Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse is an animated anthropomorphic mouse created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks in the year 1928. He is by far its most famous character. Mickey serves as the mascot for The Walt Disney Company. Fancifully estimated as standing 2 ft. 3 in. (69 cm) and weighing 23 pounds (10 kg), Mickey rapidly rose to the pinnacle of American culture, being more widely recognized overseas than any other American icon but the U.S. flag.

For over 80 years, he has signified The Walt Disney Company, animation, goodwill, fun, laughter and most of all Walt Disney himself. It was said by Lillian Disney, his wife, that over the years, Mickey and Walt grew together and were mirrors of each other's personality. They both started off mischievous and cheeky, but as they grew older preferred to step out of the spotlight and observe others work their magic. President Jimmy Carter once said; "Mickey Mouse is the symbol of goodwill, surpassing all languages and cultures. When one sees Mickey Mouse, they see happiness".

Mickey's 3-circle silhouette serves as the logo for most of Disney's subsidiaries, save for the ones that don't carry the 'Disney' or 'Walt Disney' label. Andy Warhol's portrait The Art of Mickey Mouse used Warhol's famous pop art techniques on the classic mouse. Mickey is often cited as the world's most famous cartoon character of all time.

Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas
In the sequel to Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas, Mickey is first seen attending Minnie and Daisy's ice skating tournament with Donald. Later on, Mickey is planning a big Christmas party for everyone to enjoy. Although Minnie would rather have him do something simple, Mickey goes ahead and decorate excessively with animatronic Santa Claus, a moving train set around the Christmas tree, and much more. While on the phone with Minnie, Pluto accidentally ruins the decorations. With all the decorations destroyed, Mickey has no choice but to go out and get new decorations. Before he leaves, he grounds Pluto and sends him to his dog house. After Mickey departs, Pluto runs away and finds himself at the North Pole.

Meanwhile, Mickey has returned to redecorate the house. Unlike the previous decorations, these are simpler. After the finishing touches were complete, Mickey went to the dog house to apologize to Pluto for his anger, wanting Pluto to place the star on the tree. Instead of Pluto, Mickey finds his discarded collar, and spots paw prints on the snow, heavily indicating that Pluto has run away. In panic, Mickey calls Minnie for help, and heads out to find his pal. He spends the entire day hanging up posters around the city. During the night, Mickey visits Santa Claus, who is having a meet-and-greet session, and tells him that all he wants for Christmas is Pluto back.

Mickey returns home, with all hope lost. Suddenly, Pluto pops up on the roof of the house and rushes down to Mickey's arm. Just as the two begin to reunite, a snow plow truck that nearly ran into Mickey earlier, rushes into the front yard of Mickey's house. The driver turns out to be Goofy, accompanied by Max, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Scrooge McDuck, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Minnie explains that Scrooge purchased a snow plow company to help find Pluto. Overjoyed with his friends being there, Mickey invites them in, and they all sing Christmas carols to celebrate.

Review
Both the animation and story in "Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas" can probably best be described as "Pixar-Lite". That is, the computer technology that renders Mickey and his friends throughout this DVD is generally well done and even at times dazzling, but overall falls fairly short of the uniformly excellent work we've seen in the "Toy Story" movies, "Finding Nemo", "The Incredibles", and other Pixar projects. Likewise, the several Christmas stories included here all have perfectly fine, fairly imaginative stories, but they certainly aren't the highly creative, multi-leveled / multi-themed yarns that- again like Pixar's offerings- appeal across the board to kids and adults. This one is mainly for the kiddies, I'm afraid. But I guess there's nothing wrong with that. Kids, especially young ones, will likely really enjoy this, and adults- while not being wildly entertained- certainly won't find it painful to sit through. After all, Disney's classic characters are always fun to see in action. I still can't figure out why Goofy can talk and Pluto can't, though.