Toon Talk: Mickey's House of Villains
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Anyone who has seen the old Wonderful World of Disney special Disney’s Halloween Treat has seen this all before, including the vintage shorts Trick or Treat (featuring a rare early Disney role for Rocky and Bullwinkle’s June Foray as Witch Hazel) and Lonesome Ghosts (making its third, yes third, appearance on DVD in less then a year) as well as segments whose themes are marginally ‘Halloween-y’ at best (old Mickey Mouse Works shorts Mickey’s Mechanical House and Dance of the Goofys, the latter of which stars the Goofster as a sugar-plum faerie … ooooo, scary!). The one out-and-out ‘new’ short that actually fits in with the overall All Hallows’ Eve motif, Donald’s Halloween Scare (also from the Mouse Works archives), is shockingly blasé in its shallow misuse of the classic Disney characters, such as outfitting Donald Duck in a Jason Vorhees hockey mask and I Know What You Did Last Summer hook. Depicting our duck as a serial killer and his nephews as rotting corpses is not my idea of a Disney Halloween treat.

(c) Disney

But aside from the disquieting feeling of déjà vu evoked by the shorts presented, the perfunctory plot is a frustratingly wasted opportunity. Lead by Jafar, the villains succeed in ousting Mickey and the gang (by literally tossing them out onto the street during their big lame production number, “It's Our House Now“), only to turn around and … show more Mickey Mouse cartoons! No grand scheme, no damsels in distress, nope, what these villains really want is not world domination, not riches beyond belief, but more cartoons … When Mickey returns, donning his Sorcerer’s Apprentice attire to go all fantasmic on the mutineers, the resulting confrontation is as anti-climactic as it is pitifully predictable.

It truly is a shame that Disney apparently can’t see the rich possibilities in the House of Mouse concept beyond the actual television series. These past two home video efforts are totally devoid of the ironic charm of the original series, squandering the ideas in cheap run-offs instead of delivering a home run. Instead of producing these limp excuses for yet another slap-shod shorts package (not even presented in their unedited forms, mind you), why not give fans what they really want: a deluxe DVD set of Disney’s House of Mouse: The Complete Series.  Now, that would be a treat.

DVD Bonus Features:

• Reel of Misfortune DVD Game: Enter the Cavern of Questions (which looks an awful lot like the Cave of Wonders) to face off against the villains in a trivia showdown.
• Fright Delight: Musical montage of clips featuring some of the best moments of Disney villainy, although I’d be hard-pressed to call the stampeding elephants in Tarzan and Baylene from Dinosaur as villains. Oddly, presented in two versions: the 5.1 House Mix features both music and sound effects, while the 5.1 Villain Mix is sound effects only. Why? Who knows …

Toon Talk Rating: D+

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(c) Disney

Toon Talk Trivia:

• Original voice talent Pat Carroll (Ursula), Jonathan Freeman (Jafar), James Woods (Hades), Bobcat Goldthwait (Pain) and Matt Frewer (Panic) reprise their villainous roles in Mickey's House of Villains.
• Susan Blakeslee will return as Cruella de Vil in 101 Dalmatians 2: Patch's London Adventure, coming to video next Spring.
• Corey Burton voices both Captain Hook (here and in Return to Neverland) and Chernabog.
• Jim Cummings, who is the current voice of Winnie the Pooh, here voices another classic Sterling Holloway character, Kaa the Snake.
• Tress MacNellie (Daisy Duck) also covers the Queen of Hearts and Si and Am.
• Watch for a cameo of Goofy as Jacob Marley from Mickey’s Christmas Carol in the short How to Haunt a House.

Final Word:

Coming Soon in Toon Talk:

• Mike, Sully and Boo come home in a deluxe 2-disc DVD collector’s edition of Monsters, Inc., available September 17^th.
• Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away makes its English-language debut, featuring the voices of such Disney faves as Daveigh Chase, David Ogden Stiers, Susan Egan and John Ratzenberger, opening September 20^th.
• A very special Platinum Edition 2-disc DVD set of the Academy Award-winning animated motion picture classic Beauty and the Beast, featuring three different versions of the film and an enchanted castle-full of extras, on sale October 8^th.

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Related Links

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-- Kirby C. Holt

Kirby, a former Walt Disney World Resort Cast Member (and Trivia Champ), is a lifelong Disney fan and film buff. He is also an avid list maker and chronic ellipsis user ...

Took Talk: Disney Film & Video Reviews by Kirby C. Holt is posted whenever there's something new to review.

The opinions expressed by our Kirby C. Holt, and all of our columnists, do not necessarily represent the feelings of LaughingPlace.com or any of its employees or advertisers. All speculation and rumors about the future plans of the Walt Disney Company are just that - speculation and rumors - and should be treated as such.

-- Posted September 9, 2002