To truly appreciate something like “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse,” you have to watch it with young children. Of course, if you have young children, you’ve probably already seen multiple episodes of this new Playhouse Disney favorite.

“Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” is a relatively new computer-generated cartoon from Playhouse Disney. It follows in the footsteps of “Higglytown Heroes” by using relatively simple character generation and plenty of bright colors.

The stories are simple, offering moments of repetition and audience participation for the kids. Like all the other Playhouse Disney series, “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” doesn’t have bad guys, per se. The closest you’re gonna get with this is Pete, the big hairy dog-like creature that is usually featured as more of a villain in other Disney properties.

Mickey Mouse and his pals Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy spend their days in the secret Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. It’s activated by the magic words “Meeska Mooska Mickey Mouse” (an audio throwback to the old Mickey Mouse Club show in the 50s). Inside, the gang has fun and plays games.

In the feature-length story, Pete has caused the clubhouse to scatter around the town. The pals have to work together to find the different parts. Like other Playhouse Disney shows, they rely on the kids at home to help them out. When they find parts of the clubhouse, they ask questions, which the kids will answer (often louder than you might want them to at home).

While shows for such young viewers can be tedious and mind-numbing for adults, sometimes they are quite bearable. In general, the Playhouse Disney shows have enough stuff going on that they don’t wear on my nerves the way “Blue’s Clues” (or practically anything shown on Noggin) does.

“Mickey’s Great Clubhouse Hunt” features a story of the Easter holiday, which works well as a companion disc to the “Mickey Saves Santa” DVD that was released this past Christmas. Look for future titles on special events throughout the year, possibly the first day of school, Arbor Day and the like.

And let’s not forget another classic Disney character coming to life via CGI soon – “My Friends Tigger & Pooh,” premiering on Playhouse Disney on May 12, 2007.

The “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” DVD comes with a bonus episode of the television series as well as a sing-along song.



Specifications: Family-friendly widescreen (1.78:1) – enhanced for 16x9 televisions. French and Spanish Language Tracks.