Movie Review: Spirit of Mickey

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: The shorts here are classic.

Cons: It's VHS.

The Bottom Line: 

Classic Mickey shorts

Eleven of them, in fact

But on VHS?????

Outdated Technology, but the Contents of this Tape are Great

In the days before DVD, Disney released only a few sets of cartoons featuring their classic characters. Many were released early on and featured different characters as their star. Spirit of Mickey came years later and features the original, Mickey Mouse.

This is a great collection of Mickey cartoons. The titles include, "Band Concert" (the first color cartoon), "Thru the Mirror," Oscar winner "Lend a Paw," "Orphan's Picnic," "The Worm Turns," "Mickey's Surprise Party," "Mickey and the Seal," "Mickey's Trailer," "Canine Caddy," "Mr. Mouse Takes a Trip," and the original: "Steamboat Willie."

I enjoy this collection; it's great to see so many of the studios best work collected in one place. The title is a little misleading, because Donald and Pluto star is a couple of these. I especially enjoy "Band Concert," because it's so funny to watch, "Thru the Mirror," and "Steamboat Willie." One thing that's interesting to me is that so many of the early cartoons had a music soundtrack with little dialogue. The sound could have been cleaned up a bit on a couple of these, especially "Thru the Mirror." And I would have really liked to have had dates included with the titles at the beginning. Still, it's a solid collection of some of Disney's classic short subjects.

Of course, several things date this release now.  First, there's the fact that it a VHS tape.  How many people even have one of those that works any more?  Additionally, all these titles were part of the Disney Treasures limited edition DVD releases that Disney released for a number of years.  Really, there is little need to track Spirit of Mickey down.