DVD Review: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse - Mickey's Big Splash

This week, Disney is releasing the fifth title in their Mickey Mouse Clubhouse series.  Entitled Mickey’s Big Splash, the DVD features four episodes of the series, three of which have aired previously on the Disney Channel.   As with the earlier release Mickey’s Storybook Surprises, the disc contains episodes which can be vaguely categorized on a single theme, in this case, summer fun. 

The three previously-aired episodes are “Pluto’s Bubble Bath,” “Mickey Goes Fishing,” and “Pete’s Bleach Blanket Luau.”  The first of these is quite possibly the most fun.  It features Pluto and Mickey each getting caught in soap bubbles as Mickey attempts to clean his friend in preparation for a “tea and biscuits and dog biscuits” party.   The bubbles carry the famous pair around as they sing and avoid various obstacles.  It’s just plain good fun, especially for the two- to five-year-olds the series is geared towards.

The new episode, “Donald’s Ducks” has sailor-suited duck guiding 10 ducklings to a beach.  The rest of the Clubhouse gang appears as well, and though fun, the episode is slightly odd in the it is Goofy who knows the ducklings prior to their arrival at the Clubhouse, but Donald who becomes their leader.  Clearly the show is acknowledging Donald, as a duck, getting to lead younglings from his species, but the reasons then for Goofy having a prior relationship with the ducks are murky.

Okay, that’s putting way too much thought into a series aimed at preschoolers.  The series is a fun one and continually attempts to engage its audience and teach them numbers, shapes, colors, and all manner of basic — yet important — things.

All the episodes of the series have the same basic structure — a problem present itself, Mickey and his friends get Toodles and some Mouskatools to help them solve the problem, the tools are each used over the episode, and by the conclusion all is right with the world and the gang does the “Hot Dog Dance.”  It is simple, but completely watchable by adults and rewatchable (over and over again) by younger audience members.

Article Author: Josh Lasser

Josh Lasser, formerly known as "TV and Film Guy," and complete with a Masters Degree in Critical Studies in said areas, gives his opinions on TV, Film, and Entertainment in general. All of which he does in a shameless attempt to try to get paid to do the exact same thing. …

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