Walt Disney's classic cartoon characters are back for a feature-length adventure. This hour-long direct-to-video 'toon features longtime Disney favorites Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Goofy, and Pluto, as well as Peg-Leg Pete and even Clarabelle Cow. These characters all started way back in the 1920s and 1930s, and it's nice to see them dusted off and brought to life on-screen these days, and not merely used to adorn merchandise.
THE THREE MUSKETEERS (2004) is not, as one might expect, an adaptation of Alexandre Dumas's classic story (previously adapted by Disney in live-action in 1993), but is an original adventure that uses Dumas as a jumping-off point. (Mickey, Donald, and Goofy aspire to be musketeers after a childhood encounter with the Dumas heroes.) Set once upon a time in seventeenth-century France, the movie's got Mickey, Donald, and Goofy as misfit musketeers trying to protect Princess Minnie while the duplicitous Captain Pete plots to become king.
The film is fast-paced and cartoony, with lots of gags to keep kids' attention. There's swashbuckling action and some peril, but the henchmen are as hapless as the heroes in this cartoon, so it's entirely kid-friendly stuff.
The music is conspicuously recycled from old classical tunes and other pre-existing (public domain?) songs, including several straight-up Gilbert & Sullivan songs in the climactic scene at the opera house ("Pirates of Penzance"). It seems like a cost-cutting measure for a direct-to-video release. As this movie is clearly aimed at children, one wonders how many of them would realize that the songs are set to famous classical tunes. (And does that matter?) Maybe this will be their first time hearing the music, and they'll forever afterward think of these lyrics. But on the other hand, maybe it's a fun way to expose young audiences to classical music for the first time.
There's an air of postmodernism about the way the film handles Disney's classic cartoon gang, to freshen them up for today's kids. For example, while scribbling "Mickey Minnie Mouse" in her diary, a lovestruck Minnie realizes that she and Mickey have the same last name. (It's fate!) And, in another scene, Mickey confesses that he doesn't understand a word that Donald says. There's even a scene with Minnie and Daisy eating fast food in the royal carriage.
As the three unlikely musketeers, Mickey is "too small", Donald is "too cowardly", and Goofy is "too dumb". Mickey, primarily a corporate mascot at this point in his career, is bland, bland, bland. Scaredy-cat Donald and idiot Goofy are marginally more interesting, but Pete steals the show as the fourth-wall-breaking villain. Daisy Duck is given a modernized edge as dreamer Minnie's wise and more pragmatic lady-in-waiting. Clarabelle is a henchwoman, for some reason (probably just lucky to be included), but she's got personality and is fun to watch. A French-accented turtle acts as singing narrator throughout the story, and is annoying.
While it's encouraging to see Disney put its classic characters to use, this particular film is rather limp. The breakneck comedy seems designed to entertain antsy children, and it may well do so, but for more seasoned audiences, the gags fall flat and the "all for one" story is not very compelling.
