"I do love knitting patterns."

So yeah, I missed "All Dogs Go To Heaven" last week, and I sincerely apologize for that. For that, I will have one xtra week for Christmas/Winter movies. How's that?

Also, please think of some Christmas/Winter movies that I should review here. Kay?

In case you have no clue what Mickey's House of Mouse is, here's the basic info: Minnie owns a sort of nightclub for Disney characters only, and Mickey is the host. Goofy is the head waiter, Donald is the maitre'd, Daisy is the...secretary...and Max is the valet. They show cartoons, all pertaining to the plot. For example, one show was about Max wanting to get his driver's liscense, so there were cartoons about cars. Mickey's House of Mouse spawned two direct-to-VHS/DVD specials, called Snowed in at the House of Mouse, and the Halloween special, Mickey's House of Villains.

It's Halloween night, and all the villains have turned up for some fun. But they're not doing their usual House of Mouse fun, where they drink, crack jokes, and Gaston talks about how great he is. Jafar creates a plan to take-over the House of Mouse, only letting villains in.

As cartoons play, the villains start scheming, with Minnie a little suspicious, and Mickey none the wiser. Meanwhile, Donald is trying to scare somebody. Just anybody.

At midnight, Ursula grabs Minnie, Cruella grabs the lights, as the villains sing about how they want a cool place to hang out just for villains. They release bats, chase their foes out, change the sign to read "House of Villains", and change the color scheme of the place. All within 2 minutes. Damn, are those villains good.

The gang try many attempts to get the place back, but keep failing, while the villains show cartoons where Mickey, Minnie, and Donald are scared shitless, and nearly die.

They go for one last round of beating the villains where Mickey...re-enacts Fantasia? When that seems to be failing, Aladdin comes into helps out. Sort of. Watch the anti-climax here.

Overall, this was all right. I applaud the attempt to bring back the cartoons, and bring characters from Disney movies in. However, this special...there are some reall good cartoons ("How to Haunt a House", "Lonesome Ghosts") some weak ones "Mickey's Mechanical House") and some just plain weird ("Dance of the Goofys"). As for the plot. It is a clever idea, and the villains shine in the movie.

However, the climax is just sad. I mean, if all it took was that lamp, why didn't Aladdin just show up with the lamp while the villains were trying to take-over? Was he stuck in traffic? Was he doing something stupid with the Genie? And for that matter, what kind of OOC there, huh? Aladdin from his own canon would've handled that shit himself. But here, he's all "Mickey, use the lamp! I would do it myself, but I've got a haircut!"

This film recieves a C+. Could use some improvement in the climax, Could've chosen some better cartoons, but has some good parts.

Cartoons:
Trick or Treat (1952)
Mickey's Mechanical House (1999)
How to Haunt a House (1999)
Lonesome Ghosts (1937)
Dance of the Goofys (1999)
Donald Duck and the Gorilla (1944)
Donald's Halloween Scare (1999)
Hansel and Gretel (1999)

Song:
"It's Our House Now"