Cinema Tuesdays Review

Made For You and Me
By Nathan Cone

Disneyland celebrated the 50th anniversary of its grand opening earlier in July, and as part of the festivities (or is it to promote them?), the company released three DVDs centering on Mickey Mouse, the little guy that started it all. "Vintage Mickey" collects some of the character's best black and white appearances, "The Best of the Mickey Mouse Club" features five of the original Mouseketeer episodes from the 1950s, and "Mickey Mouse Club: The Best of Britney, Justin, and Christina" focuses on the 1990s update of the MMC that launched the careers of some of today's top teen idols.

The company inexplicably pulled from its release schedule the previously announced "Disneyland: The Secrets, Stories and Magic of the Happiest Place on Earth." One is left to speculate that the company wanted to include some footage from the 50th anniversary celebration on the disc, which may see the light of day later this year.

In the meantime, the three Mickey-inspired discs are left to prop up the Disneyland promotion. How do they fare?

"Vintage Mickey" is the most timelessly entertaining of the lot, and it includes Mickey's first appearances on celluloid, "Plane Crazy" and "Steamboat Willie." For cartoons that are well over 70 years old, the image has held up quite well, and so has the bizarro humor. Mickey was never quite so mischievous, and the cartoons never quite so surreal, as in these early shorts. Steam shovels and construction equipment take on lifelike features, and there is all manner of wackiness going on. Besides the two above cartoons, seven other Mickey shorts are included. One other interesting note: In "Mickey's Steam Roller," Minnie Mouse is babysitting three little mice, and at one point tells them to say hello to Uncle Mickey, yet Mickey and Minnie are still dating… what is going on here?

Disney's first foray into Kid-TV hit the airwaves in the fall of 1955, after Disneyland opened that summer. Each day of "The Mickey Mouse Club" was organized into a theme like "Fun With Music Day" or "Guest Star Day," and five of these episodes are included on the DVD "The Best of the Mickey Mouse Club." These old shows are still pretty entertaining today. Mouseketeer Cubby shows his stuff on the skins by beating out a hot jazz tune with Disney's resident Dixieland band, the Firehouse 5. Many episodes include a cartoon, and Annette fans will get a kick out of her narrating a rather clunky Hawaiian travelogue. Incidentally, I never understood the fascination with Annette. Mouseketeer Darlene is much cuter.

Finally, there is the DVD "Mickey Mouse Club: The Best of Britney, Justin, and Christina." Yes, for those who don't know by now, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, and Christina Aguilera all got their start on the MMC in the 1990s, along with future stars of stage and screen such as Keri Russell (TV's "Felicity"), J.C. Chasez (N*Sync), and Ryan Gosling ("The Notebook"), all of whom appear on this DVD. The title "Best of Britney, Justin and Christina" is a bit of a misnomer, since, like the vintage MMC DVD, this disc includes four full-length shows, of which the three stars are only a part of. However, you do get to hear all three sing (Christina Aguilera still has the best voice), and it's kind of weirdly funny to see footage of little Britney Spears back in Louisiana playing softball and eating crawfish, given her current public image. Still, there's not much to recommend on this disc, even to fans, since each of the stars get so little screen time. After all, they weren't stars then -- they were just Mouseketeers like the rest of 'em.

It is interesting to note that the '90s version of MMC also features less straight entertainment than the 1950s show. In the '90s, the show made more of an effort to not only entertain but also educate teens and pre-teens, and empathize with them. One segment of the program even features three teens talking about their battle with depression.

These three Mickey Mouse-inspired discs, while entertaining, are a curious way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Disneyland, but one has to remember the words of Walt Disney himself: "It all started with a mouse."

7/26/05

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