"The Three Musketeers"
DVD Review
by Kevin Carr
| MOVIE: ***1/2 (out of 5 stars)
DVD EXPERIENCE: **** (out of 5 stars) STARRING Wayne Allwine as MICKEY MOUSE Tony Anselmo as DONALD DUCK Bill Farmer as GOOFY Russi Taylor as MINNIE MOUSE Tress MacNeille as DAISY DUCK Jim Cummings as PEG-LEG PETE April Winchell as CLARABELLE COW Rated G Studio: Disney Directed by: Donovan Cook Back to DVD Review Home |
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For anyone expecting an accurate recount of the writings of Alexandre Dumas, you won’t get it from Disney’s new “The Three Musketeers.” But that’s okay. The filmmakers made a point to not just retell “The Three Musketeers.” They introduce the film as if it were an old 1940s Disney comic book rather than an adaptation of a Dumas novel. The story is told partially in song by a turtle troubadour who stumbles into his job as narrator. Mickey, Donald and Goofy were children that are one day saved by the famous Three Musketeers Athos, Porthos and Aramis.
As they grew up, Mickey, Donald and Goofy always dreamed of being musketeers themselves. However, there are some problems. Mickey is too short. Donald is a coward. And Goofy... well, Goofy ain’t the sharpest sword in the sheath. They make their living as janitors until Peg-Leg Pete, the head of the musketeers, hires them to protect Princess Minnie. Of course, Pete has ulterior motives. He’s trying to kidnap the princess so he can assume the throne, and he purposely has given her Mickey, Donald and Goofy as bodyguards because he is certain they’ll fail.
The flavor and style of this new feature-length film is meant to be a throwback to the classic short films featuring these three characters from the 1940s and 1950s, like “The Clock Cleaners.” According to the information in the DVD supplementals, this is the first time that Mickey, Donald and Goofy have all headlined a feature-length film together. However, their decades of work has let us know what to expect.
There’s enough jokes in this film for the parents to enjoy, including Minnie’s revelation that she and Mickey could end up together because they happen to have the same last name. Otherwise, much of the humor that will go over the kids heads comes from Peg-Leg Pete, who is voiced by uber-voice-over artist Jim Cummings. A movie is only as good as its villain, and Peg-Leg Pete is one of the better Disney villains of recent years. He’s evil, yet oafish. And his character has just the right sense of humor.
The music and songs for “The Three Musketeers” take an Warner Bros. approach by taking comical spins on classical tunes. You can’t go wrong with a soundtrack featuring Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, and it’s overdue to not have a pop soundtrack featuring music that only gets widespread play on Radio Disney. The new lyrics are clever, too. Not as clever as the late, great Howard Ashman, but close enough.
This DVD is notable because it features the new Disney DVD FastPlay, which will automatically shuffle through the movie and the special features instead of having the viewer choose them from the menu. Admittedly, it’s not the coolest cutting-edge technology out there, but this is a neat feature for people who don’t want to dig through all the menu screens to make sure they catch everything. I’d rather use the remote, myself, but that’s just me.
Included in the DVD extras are some nice items. There are two games that are more interesting than most. These include a retrospective of Mickey Mouse films adapted from classic literature. There’s also a clever “Opera-toon-ity” game, which allows the viewer to create his or her own toon opera with the characters of the film.
The deleted scenes on this disc are better than most you’ll find on an animated film. Instead of being animated storyboards with a temp voice-over, these four scenes show in-progress pencil and sometimes fully completed animation. Also included is a deleted scenes commentary by the filmmakers explaining why the scenes were altered or cut altogether.
Aside from a pretty informative and entertaining behind-the-scenes featurette, there’s also a Music & More section that will take you to any song in the film. Also included is music video for “3 Is a Magic Number” for anyone missing the Radio Disney sound refreshingly absent in the movie.
The best feature by far on the DVD is the cast commentary by Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Pete. In what sounds like an improvised segment with the voice actors, the characters talk over approximately five minutes of the movie. This commentary shows the classic characters at their most hilarious as Pete complains about his agent and Mickey wonders if his costume makes him look fat.
As far as straight-to-video features go, you could do a lot worse. I’m not sure how the film will hold up after constant viewing by your kids. It may get dull after the 24,000th time. But then again, so do the Disney classics like “The Little Mermaid” and “The Lion King.”
Specifications: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. DTS 5.1 Surround Sound. Widescreen (1.78:1) - Enhanced for 16x9 televisions. French and Spanish language tracks. English language subtitles for the hearing impaired.
