Tag Archives: Goofy

Clock Cleaners Review

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Mickey, Donald, and Goofy have finally found steady jobs as clock cleaners. Unfortunately the clock seems to be alive and doesn’t like to be cleaned. Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are systematically attacked and defeated. We all know that they have absolutely no chance of winning here so the question is…how badly will they be pounded? I may as well say that the clock gets in a lot of serious hits. Possibly even lethal ones.

As always, Donald was the most interesting member in the group. He actually defeated his part of the clock until Mickey and Goofy wrecked it. Donald’s soap voice just doesn’t get old. Mickey’s plot isn’t bad as he spends a lot of time getting beat up by a bird. To his defense, it was a pretty tough bird who wasn’t playing around! He wanted his sleep and nothing was gonna stop him.

Goofy’s plot is the weakest as expected. He gets smashed by a few golden hammers and this causes him to go loopy. He keeps almost jumping off the skyscraper so then Mickey has to save him. The effects of the hit certainly lasted a while as well since Goofy stayed that way for the rest of the special. I wanted to be more sympathetic but he didn’t handle the situation very well.

The animation is pretty nice and fluid the whole time. Disney’s style has certainly aged very well over the years which is most impressive. The designs are all iconic and they certainly got famous so the company knew what people wanted to see. The sound effects and music aren’t bad either. The main clock theme is quite catchy.

Now, I suppose the real question you’re all wondering here is who was in the right..Mickey or the bird? You may not be surprised to hear that I was on the bird’s side 100%. He can sleep wherever he wants and we just have to deal with it. Clearly Mickey wasn’t on the same page, but that’s totally on him. I’m glad that the Bird fought for his American rights and never gave up even when the going got tough. There was no tie and the victor was never in doubt. This bird wasn’t playing around!

Overall, it’s another fun Disney special to add to your viewing history and I’d recommend checking it out. The special is very short so it’s not as if it’ll take a whole lot of time to watch and it’s fairly timeless. You can watch it in any year and it’ll be just as fun as you can recall. It’s definitely interesting to see how Mickey and the gang changed over the years.

Overall 7/10

The Band Concert Review

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It’s time for another classic Disney review! In this special, Mickey Mouse is actually the antagonist for once. In my head canon, Mickey Mouse let the fame get to him and he forgot to look out for the little guys. As such, he is now the leader of a band and only allows top musicians to play with him. Donald tries to get in on the action, but Mickey reacts violently each time. He’ll have to think of something to get in on the act, but things get tough when a tornado sweeps through and carries them all off. Can Mickey finish his song or will Donald interfere again?

It’s a pretty entertaining special and I can see why people consider it to be one of Disney’s stronger ones. I thought it was more enjoyable than the others that I’ve seen as well. It’s pretty high energy the whole time. Sure, Mickey is pretty out of character, but it just goes to show that even he loses it once in a while. At least Mickey is super focused as not even the tornado could break his concentration. His team didn’t miss a beat and that’s why they’re considered as the pros.

Meanwhile, Donald Duck did his best to fit in. He didn’t let the others get him down and came with a lot of flutes just in case. I’d say that he’s easily the best character in this special. Donald is a reminder to us all that nobody can stop you from playing your tunes except for yourself. This special was a little light on dialogue so we didn’t get to hear Donald’s iconic voice as much as I’d like, but it’s still always fun to see him on screen. Donald is certainly my favorite from the old Disney characters. Another bonus is that Goofy doesn’t get much to do here since it’s just a bunch of Goofy ripoffs in the band and none of them have any lines if I recall correctly. Most excellent!

The actual song that the band was playing was pretty good as well. I definitely don’t mind old style songs for a special like this one. After all, something like Brave or Excalibur Clash wouldn’t fit so well right? I sometimes like to wonder what is better, to have a really epic song for something simple like baking a cake or to have a fairly uneventful theme playing the whole time. The latter would be forgettable, but the former would hint at something epic coming up and then you’d just be disappointed. It’s a tough question for sure.

Overall, it’s fun to check out these retro specials. They’re really short so you can breeze through them, but the animation holds up well. Mickey Mouse and the others certainly got iconic through these shorts so Disney knew how to market even back then. Still, I doubt anyone could have ever guessed just how legendary they would ultimately end up being. There are a lot of specials so it’ll probably be a while before I see them all, but I’m getting there step by step.

Overall 7/10

The Whalers Review

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It’s time for the second Disney special. On TV they aired both back to back which was pretty neat. This one is a little more of a big deal since it’s the crossover between Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy. Seeing the three of them on the big screen was intense. Despite this, it actually wasn’t as good as the Donald special though. Lets face it, Goofy can’t really hold his own next to the other two and Donald just makes for a more entertaining character.

The special starts off with Mickey Mouse getting another reality warper upset. This causes a bunch of water to come alive and constantly knock Mickey around. Mickey takes it in stride, but after getting knocked around the whole boat for a while, he realizes that he is in over his head. Donald tries to eat a sandwich, but he takes a little too long so the bird take it off of his hands. Meanwhile, Goofy keeps setting himself on fire, which is most unfortunate. The three of them have definitely fallen on hard times and they certainly can’t hope to snag a whale this way. Ah well…maybe they should have gone fishing instead.

The animation is pretty clean as you’d expect. The colors are all pretty seamless so you can see how much effort was put into the character designs. From the 3 plots, Mickey was probably the best even if it was rather repetitive. After getting blasted by the water for the 2nd and 3rd time, you kinda get the point. The Goofy plot was your typical slap stick. It wasn’t anything special, but at least Goofy always tries. Donald’s plight was the most sympathetic since everyone really wants to be able to finish their lunch in peace. Donald did an admirable job of trying to hold on, but you really can’t stop the birds. The three plots converged at the end, but even teaming up they weren’t able to do much.

It’s pretty interesting that Mickey’s boat can essentially turn into a giant mouth that can eat people up. It was even more interesting how the Whale just barreled through the place. If we’ve learned anything from the classic Disney shorts, it’s that you really can’t mess with aquatic animals. They fear nobody and have the raw strength to back that attitude up.

Overall, The Whalers isn’t quite as fun as the Sea Scouts. That’s mainly because of the fact that the special which was already very short, had to also juggle 3 different plots before merging them. There’s not much time to do anything so they settle for just using one joke each and then reusing it until it’s time to shift gears. I think a better use of its time would have been to have just had all 3 characters on screen at once. With one plot, then the special could have given them more things to do. It’s fun enough though and it’s so short that it’s not a big investment of your time. I’d recommend checking it out. Try to imagine how you’d handle the Mickey situation differently and think about your odds of success. There wasn’t much he could have done, but I would have at least gone under the ship into the boiler room. The water would probably be a little scared to follow me in there!

Overall 6/10

Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas Review

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Christmas films sure are catchy and you can’t really get a film that’s any cheerier than a Disney themed title. Mickey Mouse and the gang are definitely well suited to the task and while this film is in the dreaded anthology format, it still manages to be a solid film that can stand up in its own right. The final special is naturally the best one in the batch, but I would go as far as to say that they’re all still fairly good. Given the short length, none of them drag on and they’re all written well. As it should be, considering how old this film is.

The first segment is about Donald Duck and his three nephews. They enjoy Christmas so much that they wish it could never end. The season agrees with them and quickly gets the Earth trapped in an infinite time loop. No matter what the ducks do to their presents and the environment, they are stuck in Christmas. They have to relive the same day over and over again for weeks and possibly even months. Can they learn to enjoy Christmas forever? Honestly, I wouldn’t have too much of a problem with the concept. If every day was Christmas, I’d love it. Granted, I wouldn’t want the day to repeat in the sense that all of my progress would be reset each time. I’d like for time to go on for everything I interact with even if the rest of the day is stuck in place. Otherwise, jobs would eventually reopen despite it being Christmas and that would defeat the purpose of it all. Several films like Groundhog Day have done this plot and it’s always pretty amusing. It is hard to believe that the ducks would fall for all of the same tricks three times in a row though. I think most of us could easily plan out how to dodge the unfortunate parts of a day if we had to relive it.

That segment started us off on a good note. The ducks learned to be nice to their neighbors and respect Christmas. Next up was Goofy’s adventure with Max. Max believes in Santa Claus and he wants to deliver a letter to him. Goofy manages to get the job done, but Pete rains on the parade by letting Max know that Santa doesn’t exist. The truth hurts and Max gets pretty sullen. By the time he snaps out of it, Goody ends up being the one who is down in the dumps. Can they get over the fact that there is no Santa? Naturally, it’s got to have a feels good ending so Santa does exist, but the heroes had already made peace with the fact that he might not show up. It’s fitting that Pete was the one to try and wreck Christmas for Max because he is always pulling stunts like that. He never gets tired or trying to put everyone down. Goofy and Max can’t really hold their own segment as well as Donald and the kids though. Goofy’s antics can be a bit much as he almost trips about 20 times in one scene and then Max wrecks the Christmas surprise that Goofy had planned for the kids. It was partially one of the little kids’ fault was, but I’m sure that Goody would have had a clever comeback ready.

The final segment is easily the best one and that is to be expected since it is about Mickey Mouse. He wants to get Minnie something really special for Christmas, but he doesn’t have any money. He expected to have enough from his job, but his boss stole it all for himself. His business burned away though so it didn’t last long. You have to admit that Pete makes for a perfect villain in these Disney shorts. There weren’t too many villains to use back in the day so Pete appeared quite a lot, but he never gets old. Minnie was also hoping for a Christmas bonus from her job, but there were some budget cuts so they gave her an old cake instead. The ending is quite tragic as both characters have to make the tough calls, but it also shows how selfless and heroic they are. It’s a pretty nice way to end the movie even if it’s somber at the same time. Hopefully both of them can find good jobs at some point so they can pay off the bills. After all, Minnie hid the letter, but she is close to being evicted from all of the bills. The two heroes need a serious long term solution at the ready before it’s too late.

Also as expected, the animation looks pretty good in the film. All of the character designs are on point and a lot of extra details are always in place. You’ll see Mickey quickly glare a few times as he dashed over to the store to get his present. The characters are all very expressive and that’s something that you miss in today’s animation. CGI just can’t get those effects down quite as tightly. You need crisp traditional animation to get these kinds of quick looks and the movie nails it.

Overall, Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas is a fun film. It’s not something that’ll knock your socks off or get you dizzy with hype, but it’s a fundamentally sound film from the bottom up. The three specials are enjoyable to watch and all have uplifting endings. The final one is a little somber, but still happy enough. The segments never drag on and the writing is on point. There are really no negatives to speak of here and the nostalgia alone is enough to warrant a watch. I definitely recommend checking this film out before Christmas. It’s really uncanny that we’re so close. It still doesn’t feel real yet, but I’m sure that it’ll start to sink in over the next few days. Christmas is a coming after all!

Overall 7/10

Polar Trappers Review

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It’s time for the final Disney special that I’ve seen so far. This one features the long awaited team up between Donald and Goofy. I can’t say that I’m a big fan of Goofy. His character gimmick of not being too smart has been done more successfully by other characters like Knuckles from Sonic Boom. That being said, he was a little better here than I had expected. Goofy tries to capture some fish alive so he can take them back somewhere while Donald wants to eat Penguins for Brunch. Think of it like Batman V Superman with the moral dilemmas of this. Goofy gets a pretty neat song about how he catches them and keeps them alive. It was pretty hype and you feel bad for Goofy since he had better motives than Donald here, but still gets soundly defeated by nature in the end.

As for Donald, he’s essentially the antagonist here. He’s always trying to stir up some trouble and make life a little dicey for the Penguins. Luckily, they were onto him and his plans were spoiled yet again. He should have just kept on eating the beans right? I do like beans quite a bit, but they are one of the few foods that I actually would get bored with so I can totally sympathize with Donald’s reluctance to eat them. I can’t sympathize with his plan to eat a Penguin though. As with the other two specials, the animation is nice and smooth here. It’s a neat coincidence that all three specials took place with a lot of ice and snow. I suppose if it works, it works right?

Overall, It was neat to see the two heroes team up. “Hero” is a bit of an ambitious term for these two characters though. It was good to see the Penguins put them in their place as they reminded the main characters of who was really in charge here. It’s not quite as good as Corn Chips, but I’d say that it beat Rescue Dog. Once again, the short is only a few minutes so you’ll be able to blast through it in no time. I can definitely see the appeal of a good short as well, it is easy to just plug it in and watch without making a long time commitment. It’s a good style for telling stories as long as there is no really big plot.

Overall 6/10