Search - The Three Musketeers - Gift Set with Mickey Mouse Plush on DVD

Entertaining for both kids and adults

Guy DuBlanc | USA | 08/09/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I found this new Disney cartoon to be entertaining, amusing, and better than anticipated. It's only 60 minutes in length and the time goes by pretty quickly.



After a lame opening with a French turtle, it picks up, and probably gets better as it goes. You won't find a whole lot of connection between this and the Alexander Dumas story, but if you were expecting a literal adaptation you've obviously come to the wrong place. I liked the sense of humor of the movie and I got a few chuckles out of it.



The animation is pretty good for a direct-to-video feature. It looks better than most cartoons on television. The DVD picture is adequate.



The voices are well done. Mickey, Goofy, and Donald sound exactly like they should. Captain Pete was a fun villain.



I liked how famous classical music was used for the songs. Selections include Tchaikovsky's Waltz of the Flowers (Nutcracker), Strauss' Blue Danube, Bizet's Carmen, Beethoven's 5th symphony (quickly), and others, all of which are very recognizable.



The special features are both good and bad. Let me review the bad first: I didn't see much value to the deleted scenes, which are shown in one five-minute reel, mostly in a rough-cut animated storyboard format. An optional commentary track over the deleted scenes is provided not by the director, but by a Disney VP executive. The Opera game basically just allows you to select one of three backgrounds and one of three characters ... and watch them sing. That's it. One "feature" lets you jump right to any song in the movie, which is not much of a feature since ... well, isn't that what "scene selections" are for?



As for the worthwhile bonus material, the "Many Hats of Mickey" is one of the best features: you select one of 9 Mickey hats, and see a short scene from a classic Mickey cartoon, such as Fantasia, etc. Another highlight is the "Cast Commentary," in which Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Pete provide an audio commentary over a 5-minute scene of the movie. They take it seriously and I liked the idea a lot. The Behind the Scenes documentary, which lasts 9 minutes, is entertaining and features interviews with the crew, who all act like they actually filmed Mickey, et al., and it's amusing.



All in all, Disney's Three Musketeers is a good production that should entertain children while at the same time be enjoyable for adults.

"

Thanks Amazon

Low-Ranking Reviewer | US of A | 08/06/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I actually got this from Amazon as a gift and am quite pleased. I'm not a big fan of Disney, Mickey, or old-school cartoons, but i must say i enjoyed this short feature. The characters, story, and songs are integrated quite nicely. And while the animation is not at the very highest level, it is still quite good and a nice little break from all the cgi and anime stuff going on nowadays. The best parts, for me, in the movie may be the french turtle singing to classical music pieces. Quite a few extras on the disc as well, but not quite as fun as the actual movie. Kids should like this overall, but i think there's enough here to where adults can appreciate it too. Btw, this dvd has some 'special' fast play feature that allows it to play the movie and select extras with a touch of a button. I guess it's for people who aren't knowledgable with dvds(?), or for kids i'm not sure. Anyway, i recommend this to animation fans, especially if you're a fan of Mickey and his friends."

Disney's Musketeers

amynicole902 | California | 11/27/2004

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Growing up with Disney, my husband and I were dissapointed in this video. Instead of taking the classic humor of things like falling, tripping, being knocked on the head with an anvel, this video uses degrading language as it's humor. By this I mean the character's would call each other names like "stupid" and cut down on one another.

We bought this for our 3 year old and didn't think we'd have to review it before he watched it because it's Disney! We ended up having to skip through sections we didn't think age appropriate. We didn't even finish watching the video. I would say the minimum age for this video is 5-6yo.

We will be reviewing all Disney videos before we let our children watch them from now on."

Solid and entertaining direct-to-DVD release from Disney

Wayne Klein | My Little Blue Window, USA | 09/05/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"First, thanks to amazon.com for sending this along for me to review. I'm normally not the kids animation type but I did enjoy "The Three Musketeers" which ranks up there in regards to direct-to-video Disney movies. I found that it was good for about ages 3 to 10.



Mickey, Donald & Goofy dream of becoming Musketeers serving France. Until then, they work as janitors a job they're particularly ill suited to do. When Pete the Captain of the Musketeers plots to overthrow the French monarchy and put Pete into power. Mickey, Donald and Goofy must suddenly become Musketeers to help Princess Minnie from being taken prisoner and save France. There's a number of songs that use classic pieces as the basis and these are quite fun.



The animation is fluid and more than a cut above most of the TV cartoons we see. While the designs of the characters are simpler, they have much more character than most of the standard Yugi-O good guys and bad guys. "Three Musketeers" really is a throw back to the "Mickey & The Beanstock" style cartoons that Disney made in the 40's. With winning direction and writing, "Three Musketeers" will provide solid family entertainment. The handsome backgrounds look terrific and the extras will keep kids engaged beyond the movie.



I particularly liked "Backstage Disney" with a comical commentary from "the cast" (although it is scene specific)and "The Many Hats of Mickey" which takes a glimpse back through the 20th Century at Mickey Mouse's evolution with clips from cartoons of the past. We also get to see deleted scenes (most of which aren't finished and are simply line drawings to be filled in later by the animators and colored by the colorists). There's also an option to "create" your own opera in an interactive section. It's probably sometime the kids will play with one or two times.



Overall, a very good cartoon for kids up to the tween years, "The Three Musketeers" has a lot of daring sword fights and enough swashbuckling adventure to keep tikes interested. For adults, it's not a bad time and not as mind numbing as most of the material made for kids today."