[BLU-RAY REVIEW] 'Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers'

Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers is one of those those rare direct-to-video Disney films that isn’t a sequel. And yes, while it’s neither entirely original (it borrows ever so slightly from the The Three Musketeers book) nor revolutionary, it’s still quite a nice flick featuring the famous Disney trio of Mickey, Donald and Goofy.

The Film ✮✮✮

In Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers, the eponymous threesome dream of one day becoming musketeers for France. Unfortunately, the captain of the musketeers is Peg Leg Pete (Jim Cummings), who, based on his previous interactions with the three bumbling heroes, has vowed that he will never allow them to join. However, things change when Princess Minnie (Russi Taylor) informs Pete that she wants musketeer bodyguards protecting her at all times. This puts Pete in a pickle, since he secretly wants his minions to kidnap Minnie and so he can obtain the throne for himself. So, he informs Mickey (Wayne Allwine), Donald (Tony Anselmo), and Goofy (Bill Farmer) that he had a change of heart and makes them official musketeers and protectors of the princess. Now it’s up to our three musketeers to save the day!

Having never seen this film before, I was rather surprised with how much I enjoyed it. The story is simple, yes; however, it still was engaging enough to keep me interested. I think much of this is due to the fact that the story is almost original. It doesn’t try to be another rehashing of Alexandre Dumas’s famous novel of the same name, but instead takes the idea of the musketeers and makes it its own. (However, the original musketeers from the novel do make quick cameo.) Another reason Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers is successful is because our beloved classic Disney characters are the stars. It’s always fun to see the Disney gang in a new setting and interacting with each other. (I mean, who doesn’t get tired of Peg Leg Pete, Goofy or Donald?)

That being said, the most interesting character was that of the singing minstrel turtle, the Troubadour (Rob Paulsen). His character is the narrator, much like the rooster in Disney’s Robin Hood, and weaves in and out of the story. Each appearance is welcome as it’s usually accompanied by a wacky, fun song. The Troubadour realizes that his songs can get cheesy, but his self-awareness and recognition of this makes them acceptable. Who would’ve thought that a new character in a film filled with old favorites would become my favorite?

Most of the characters had a mini arc and narrative that made them interesting, except Minnie. Minnie just sat on her throne waiting to find true love. Normally I don’t have a problem with damsels in distress because I believe that they are necessary at times and can be interesting. But Minnie was dull and boring to me. Her lady in waiting Daisy (Tress MacNeille) was actually the more exciting character and I wished she could have been the princess so we could have seen more of her.

Bonus Features ✮✮✮

As this release is commemorating the 10th anniversary of the film, it actually has some nice bonus features to accompany it. The first are some deleted scenes with commentary (5 minutes). These storyboards are presented by DisneyToon Studios Vice President Brian Snedeker and is interested and rewarding. Normally direct-to-video sequels don’t get this sort of bonus feature treatment, especially ten years after its release.

Get The Scoop (10 minutes) is making-of featurette that seems to have been recorded for a TV special back when the film was originally released. It’s interesting to see DisneyToon Studios thinking and development about this film, until they start doing the Disney schtick of pretending that the characters (Mickey, Donald and Goofy) are actually real people or actors. Once this starts, I completely lost interest. No longer were we talking about the actual making of the film, but now we are polluting it with this fake version.

My frustration continued when the Cast Commentary (5 minutes) turned out to be nothing more than the characters of Mickey and company voicing over a scene with their thoughts. “Donald, don’t you remember how we had to record this scene 17 times?” I was really looking forward to a real cast commentary with this incredible group of voice actors, but no. Unfortunately since this is Disney, they can’t let go that these characters are just characters, rather than actual living beings.

The last group of featurettes focused on the music. The first was Get Up And Dance! (2 minutes), which was a bizarre sing- and dance-along track. There were three kids there dancing away, but no instructions on how to do the choreography. I guess that wasn’t the point. It was more of a let’s-get-the-wiggles-out number. The Disney Song Selection (7 minutes) allowed you to view the songs from the movie and just watch those, either individually or all at once. Sing Along with the Movie enabled sing-along captions to come on the screen as you watched the film. Both of these featurettes were from the original DVD release.

Final Thoughts

I wasn’t expecting much out of Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers or its Blu-ray, but I must say I was pleasantly surprised. The film was simple, but still enjoyable, which is expected from a movie featuring Mickey, Donald and Goofy. It’s a shame that we don’t get to see this Disney threesome in more films. For a direct-to-video film, I would happily watch this again and am glad that I now own it on Blu-ray.