Rating:
It’s called Once Upon a Christmas but for the price of admission you get three separate cartoons featuring beloved Disney characters. Plus linking narration by battered husband Kelsey Grammer.

Now that’s what I call a Christmas bonus!

DONALD DUCK: STUCK ON CHRISTMAS

Despite what that title would have you believe, it’s actually Donald’s nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie who are stuck on Christmas. If Christmas is like Groundhog Day, Huey, Dewey and Louie are like a feathery, three-headed Bill Murray.

Yes, the three ducklings make a wish that it could be Christmas every day and hey! presto! their wish is granted.

As Tom Petty warned, it’s Christmas all over again. And again and again and again. First the boys are thrilled by this development. Then they grow weary of the unceasing sameness. Then they realize that they can get up to all manner of ducky didoes without fear of reprisal and they take full advantage of that situation.

But then, as you’d expect, they learn some Important Lessons. Their continual exposure to Christmas teaches them to eschew their selfish ways, that it’s better to give than receive and the true meaning of Christmas is love and all that.

The other moral imparted to Huey, Dewey and Louie is that if Christmas came every single day it wouldn’t be so special. That’s just crazy. Christmas every day would be awesome.

A VERY GOOFY CHRISTMAS

This slapstick adventure deals with Goofy’s son Max and his crisis of faith. Max isn’t sure he believes in the one person that the holy season of Christmas is really all about: Santa Claus.

Spoiler! Santa eventually shows up! Hooray!

MICKEY AND MINNIE’S GIFT OF THE MAGI

O. Henry’s “Gift of the Magi” happens, but to Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

Mickey’s a harmonica player who wants to buy Minnie a watch chain; Minnie’s a lady with a nice watch who wants to buy Mickey a case for his harmonica. Things proceed from there to their inevitable conclusion.

So that’s what goes down in Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas. It’s not that great, but it doesn’t hurt your feelings or anything (except perhaps by the disturbing inclusion of a family of ducks eating a turkey for dinner). The movie was created as a direct-to-video item, so the animation doesn’t exactly blow you away, but it’s of the same cut-above quality of the old Disney Afternoon cartoons, so that’s good.

The first two cartoons left me a little flat—neither good nor bad but mostly just there—but the third is what earns this movie its three stars. O. Henry’s story is a classic for a reason: It’s a can’t-miss. Positioned as it is at the end of the feature, “Mickey and Minnie’s Gift of the Magi” and the sweetness it delivers leaves you feeling good when the credits roll.

Sometimes that’s all you need.

If You Hated This, You Will Also Totally Hate:

• Mickey’s Christmas Carol
• A Chipmunk Christmas
• The Sorcerer’s Apprentice Can’t Be a Good Idea
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)