The Three Musketeers

Incredibly, The Three Musketeers marks Mickey Mouse's full-length (albeit short) feature film debut. Mickey costars with Donald Duck and Goofy as three lowly janitors in the court of Queen Minnie, working class stiffs who dream of defending the Queen's honor as brave Musketeers, but head guard Pete won't hear of it…until he realizes that by employing the bungling servants as Minnie's personal (and incompetent) security team, he will help further his own secret plan to dispose of the monarch. Needless to say, Pete underestimates the trio, whose resourcefulness saves the day amidst lots of slapstick comedy and songs with familiar melodic strains from the likes of Beethoven, Strauss, and Tchaikovsky. Sure to be popular, this direct-to-video effort from the House of Mouse is recommended. [Note: DVD extras include the 10-minute behind-the-scenes production featurette “Get the Scoop,” selected cast commentary (featuring “Mickey,” “Goofy,” “Donald,” and “Pete”), five minutes of deleted scenes “Off the Cutting Room Floor” with optional commentary by Disney executive Brian Snedeker, the music video “Three is a Magic Number” (by teen artists Stevie Brock, Greg Raposo, and Matthew Ballinger), seven “Disney's Song Selection” sing-along jump-to-song segments, the games “Opera-Toon-Ity” (putting together an opera) and “The Many Hats of Mickey” (with a selection of facts about and clips from Mickey's career), and trailers. Bottom line: a fine extras package for a fun Disney direct-to-video animated film.] (T. Keogh)[DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Review—Aug. 26, 2014—Walt Disney, 68 min., G, DVD: $19.99, Blu-ray/DVD Combo: $29.99—Making its latest appearance on DVD and Blu-ray debut, 2004's The Three Musketeers sports a fine transfer and a DTS-HD 5.1 soundtrack on Blu-ray. Extras carried over from the previous release include the behind-the-scenes featurette “Get the Scoop” (10 min.), select character commentary featuring “Mickey,” “Goofy,” “Donald,” and “Pete” (5 min.), deleted scenes with optional commentary (5 min.), and “Sing-Along Songs” and a sing-along track option. New to this “10th Anniversary Edition” is a “Get Up and Dance!” dance-along song (2 min.), trailers, and (on the Blu-ray edition) bonus DVD and digital copies of the film. Bottom line: this reasonably entertaining Disney direct-to-video title shins on Blu-ray.]