Create Your Own Ultimate Disney Christmas Playlist

Disney didn't release a new character Christmas album this year, but 2012's Jingle Bell Fun was so entertaining, it deserves another winter in the spotlight. Plus, this is a great year to revisit Disney Christmas albums from the past and add some gems to your music player.

Looking over what's available to purchase digitally from iTunes and Amazon MP3, it's easy to create a fantastic Disney Christmas playlist. Here are Mouse Troop's picks for the best of the best, but we encourage you to sample all the available tracks and make your own personal Disney Musical Winter Holiday Extravaganza!

Netflix Delivers a Holiday Mouse-Fest

I wasn't planning on another Netflix post so soon, but the service has just added a quartet of Mouse Flix, all direct-to-video productions, to their instant streaming service.

The highlight of the bunch is the wonderful, hilarious and very under-appreciated  Three Musketeers, which places the Disney Fab Five in a fast-paced, fan-pleasing feature-length send-up of the classic tale. In-jokes, great animation and unique character moments abound, plus Pete gets his peg leg back! If you haven't caught this beauty, you're in for a treat. This could have (and should have) been a theatrical release.

Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas is a trio of well-done tales. In the first, Huey, Dewey and Louie wish every day was Christmas and soon realize not all wishes should be granted. The second finds Goofy trying to give young Max a perfect Christmas in spite of a belief crisis. In the finale, Mickey and Minnie play out their own version of Gift of the Magi. Watch for Mortimer Mouse and an animated version of Firehouse Five Plus Two!

I'd love to see the entire run of the wonderful House of Mouse series show up on Netflix someday. In the meantime, the two compilation specials, Snowed In at the House of Mouse and Mickey's House of Villains will do. Both combine new animation with classic clips to create entertaining hour-long Disney mash-ups.

Gather the family, cook up some Mickey pasta and settle back for a good time. What a great way to start the Holiday video season!

Review: The Mouse Goes Mobile in Where's My Mickey?

This could be a case where I enjoy a game more than the TV source it's based on. Aside from the fresh, fun art style, I'm not a big fan of what I've seen so far of the new Mickey Mouse cartoons coming to the Disney Channel. I'm hoping future installments are more charming and less mean-spirited, because I love the new visual approach.

 

Those snappy character designs and art direction have been incorporated into the mostly-excellent mobile game Where's My Mickey? now available for iPhone and Android. Despite one very inappropriate, unfunny, nasty and out-of-character sight gag in one of the game's chapters (more on that later), this is a fun, clever upgrade of the popular Where's My Water? series--which was top-notch to begin with

Memories HD Review: Best Free Disney App Ever

Memories HD, a free App now available for iPhone and Android, creates a brilliant win-win situation: The Disney Parks get free publicity and fans get to have a blast.

The Matterhorn's a Movie Star

The Award for Best Performance by a Theme Park Attraction in a 90's Tom Hanks Movie goes to....Matterhorn Bobsleds in That Thing You Do!

Written and directed by Hanks, the joyous, light-on-its-feet 1996 musical comedy follows the stunningly brief career of The Wonders, a fictional small town pop group who form, rise to stardom, and dissolve all in the course of a single amazing summer in 1964. The film stars Hanks (as the manager), Tom Everett Scott, Liv Tyler, and the world's first tubular steel roller coaster.

Okay, the Matterhorn only gets one scene--But it's a great one! It involves the band's unnamed (even in the credits!) Bass Player who enlisted in the Marines right before the group's record became a hit and who wants to see Disneyland more than anything. Toward the end of the film, he fails to show up for a live television broadcast in Los Angeles. Hanks and the rest of the band are frantic. "Where IS he ???"

The camera CUTS TO the answer:

Now, of course, Disney geeks know the Matterhorn had a different style of bobsled (and single sleds, not tandem) running on the ride in the 60's. But Hanks & crew went to the trouble of repainting the on-camera bobsleds to match a recognizable color scheme from that era of the ride's history. It's a great nod toward accuracy.

If you haven't seen the film, give it a go if you're in the mood for a great, breezy, fun flick full of enjoyable songs and one of Liv Tyler's most powerful scenes ever. If you actually grew up in the 60's, it'll make your jaw drop open at some of the period touches it gets just right: I do remember buying phonograph needles at the local mom n' pop appliance store!

Keep an eye out for the next Tom Hanks/60's Disneyland movie pairing as Hanks plays Walt Disney in the upcoming Saving Mr. Banks!

Too Early For New Disney Christmas Music? Nah!

It's not even Halloween yet, and I'm posting about Christmas; what am I, Target? Okay, I'm fairly certain I'm not the only Disney fan who starts updating their Holiday playlists early as the new Christmas albums start appearing, right?  Anyone?

Disney Christmas albums are often hit & miss. This one's good -- Really, really good. Starting with the best cover art I've ever seen on a Disney Christmas release, Disney Jingle Bell Fun hits all the right...er....notes by balancing sentiment, humor and great performances into one satisfying album.

Keeping the pattern of past Disney Christmas albums, this one's half character-performed songs and half more "mainstream" contributions -- this time by Randy Crenshaw and Hailey Markman. Crenshaw and Markman's tracks are top-notch, but -- let's be honest -- we wanna hear the characters sing.

This time, around, the Fab Five Plus Daisy are in fine form, bringing comic charm to:

Santa Claus is Coming to Town (Goofy does a guitar solo & Donald forgot to buy Daisy anything)
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Goofy & Donald doing the call-and-response version)
Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow! (Donald & Daisy)
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas (Mickey & Minnie)

But the surprise, awesome shocker of this collection is the piano-lounge crooner version of "Toyland" sung by Goofy, completely in character, completely serious, and so touching and perfect that his "shooby-dooby-doos" halfway through don't sound ridiculous. Bill Farmer deserves a standing ovation and a Grammy Award for this one.

I definitely recommend Disney Jingle Bell Fun -- Possibly the best Disney Christmas album yet.

It's available on iTunes (http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/disney-jingle-bell-fun/id562275405?uo=4),  Amazon Mp3 and CD.

Goofy Greetings at the Paradise Pier Hotel

When entering the Paradise Pier Hotel, you can't miss this wonderful statue of Surfer Goofy. It's the only major Disney character reference in sight, but it's enough to get the point across. The Goof looks comically surreal in the otherwise bright-but-businesslike seaside resort-themed lobby.

Of course, you won't be doing any actual surfing at the resort, but the hotel pool features a fun coaster-themed water slide.

Goofy Vs. Fountains: Classic Humor at Paradise Pier

On the shores of Paradise Bay, Goofy has been delighting summer guests at Disney California Adventure with a series of quick, funny shows pairing him up with the World of Color fountains. Instant Concert!...Just Add Water is designed to delight all ages, but older fans who've grown up on the classic Goofy cartoons will most appreciate the familiar-sounding narrator who introduces "Maestro Goofy" at the start of each brief show.

True to form, things don't proceed quite as smoothly as the narrator would have us believe as Goofy finds his mechanical, water-spewing "orchestra" to be a bit temperamental.

It's great to see the impressive fountains put to daytime work in such a bright, breezy, light-hearted show, and even better to see Goofy featured so prominently in the day's entertainment. Slowly but surely, classic Disney cartoon references are bringing light-hearted old-time charm to Disney California Adventure. It began with the Silly Symphony Swings and Goofy's Sky School, and now continues through all of Buena Vista Street with nods to everyone from Oswald the Lucky Rabbit to Clarabelle Cow. Instant Concert!...Just Add Water is a welcome and high-spirited blast of classic Disney fun. I hope it's just the beginning of a continuing series with the Goof!