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Mickey Mouse House of Mouse Villains
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment // G // September 3, 2002
List Price: $29.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
Since the rise in popularity of home video (and especially DVD, as of the past couple of years), Disney has realized that they have the ability to mine the marketplace with direct-to-video sequels or other projects featuring familiar characters that parents can feel comfortable with. Unfortunately, the quality of these vehicles vary - while some (see "Toy Story 2", "Return To Neverland") were direct-to-vid titles that were deemed worthy of a theatrical release, others ("Cinderella 2") seemed like rushed efforts, while a few ("Hunchback of Notre Dame II", the recent "Tom Thumb & Thumbelina" and "Little Mermaid II") provided good, wholesome entertainment.
"Mickey's House of Villians", which has been presented as a new Disney title, is essentially a clip show, featuring many of the more popular Disney characters both classic and recent. All of them have turned up at Mickey's house to watch a parade of Disney short cartoons - some of which appear to be older productions (an opening Halloween piece starring Donald Duck, for example) and some of which look to be more recent efforts (one where Goofy tries - rather unsuccessfully - to haunt Donald's house).
Certainly, it's a little difficult to give Disney full credit on this feature - it's always a bit on the questionable side when 90% of a new release is made up of existing material. However, I can't complain about the quality of the shorts themselves - these are some of the funnier animated shorts from the studio that I've seen and I suppose I'd rather sit through some of Disney's A-list material than a newly produced C-grade offering.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Mickey's House of Villians" is presented in 1.33:1 full-frame by the studio. The animation and general picture quality varies up with each of the cartoons included. Some of the older titles offer richer, more detailed animation, but a little bit of a soft and slightly grainy appearance. A few of the newer clips looked brighter and more colorful, but lacked the kind of detail apparent in the older shorts. As for the newly made "House of Villians" material that's written around the shorts, it looks about like what's seen on Saturday morning cartoons.
Aside from a few instances of dirt and grain on the older clips, the title presented no concerns in regards to image quality, as no edge enhancement, pixelation or other faults were spotted.
SOUND: The cartoon is presented by Disney in Dolby Digital 5.1. This is certainly a very tame soundtrack, as I don't believe the surrounds were involved at all throughout and if they were, their use was very subtle. Audio quality was about as good as can be expected, as dialogue remained crisp.
MENUS: Basic main & sub menus with slight animation.
EXTRAS: An interactive game, two sets of clips (Villians and Heroes, both in Dolby Digital 5.1 with two different mixes - one quite aggressive, while the other is more subtle) and "Sneak Peek" trailers for "Treasure Planet", "Monsters, Inc.", "Beauty and the Beast: SE", "Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year", "Lilo and Stitch", "101 Dalmatians II" and "Beauty and the Beast: Enchanted Christmas".
Final Thoughts: "Mickey's House of Villians" isn't much of anything new, but at least Disney has brought together some of its more amusing shorts. The DVD doesn't offer much in the way of supplements, but audio/video quality is fine. Recommended, as kids should enjoy it.
Since the rise in popularity of home video (and especially DVD, as of the past couple of years), Disney has realized that they have the ability to mine the marketplace with direct-to-video sequels or other projects featuring familiar characters that parents can feel comfortable with. Unfortunately, the quality of these vehicles vary - while some (see "Toy Story 2", "Return To Neverland") were direct-to-vid titles that were deemed worthy of a theatrical release, others ("Cinderella 2") seemed like rushed efforts, while a few ("Hunchback of Notre Dame II", the recent "Tom Thumb & Thumbelina" and "Little Mermaid II") provided good, wholesome entertainment.
"Mickey's House of Villians", which has been presented as a new Disney title, is essentially a clip show, featuring many of the more popular Disney characters both classic and recent. All of them have turned up at Mickey's house to watch a parade of Disney short cartoons - some of which appear to be older productions (an opening Halloween piece starring Donald Duck, for example) and some of which look to be more recent efforts (one where Goofy tries - rather unsuccessfully - to haunt Donald's house).
Certainly, it's a little difficult to give Disney full credit on this feature - it's always a bit on the questionable side when 90% of a new release is made up of existing material. However, I can't complain about the quality of the shorts themselves - these are some of the funnier animated shorts from the studio that I've seen and I suppose I'd rather sit through some of Disney's A-list material than a newly produced C-grade offering.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Mickey's House of Villians" is presented in 1.33:1 full-frame by the studio. The animation and general picture quality varies up with each of the cartoons included. Some of the older titles offer richer, more detailed animation, but a little bit of a soft and slightly grainy appearance. A few of the newer clips looked brighter and more colorful, but lacked the kind of detail apparent in the older shorts. As for the newly made "House of Villians" material that's written around the shorts, it looks about like what's seen on Saturday morning cartoons.
Aside from a few instances of dirt and grain on the older clips, the title presented no concerns in regards to image quality, as no edge enhancement, pixelation or other faults were spotted.
SOUND: The cartoon is presented by Disney in Dolby Digital 5.1. This is certainly a very tame soundtrack, as I don't believe the surrounds were involved at all throughout and if they were, their use was very subtle. Audio quality was about as good as can be expected, as dialogue remained crisp.
MENUS: Basic main & sub menus with slight animation.
EXTRAS: An interactive game, two sets of clips (Villians and Heroes, both in Dolby Digital 5.1 with two different mixes - one quite aggressive, while the other is more subtle) and "Sneak Peek" trailers for "Treasure Planet", "Monsters, Inc.", "Beauty and the Beast: SE", "Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year", "Lilo and Stitch", "101 Dalmatians II" and "Beauty and the Beast: Enchanted Christmas".
Final Thoughts: "Mickey's House of Villians" isn't much of anything new, but at least Disney has brought together some of its more amusing shorts. The DVD doesn't offer much in the way of supplements, but audio/video quality is fine. Recommended, as kids should enjoy it.
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