Surprisingly, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is not too saccharine sweet, and the CG animation is fluid, and very bright. There may not be much in the way of rich textures, but everything else looks nice. One point of interest is the fact that Mickey's ears always stay circular and flat, no matter which way his head turns. It keeps him more consistent with his 2D form. Even the background music and the song and dance numbers are rather pleasant, and don't fall prey to the usual loud and obnoxious kids' show curse.
In this DVD, Mickey gets a visit from Donald who wants to show off the cuckoo clock he got for Daisy's birthday. In classic Donald fashion, he manages to get aggravated with the clock and shakes it so much that the cuckoo bird inside makes a break for it. So Mickey and Donald set out to find the bird and return it to the clock before Daisy's party starts.
Speaking of Donald's tantrums, I found it interesting to see how Mickey handles them. He sometimes just tells Donald to "take a break," but he also doesn't hold a grudge against Donald for getting him into this bird-chasing mess. Mickey brushes Donald's temper off as "getting excited" and allows his friend to cool off. It's probably not a good idea to read too much into these things, but it is nice to see that Mickey's friend can get angry, and it's ok.
This movie does not focus on Donald's anger management issues as much as the previous paragraph might make you believe. For the most part, Mickey and his pal go from one problem to another and ask the audience for help in solving them. Of course, Mickey is in Wonderland, so there is an "Alice in Wonderland" theme to everything. The riddles are simplified (When the moon and twinkly stars shine bright, it isn't day because it's "blank"), the Mad Hatter is actually Goofy and drinks chocolate milk, and the Queen isn't looking for anyone's head, just a nice game of croquet.
The movie periodically asks questions related to the problem Mickey's trying to solve. For example, he might ask what number the big hand on a clock is pointing to. The movie will pause and a question with 4 possible answers will display. Up, down, left or right on the DVD player remote will answer the question and then the movie will continue. A wrong answer will prompt the announcer to tell you the correct choice so you don't have to spend a long time guessing. My 4 year old niece had a blast with this and wanted to watch the whole thing again. The bonus episode "Goofy Goes Goofy" did not have these interactive questions, and she wanted to watch the movie "with the questions" again after she watched that episode. You can also watch the movie with less challenging questions, or no interruptions at all.
The questions are just one example of the good pacing of this movie. Mickey and his friends bounce from subject to subject, but subtly repeat lessons throughout the movie as a whole. Song and dance numbers don't wear out their welcome, and everything flows from one sequence to the next quite neatly. At 50 minutes, this is a lot of children's show to digest, but it seems to fly by. On the whole, this is an entertaining production that children and adults should be able to appreciate.
