Featured Blu-ray Review: Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers

August 10, 2014

Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers - Blu-ray Combo Pack - Buy from Amazon

Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers is a direct-to-DVD movie that came out 10 years ago and is coming out on Blu-ray this week. Direct-to-DVD cartoons don't have a good reputation, but will this film prove the critics wrong? Or is there a reason it didn't get a theatrical release.

The Movie

As you can tell by the name, this film is an adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas novel, but set in the Disney universe populated by popular Disney characters. The prologue involves a turtle accidentally becoming the narrator for a TV show and he decides to tell the story of the Three Musketeers. As kids, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy were harassed and nearly robbed by some thugs, but they were rescued by the Royal Musketeers. From that day on, they dreamed of becoming Musketeers.

However, as adults the closest they've come is being part of the janitorial staff at the training camp. They are not really qualified to be Musketeers. They are not very qualified to be janitors. As Captain Pete points out, Donald is a coward, Goofy is a doofus, and Mickey is just too small. They can't be trusted with important assignments like protecting Princess Minnie and her lady-in-waiting, Daisy. And she needs protecting, as a group of thugs nearly drop a safe on her. When the thugs return to their boss, we learn it's Captain Pete. Captain Pete wants to kidnap the princess so he can become the new King. When Princess Minnie demands bodyguards, Captain Pete has an idea. He will make Mickey, Donald, and Goofy her bodyguards. With them as the Princess's guards, he won't have to worry about anyone messing with his plan.

That's enough of the plot. Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers really lives down to the Direct-to-DVD label. The film is barely more than an hour long and there are several songs throughout, so the plot is pushed to the side even more. Worse still, the songs aren't good. The music is fantastic, because they used a bunch of classic songs from Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Grieg, Strauss, etc., but they added lyrics that just make the songs worse. The prologue takes up too much time and is completely superfluous to the rest of the plot. There's no real wit to the storytelling and the action bits become repetitive far too quickly. I know it is aimed at a much younger crowd and it will probably entertain them, once, but the replay value is limited.

The Extras

The extras being with Get Up and Dance, a two-minute song with a trio of kids dancing along. There are five minutes of deleted scenes, with optional audio commentary. There are five minutes of Cast Commentary, which is select scenes with Mickey, Donald, and Goofy talking about filming the scenes. Get the Scoop! is a ten-minute long making of featurette and the last extra is a song selection.

The technical presentation is better than the movie. The animation isn't theatrical release quality, but the transfer shows off all of the details that are present. The colors are the best feature on the Blu-ray, while there's plenty of room so there's no compression issues. The audio is fine, but nothing fancy. Clear dialogue, some activity in the surround sound speakers, etc.

On the other hand, the Blu-ray costs $25, which is simply too much to ask.

The Verdict

Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers is typical of a Direct-to-DVD release, which is not a compliment. The Blu-ray Combo Pack doesn't have a lot of extras and it costs way too much. Perhaps if you have kids in the right age demographic, it is worth a rental, but that's as high as I am willing to go.


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