Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers

Mickey, Donald, Goofy:
The Three Musketeers
Directed by Donovan Cook
Produced by Margot Pipkin
Screenplay by
Based on
Starring
Music by Bruce Broughton
Edited by Bret Marnell
Production
company
Distributed by Walt Disney Home Entertainment[1]
Release date
  • August 17, 2004 (2004-08-17)
Running time
 67 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers is an American direct-to-video animated family musical action comedy based on original characters of Mickey Mouse universe from Mickey Mouse by Walt Disney and film adaptations of the novel The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, père. As the title suggests, it features Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy as the three musketeers. This film was directed by Donovan Cook, produced by Walt Disney Pictures and the Australian office of DisneyToon Studios. It was released directly to VHS and DVD on August 17, 2004 by Walt Disney Home Entertainment, and was later re-released on Blu-ray Disc on August 12, 2014, coinciding with the film's 10th anniversary.

The film was animated by Toon City Animation, Inc., Manila, Philippines, and Walt Disney Animation Australia as DisneyToon Studios Sydney, Australia.

Plot

The story begins with Troubadour, a French accented turtle who loves songs, backstage of a show trying to remind the narrator that he promised to use one of Troubadour's songs. The narrator ignores the turtle and breaks his promise, but accidentally falls through a trapdoor just as the show is about to begin. Consequently, Troubadour is ushered to tell the audience the story at the last minute. Panicking, Troubadour quickly picks up The Three Musketeers storybook and begins reading.

Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, and Mickey's dog Pluto are street urchins, who, while being robbed by masked bandits (played by the Beagle Boys) are saved by the Royal Musketeers, Athos, Aramis, Porthos and D'Artagnan. Mickey is gifted one of their hats, inspiring them to follow their example and become musketeers; however, in the present day, Mickey, Donald and Goofy are lowly janitors for the musketeers' headquarters and their dream was still far away. Unfortunately, they are very clumsy and constantly cause messes. After an incident disturbs the captain of the musketeers, portrayed by Pete, he tells the trio that they cannot become musketeers because Donald is a "coward", Goofy a "doofus" and Mickey "just too small", leaving the three downhearted.

Meanwhile, Minnie Mouse, princess of France and her lady-in-waiting, Daisy Duck, are in a palace discussing Minnie's obsession with finding her "one true love". Daisy says that she must marry someone who is of royal blood, and Minnie insists that she cannot marry someone she does not love. Minnie says she will know "the one" when he makes her laugh. Minnie then takes a walk in the palace garden and barely survives an attempt on her life as the Beagle Boys attempt to drop a safe on her.

The Beagle Boys run to tell their boss, revealed to be Captain Pete, that they were not successful in dropping the safe on Minnie. In response, Pete clobbers them for misunderstanding his orders, saying he wanted them to "keep her safe" until he can take over the kingdom. The Beagle Boys are misunderstood and are punished by Pete's lieutenant "Clarebelle". Pete is then summoned by princess Minnie, who demands he produce musketeer bodyguards. Realizing that skilled musketeers will jeopardize his plan to overthrow the princess, Pete quickly goes to the janitor room and tells Mickey, Donald and Goofy that they passed his test and have what it takes to become musketeers, knowing that will be easy to get rid of. After meeting each other and attacking Daisy by mistake, Minnie falls in love with Mickey and feels safe at the hands of his bravery. Pete gives a chance to the Beagle Boys to kidnap Minnie and Daisy, so he can become King tomorrow when he is announced at the Opera.

While Minnie and Daisy are protected by Mickey, Donald and Goofy, who all go on a journey in a carriage, they are all ambushed by the Beagle Boys who attack and fight, Mickey, Donald and Goofy. Donald hides while Minnie and Daisy persuade him to fight back and Goofy is easily defeated, who is thrown off the carriage leaving Mickey and Donald to fight the intruders. Mickey is also defeated and thrown off, leaving Donald to fight but he is too scared and throws himself off. The three heroes are stranded, but Mickey encourages his friends not to lose hope when Pete made them become musketeers. The trio rush to rescue Minnie and Daisy in an abandoned remote tower. Mickey and Goofy manage to save Minnie and Daisy where the Beagle Boys are keeping them and were able to fight them off, thanks to Goofy's quick thinking but Donald hides. As the Beagle Boys have been beaten, Donald reconciles with the group and declares victory. Afterwards, Mickey manages to untie Minnie, which he makes her laugh and the two mice fall in love and spend time alone with each other.

Pete is furious that the Beagle Boys failed in their task and realizes that the three protagonists are more of a threat than he originally anticipated. He then plans to get rid of them one by one. While on night duty, Goofy is lured away from the palace by Clarabelle, who uses a shadow puppet of Mickey, using her hands which makes Goofy follow the shadow (after hearing about peanut butter). The shadow then vanishes in which Goofy is cornered, subdued and kidnapped by Clarebelle. The Beagle Boys appear before Donald and attack him, scaring him into hiding, before Pete traps him and puts Donald to the guillotine, right in his secret layer where Donald discovers the plan that Pete will become King and trap Minnie somewhere, where she will be hidden and that soon, Donald and his friends will be killed and not able to rescue Minnie. At that moment, Donald escapes at the last second, causing Pete to lose his peg leg as he dove under the guillotine's blade to try to prevent his escape.

Pluto finds out that Goofy and Donald are missing and bumps into Mickey to warn him. Donald returns to the castle and tells the whole story to Mickey in which they have got to go and quits becoming a musketeer, claiming "it's every man for himself". Mickey convinces that they could stop Pete from kidnapping Minnie, but Donald reveals he was hiding when they were fighting the Beagle Boys. Mickey gives him advice that he will be on his side and that when he went to warn him, it took courage. As he persuades Donald to stay, Donald refuses and apologises, before running off in fear and leaves the palace, leaving Mickey and Pluto behind. Mickey is then captured by Pete, but Pluto isn't able to save Mickey. Pete chains him up in a dungeon in Mont Saint-Michel that will flood when the tide comes in.

Goofy is meanwhile chained by Clarabelle and is about to be thrown off a bridge over a river to drown, but Goofy falls in love with Clarabelle and wins her heart with his "numbskull charm". As Clarabelle tries to change her ambitions to evil, she changes her behaviour and reveals Pete's true intentions and that Mickey is in danger. The bridge crumbles and Goofy and Clarabelle fall to the river below. Donald, who is rowing across the river to escape France, breaks their fall. The tide arrives, where Mickey is about to drown. Goofy fails to convince Donald to help him save Mickey, but thanks to a ridiculing song from Troubadour, the duo save Mickey in time before he drowns. After reconciling with each other, they set off to rescue Minnie and Daisy.

Minnie and Daisy are captured in a theater and locked in a chest by the Beagle Boys, in which one of them impersonate Minnie, announcing to the public that the control is now being handed over to "King Pete the Magnificent". Pete is happy to become the King and the Opera begins. Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Pluto arrive and battle Pete and the Beagle Boys onstage, finally defeating the Beagle Boys first.

Pete then challenges Mickey into a final sword fight but after Mickey flings Pete's sword, he is punched by Pete, easily beaten but Donald and Goofy help him and stand up for Mickey after crashing downstage. The trio defeat Pete by beating him up and Pete is knocked unconscious. The trio save Daisy and Minnie, right in front of the audience. Clarebelle arrives, reuniting with Goofy as Mickey and Minnie finally declare their love for one another, as the others do the same: Donald and Daisy, Goofy and Clarebelle. At the end, Minnie dubs Mickey, Donald and Goofy as royal musketeers. Troubadour announces that this was the day where the three heroes have made their dream come true. Mickey, Donald, Goofy and the rest of the musketeers of France sing the final song "All For One and One For All" at the end of the film.

Voice cast

Production

An adaptation of Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers, with Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy as the Musketeers; was planned during the 1980s at Walt Disney Animation Studios. In 1983, storyboard artists Steve Hulett and Pete Young developed the project with Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, and José Carioca as the Musketeers, but it fell into development hell.[3] In 2002, in honor of Mickey Mouse's 75th anniversary, it was announced that a featurette entitled The Search of Mickey Mouse was in development. The project was about Mickey who gets kidnapped by unknown forces, forcing Minnie Mouse to enlist Basil of Baker Street to investigate his disappearance, and later encounters one character from Disney's animated film canon such as Alice, Peter Pan, Robin Hood, and Aladdin.[4] However, the project suffered script problems with the multiple cameos being thought to be too gimmicky.[5] After the cancellation of the latter project it was announced that a feature film based on The Three Musketeers with Mickey, Donald, and Goofy in the lead roles was in development, meaning that Hulett's and Young's project had been revived. However, the film didn't include José Carioca like in the early development.

Reception

Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers holds a rating of 36% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 11 reviews.[6]

Release

The film was first released on DVD and VHS on August 17, 2004.[1][7] For the film's 10th anniversary, it was released on Blu-Ray on August 12, 2014.[2]

Video games

A world named Country of the Musketeers based on the movie appears in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance.[8][9] This is the first time a world in the series has originated from a direct-to-video feature.[10] Like the Timeless River world in Kingdom Hearts II, it is featured as a period of Mickey Mouse's past. All the characters except Daisy, The Troubadour and Clarabelle appear.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for the film, titled Mickey, Donald & Goofy: The Three Musketeers, was released on August 10, 2004, by Walt Disney Records.[7] In addition to seven classical songs reinterpreted with new comedic lyrics,[11] it also features a song "Three Is a Magic Number" by Stevie Brock, Gregory Raposo and Matt Ballinger.[7]

  1. "All For One and One For All ("Can Can")" – Troubadour and the Musketeer Chorus
  2. "Love So Lovely ("Dance of the Reed Flutes" from The Nutcracker, and "Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture" from Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet)" – Troubadour and The "Lovely" Chorus
  3. "Petey's King of France ("In the Hall of the Mountain King")" – Peg Leg Pete
  4. "Sweet Wings of Love ("Blue Danube") – Troubadour and Butterfly Chorus
  5. "Chains of Love ("Habanera" from Carmen)" – Goofy, Clarabelle, and Cow Chorus
  6. "This Is The End (Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5")" – Troubadour and Chorus
  7. "L'Opera" (excerpts from "The Pirates of Penzance") – Modern Major General and Chorus of Pirates and Maidens
  8. "Three Is a Magic Number" – Stevie Brock, Gregory Raposo and Matt Ballinger

In 2018, "Mickey, Donald and Goofy: The Three Musketeers" became the first direct-to-video Disney film to have its full musical score, released on CD by Intrada Records. Like the original album, Intrada's release includes all the songs from the movie, though in this release, most of them are put together with the respective pieces of Bruce Broughton's background music that leads up to them. Some of the music cues include pieces of the score that ultimately went unused in the movie. The "Three is a Magic Number" cover is also omitted this time.

References

  1. 1 2 Desowitz, Bill (August 17, 2004). "Mickey, Donald and Goofy Become Three Musketeers on DVD". Animation World Network. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Wolfe, Jennifer (August 12, 2014). "Five Disney Classics Now Available on Blu-ray". Animation World Network. Retrieved May 22, 2015.
  3. ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/1984/08/27/movies/animation-again-a-priority-at-disney.html
  4. ↑ Harrison, Mark (March 5, 2014). "6 Fascinating Movies From Disney Animation That Never Were". Den of Geek. Dennis Publishing. Retrieved March 7, 2014.
  5. ↑ Hill, Jim (December 19, 2002). "Why For?". Jim Hill Media. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers (2004)", Rotten Tomatoes, retrieved April 4, 2015
  7. 1 2 3 Walt Disney Records (August 3, 2004). "Walt Disney Records' Summer Soundtrack to ``Mickey -- Donald -- Goofy: The Three Musketeers is All for Fun and Fun for All". Business Wire. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
  8. ↑ MODOJO (January 11, 2012). "Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance (3DS) Preview". Business Insider Australia. Retrieved August 21, 2016.
  9. ↑ Square Enix (July 31, 2012). "KINGDOM HEARTS 3D (Dream Drop Distance) Dives Into Retailers Today" (Press release). PR Newswire. Retrieved August 21, 2016.
  10. ↑ Diener, Matthew (May 23, 2012). "Newly released Kingdom Hearts 3D (Dream Drop Distance) screenshots highlight two new game worlds". Pocket Gamer. Archived from the original on May 25, 2012. Retrieved August 21, 2016.
  11. ↑ Ehrbar, Greg (August 20, 2014). "Interview: Director Donovan Cook on "Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers"". Animation Scoop. Retrieved May 22, 2015.
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