes of characters I love in CGI that aren't as good as these.  I mean,  look at Harvey from Hub's Sabrina cartoon.

Again, he's not bad but he looks too rubbery.   Whereas Donald, even with the dated look of this movie, he still feels as though he is a real character in the world that this segment has set up.   With this long-winded introduction, let's move onto the plot. 



The Plot


The plot is simple enough as Donald just wants to be left alone and have a cup of hot cocoa and he seems to be put in a bad mood as no-one will leave him alone. Even when Daisy forces him to go to the mall with the boys to see the window display at Mousy's and yeah, that goes as well as one might expect as Donald destroys it.   Okay,  that comes about because all throughout Donald has been hearing We Wish You A Merry Christmas and it has been driving him nuts and that causes him to go nuts. 

This causes Daisy to take the boys with her and leave Donald as he is thrown out of the mall as the guard chastises him for not having any Christmas spirit.  We see Donald in a funk and in the dumps.  And I think that the short wants to be upset at Donald and to an extent, I can get that but all of this could have been avoided if Donald had just been left alone.   Oh sure, Donald is temperamental and has issues aplenty but he is a good person and sometimes when people want to be left alone, that's the best thing that you could do for them.  After all, Daisy could take the boys to Mousy's as unlike the DuckTales reboot that I looked at on Monday, this segment seems to imply that Daisy is another (kinda) parental figure in Huey, Dewey, & Louie's life.   If that is the case, she should understand how stressful life as a parental figure can be and that sometimes, one partner needs time alone. 


Yeah yeah, I get that the segment was saying that Christmas is time for family and togetherness and I do agree with that message to an extent but people need alone time is all I'm saying.  Getting back to the plot,  we see Donald walking past a choir singing the song that had been stuck in his head and he helps them out as he knows this song inside and out and conducts them.

 And Donald conducting them draws a crowd and now Donald understands the importance of togetherness.



Character


Donald Duck voiced by Tony Anselmo

I'm of two minds about this segment.  I agree with the message that togetherness is important and I do get using a character such as Donald for a message such as that but at the same time, I can't blame Donald for just wanting alone time.  I kinda find myself at a tug-of-war with this segment as I like the message and the character they're using but I also get wanting to be left alone.  At the end of the day, it's more of a personal thing with me than anything the short did wrong. 



My Final Thoughts


Looking at this segment separately from the rest of the film, it's good even if I have personal issues with the segment but it's not bad and it is one of the better segments from this sequel. Peace!