Xmas: 'Mickey's Twice Upon A Christmas' (2004) Dir. Matthew O'Callaghan

Wayne Allwine, Russi Taylor, Tony Anselmo, Tress MacNeille, Diane Michelle, Alan Young, Jason Marsden and Chuck McCanng

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Another festive helping of heartwarming festive stories from the House of Mouse, this time with CGI production leading the way... 

‘Belles On Ice’, where Minnie Mouse (Taylor) and Daisy Duck (MacNeille) take part in an ice-skating competition, gradually increasing the risk as they try to better the other.

In ‘Christmas: Impossible’, Huey, Dewey and Louie (Taylor) sneak away from Uncle Scrooge (Young) in Duckburg and head to the North Pole when they are convinced their names are on Santa’s naughty list, and they will do anything to put it right.

‘Christmas Maximus’ re-unites Goofy (Farmer) and Max (Marsden) as he returns home with girlfriend Mona (Kellie Martin) for Christmas. However Goofy manages to provide his own style of welcome for the two in a series of comical mishaps.

‘Donald’s Gift’ sees Donald Duck (Anselmo) try to have a quiet, peaceful Christmas but becomes increasingly frustrated by the over-bearing community spirit and festivities and tries to avoid everything, especially when his large family arrive.

Finally, in ‘Mickey’s Dog-Gone Christmas’, Mickey sends Pluto out of the home when the excited dog causes chaos when decorating the home. Fleeing from the neighbourhood Pluto finds himself shipped off to the North Pole and becoming part of Santa’s reindeer troupe, as Mickey desperately searches for his best friend.

This time we have a similar brand of heart-warming and well-meaning stories told by Disney across their original line-up of popular characters at Christmas time. Sadly gone is the classic hand-drawn animation first seen in 1999 and now we have CGI animation bringing out characters to life.

While the heart is still there and much of the 1999 foundation still stands, something about the CGI reduces the over-all charm of this seasonal tale. It still is very entertaining and enjoyable, but with 5 stories to fit in over an hour, we are treated to a little less content in each to fit them all in.

But with seasoned veterans providing the iconic voices, along with many singing and dancing routines, this does the job that you’d expect from Disney at such a festive time of the year.

Amusing in places with lots of mad-cap animation and dizzying set-pieces that CG allows more-so than hand-drawn animating, but never loses the Christmas charm.

'Mickey's Twice Upon A Christmas' is Walt Disney Television Animation / DisneyToon Studios production