Disney Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Choo-Choo Express

As the father of twin three year olds who are enamored with the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse series, this DVD seemed like a reasonable gift. The number of repeat viewings at our house has outnumbered those for Mom or Dad's DVDs, so I feel qualified to write a review.

PROS

The quality of the episodes shares the same strengths of the series in general. Bright, colorful computer generated graphics are used in conjunction with simple plots. Mickey and his friends are friendly, interesting characters that our little guys have enjoyed since their twos. There are a few bouncy songs, but adults probably won't find them cloying or otherwise Barney-esque.

The main feature obviously focuses on Mickey's train, which is a natural theme for toddlers. It seems to be a holiday-themed episode, given the presence of snow and cameos by two icons of the Christmas season. The main feature runs at twice the length of a typical episode. It is accompanied by an extra, unrelated episode featuring "Willy the Giant".

And speaking of big people, there is a new song from They Might Be Giants -- always a plus!

CONS

While the production values match the high quality of the rest of the series, this particular DVD entry is not as inspired as some of the others. Disney may describe this is a full length feature, but in reality it is two episodes strung together featuring Mickey's train. The "bonus" third episode has no connection to the main story, and could have been randomly selected from previously aired episodes.

As far as the value offered by this DVD, this does not measure up to previously-released discs from the series: Disney DVDs are not cheap, and this one does not offer as much bang for the buck. Some of the previous discs have offered four episodes from the series. At least one other disc also presented the "double episode plus one bonus episode" format, but presented a bonus episode that was a brand-new unaired episode, rather than one that regular viewers had probably seen already. The product gives a vibe of having been rushed to be put together for store shelves (virtual or otherwise) in time for Christmas.

Disney excels in marketing, and this episode seems a little more commercial than others. Specifically, the "Choo Choo Express" is also being sold as a toy train set.

SUMMARY

All said, my kids probably could care less about anything I've listed as a Con. They enjoyed the episode, and as I mentioned, they have requested multiple replays. My advice: if you want to buy only one or two "Clubhouse" DVDs, check out other entries before this one. Rather, go to the "Big Splash" or "Storybook Surprises" for more episodes per disc (four episodes each) or the "Adventures in Wonderland" (very creative and a more cohesive story).

The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse has changed a lot since I first saw it years ago. Mickey and his pals, Minnie Mouse, Donald and Daisy Duck, Goofy and Pluto are in their own half hour cartoon to teach young children colors, alphabet, numbers, shapes, cooperation, friendship and more. The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Choo Choo Express was a special episode of the show and was an hour long instead of the usual half hour.

The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Choo Choo Express episode started with Professor Ludwig Von Drake coming to the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse to talk to the gang about snow. The Professor loves snow but hates that it melts when it gets hot. So the Professor is going to go to Mistletoe Mountain to experiment and make snow that does not melt when it is hot so that everyone can play in the snow anytime they want. Before the Professor leaves though, he says he doesn't know how he will get all the snow back to the clubhouse; he needs a train. So out comes a picture of the Mickey Mouse Choo Choo Express train that Mickey and the gang need to search for so they can bring it out to Mistletoe Mountain to bring back the special snow to play in. Off the Professor goes to Mistletoe Mountain while Mickey and the gang get the Choo Choo Express train out of storage and ride in it on their way to get all that lovely non-melting snow.

The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Choo Choo Express is led by a locomotive with Mickey Mouse as the engineer. Then comes the train cars that are each in a different shape and color; pink circle, yellow triangle, blue rectangle, green square caboose, then red heart, pink hexagon, blue diamond and eventually a yellow star. As they chug along, the railroad tracks come out of the "mouth" on the train locomotive in different colored sections. They have adventures and problems that kids have to help the Mickey Mouse gang solve with the help of special Mouse tools.

Once they get to Mistletoe Mountain, they pick up the special snow that Professor Von Drake created and take it back to the Clubhouse, then they must take the train and go pick up guests for their snow party. They chug along to pick up Clarabelle cow and her dog Bella, then Chip and Dale and finally a couple of mystery guests who turn out to be Santa and Mrs. Claus.

There is plenty of up-beat music and singing throughout the episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Choo Choo Express. I sat cuddled up with my four year old special needs grandson and we watched the episode and laughed and had a good time. He didn't want me to sing along with the songs though, guess he knows his grandma pretty well! At one point he broke out in hysterical laughter when Mickey Mouse skied down a mound of snow and snow flipped onto Donald Duck, making him look like a snowman Donald.

I would definitely recommend Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Choo Choo Express for any young children, mostly those under six years old. My four year old grandson loved it. He loves trains and the episode completely captured his attention. My eight year old grandson watched the episode from beginning to end but I didn't hear him say a lot about it and the ten year old wasn't into it at all.

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Choo-Choo Express

My 17 month old grandson loved this DVD. He loved the music, and the characters, especially Pete!