Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Celebrating Mickey Blu-ray Movie Review

13 for 90.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman November 5, 2018

With 'Celebrating Mickey,' Disney has assembled a collection of 13 classic shorts featuring the company's marquee mascot, Mickey Mouse, in celebration of his 90th anniversary. The shorts date back to the vintage classic 'Steamboat Willie' which introduced Mickey to the world. The shorts feature several familiar faces, including Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Pluto, and Goofy. Most are vintage, and only 'Get a Horse!' hails from the modern era.

Below are brief recaps of the 13 episodes included in this collection.

Steamboat Willie (7:35)
Mickey is happily piloting a steamship but is replaced by the real captain, Pete. As Mickey performs his more mundane chores -- loading a too-skinny cow onto the ship; reeling in Minnie, who failed to reach the boat before leaving the pier; and dealing with a suddenly musical goat -- he begins to enjoy himself a little too much, which ultimately lands him in hot water with Pete and forced to peel potatoes as punishment.

The Band Concert (9:18)
Mickey is conducting a symphony performing numbers from William Tell. Unfortunately, Donald Duck, otherwise a mere snack vendor, interferes with the proceedings, gumming up the works by attempting to add his own flavor to the show and disrupting Mickey's careful orchestration. That only infuriates the mouse as his band struggles to maintain discipline and Mickey struggles to maintain composure. Ultimately, Mickey is forced to keep his cool when Mother Nature attempts to put the final nail in the coffin of his conducting day.

Thru the Mirror (8:49)
Mickey has fallen asleep while reading Lewis Carroll's Alice Through the Looking Glass. In a dream state, the mouse finds himself in an alternate world, much like that depicted in the story, where various items from around his house come to life.

Mickey's Rival (8:19)
Mickey and Minnie are set to enjoy a picnic together, alone with their love, but Mortimer Mouse crashes the party of two. Mickey reluctantly shakes his hand but quickly finds Mortimer to be a bully. The picnic goes on, with Mickey more than a little irritated at the uninvited guest's presence. When yet another uninvited guest crashes the party -- an angry bull -- an already bad day only gets worse.

Boat Builders (7:18)
Mickey, Goofy, and Donald are building their own boat from prefabricated components packed in wooden crates. Things go awry right away. Instructions are poorly written and badly illustrative and the trio often winds up hurt or tossed about. Nevertheless, progress is slowly made, even as boards refuse to nail down, paint proves difficult to apply, and Goofy mistakes the Figurehead for real mermaid. Can this ship-in-a-box sail?

Mickey's Trailer (7:44)
Mickey's house is actually a trailer home that Goofy pulls along with his car. Inside, Mickey cooks up a tasty meal and Donald fights the alarm clock, signaling his wake-up time. With the food prepared, Mickey and Donald enjoy while Goofy struggles to get a belly's full -- but who's driving the car?

Brave Little Tailor (8:57)
In Medieval times, Mickey is a simple tailor whose tale of prodigious fly swatting is confused real giant-slaying. He is chosen to take on a fearsome opponent terrorizing the land. The king presses Mickey into service, offering him large sums of money, and the hand of the princesses, Minnie, to take on the giant. Encouraged by the opportunity to be with the beautiful lady, Mickey ventures off to slay the giant but quickly realizes he is out of his league.

Tugboat Mickey (7:18)
Mickey, who captains a tugboat, receives an S.O.S. that a ship has run aground on a rocky reef and is in need of immediate assistance. Of course it's an adventure just getting his ship to sail with characters like Goofy and Donald Duck working below decks, and with their skills (or lack thereof) in ship's operations, it might be they that wind up needing rescuing.

The Little Whirlwind (8:31)
Mickey is drawn to Minnie's freshly baked cake, which is giving off a spectacular aroma. But he cannot have any, at least not without working for it. He agrees to do Minnie's yard work but is quickly bothered by a small twister that refuses to allow him to finish the job.

Mickey's Birthday Party (7:50)
It's Mickey's birthday. Minnie has invited several friends for a surprise party. Mickey is given an organ. He's not a very good player, but he proves to be an accomplished dancer when Minnie sits in front of the keys to play a few tunes. Meanwhile, Goofy has ben left in charge of baking the birthday cake. Big mistake!

Pluto's Party (6:27)
It's Pluto's birthday, and he desperately wants to eat his cake. But there's one delay after another: a bath, waiting on guests, and a game of "pin the tail." Can the pup get his just desserts?

The Simple Things (7:01)
Mickey and Pluto are headed out for a day of fishing and picnicking, but the local wildlife isn't making things easy on the pair's plans for a relaxing time on the shore.

Get a Horse! (5:59)
Mickey is thrown out of an old black-and-white cartoon into the modern, color, digital, widescreen world and uses today's tools to rescue Minnie from peril in the black-and-white film. This film was obviously intended to be seen in 3-D and is available in 3-D on the region free UK Frozen 3-D release.

Celebrating Mickey Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Steamboat Willie begins with some severe wobble, some obvious scratches, uneven lines, and flickering, but the image is crisp and clarity is quite good. The short to follow, The Band Concert, is nothing short of gorgeous. Grain is beautifully even and light. Lines are crisp, clarity is stellar, colors are rich and many. Thru the Mirror lacks that real, polished, filmic appearance of the previous short, but is still a joy of high yield clarity and color. Certainly a little source wear remains in places, but the image looks good and sturdy for the duration. Other episodes to follow are absolutely splendid. The Little Whirlwind is a near best case scenario for a vintage animation, and most every short follows the trend of spectacular clarity, light grain, and bold color. The image opens to a widescreen presentation for Get a Horse!. Technical merits are fine, but it's startling how little character the digital animation has in comparison to the lovingly handmade shorts that precede it.

Celebrating Mickey Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Celebrating Mickey predominantly features a Dolby Digital 2.0 sound presentation. Steamboat Willie's shrilly music, low volume, and center-imaged sound elements do little beyond crudely supporting the show. As the shows progress, beginning with The Band Concert, the improvements in audio definition become apparent. That show remains mostly center-focused, but even as music maintains a bit of scratchiness, the add to body and definition, as well as slight range, are apparent. Improvements to clarity continue with Thru the Mirror and beyond. A few episodes, at least by modern standards, seem a little too restrained; moments that would have benefitted from more substantial audio become apparent, like opportunities for zipping and crashing surround usage in Mickey's Trailer or the giant's footfalls in Brave Little Tailor. But regardless, after Willie, musical and vocal clarity are generally fine, even if there's very little stretch beyond the imaged middle portion of the stage. The track opens up to a 5.1 presentation for the final short, Get a Horse!, and offers more musical width and some surround depth and movement meant to compliment the 3-D visuals but that are still effective in support of the, here, 2-D image.

Celebrating Mickey Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Celebrating Mickey contains no extras. A DVD copy of the program and Movies Anywhere digital copy code are included with purchase. The release ships with an embossed slipcover.

Celebrating Mickey Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Celebrating Mickey's 13 carton collection is a treasure of vintage Disney goodness sure to charm repeat viewers and delight newcomers. The collection is disappointingly devoid of extra content; commentaries or explorations of the character's history would have been welcome, but the animations do stand on their own. Video is quite good and audio is fine under the constraints. Recommended.