Mickey's House of Villains (2002)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Features:

• Fright Delight: Disney's Spookiest Sound Effects in Surround Sound
  
• Reel of Misfortune Game: Test Your Knowledge of Disney's Greatest Villains
  
• Hidden Villains: Find the Sneaky Scoundrels
  

Mickey (voiced by Allwine), Minnie (Taylor) and the gang are having a great old time at Mickey's new night club called The House of Mouse. However, on this particular night, some of Walt Disney's greatest villains have shown up and are planning to take over the club and turn it into the House of Villains. After they have taken control of the club, they begin to reminisce about some of their greatest adventures, but while they are having a great time, Mickey and his pals are planning to retake the club from them.

What we have here is an excuse to put together a bunch of short cartoon clips and sell them to the same people that probably already have them, in the original forms, in their collection somewhere. There are some real gems here. Most of these cartoons are the vintage Disney cartoons that at least two generations grew up with. It's these snippets alone that make this DVD worth owning. Whoever put it together was smart enough to realize that the stuff that was going on in the House of Mouse was insignificant to watching the cartoons...and this is a very good thing. The other thing that becomes obvious is that the older cartoons have a certain grainy feel to them that is entirely endearing. Most of the new cartoons don't have that, and it just makes them feel very sanitized somehow. Or it could be that the writing these days is significantly worse.

The bonus material on the DVD seems to be directed toward a younger demographic than the actual feature does, which is sort of strange. The Reel of Misfortune is just a trivia game that is based on the villains that try to take over the House of Mouse in the feature. If you answer all questions correctly, you are allow to escape from the dungeon alive, but if you get just three answers wrong, you fall into a river of molten lava. The Fright Delight is a mix of techno music laid under some scary scenes from all of Disney's repertoire. It's not really all that exciting and doesn't seem to follow any logical pattern. There are two choices, the 5.1 House Mix, and the 5.1 Villains Mix. The Villains Mix is the same footage without the techno track. Also on the Main Menu, there are posters that you can choose of some of the villains that will show you short clips from their movies. Again, these are just quick clips and don't seem to follow any logical progression whatsoever.

It really can't decide whether it wants to be for the kiddies or a collection of vintage Disney cartoons for the aging connoisseur. I would suggest renting this one before you shell out the money to add it to your collection. If it works for you, though, more power to you.