Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas is a 1999 direct-to-video Christmas anthology film featuring three segments, including Donald Duck and his nephews in "Stuck on Christmas", Goofy and Max Goof in "A Very Goofy Christmas", and Mickey and Minnie Mouse in "Gift of the Magi". The stories were introduced by actor Kelsey Grammer.
Plot[]
Donald Duck and the Nephews in "Stuck on Christmas"[]
The first story is inspired by "Christmas Every Day" by William Dean Howells. On Christmas morning, Donald's three nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie are excited because they get lots of presents, but Donald is angered after he sees them opening them before the rest of the family arrives. Even so, Donald shrugs it off and surprises his nephews with three sleds from him, but unfortunately miss the Christmas card Donald left on the sleds. When Daisy, Scrooge, and their Aunt Gertie come over for Christmas, the boys rush past them to go out and enjoy their new sleds. When Daisy calls the boys in for dinner, they use bad table manners by rudely eating the food and burping a lot. When Scrooge asks everyone to sing carols, the boys decides to play with their toys rather than participating. At bedtime, the boys are sad because Christmas is over, so they make a wish on a star in the sky that it could be Christmas every day.
When the boys wake up the next morning, they find that their wish came true, and it is now Christmas every day. The boys initially enjoy this, but as days turned to weeks, they find out that the same day is repeating all over again and soon grow bored and out of spirit, to the point where Huey almost goes insane with experiencing the same events every day, and Dewey and Louie agree with him that they are fed up with it. They then decide to change the day with pranks to 'lighten things up', including swapping the cooked turkey with a live one. Unfortunately, this day turns out to be the worst day possible for Christmas, and Donald ends up destroying the house while chasing the turkey. After learning how hard their family has tried to make Christmas better from the aftermath of the destruction of the decorations, the letter Donald and Daisy wrote for them and seeing their uncle looking miserable for the day's outcome when they expected him to go on a rampage and punish them, the boys feel guilty for their pranks. They decide to make amends and make the next day the best Christmas Day ever.
They switch the turkey with ham and give Aunt Gertie exclusive kisses, but Donald was suspicious of all their sudden good deeds. When he confronts his nephews about it, he finds out they had built a boat (made from their sleds) just for him. Donald was grateful for the boys having done that for him, and soon after, the family shares a group hug while singing a Christmas carol in front of the tree. The next day, the boys wake up happy to find out that Christmas finally ends. They then use the boat they made to go sledding with Donald, but they accidentally push Donald too much, which causes the boat to fall apart and have Donald fly straight into a snowman. In the end, the narrator explains that even though Christmas can't always be here, the feeling it gives us can always be here.
Goofy and Max in "A Very Goofy Christmas"[]
Goofy and Max are writing their letter to Santa Claus. They finish it and rush off after the mailman, chasing down his truck on Max's bike and taking a shortcut through the mall. After Goofy accidentally loses the letter in the mall, he stays behind to retrieve it while Max goes after the mailman. Once Goofy gets the letter back, he manages to catch back up to Max and the mailman just in the nick of time.
Back at home, Max reveals to his dad that he wants a snowboard for Christmas and hopes Santa will bring it, but their neighbor Pete insists that Santa does not exist. Goofy tells Max that Santa does exist and that he should never stop believing in him.
That evening, Goofy and Max go next door to the Andersons, a less fortunate family, to give them a Christmas dinner. Goofy then dresses up as Santa Claus to impress the kids, but one of the family's kids pulls off his hat and exposes him. This upsets Max, making him think that his dad was lying to him about Santa and what Pete said was true, and he runs home in tears.
Goofy tries to prove to Max that Santa Claus really does exist by staying up late and watching for him. After quite a few hours of waiting, Goofy sees someone coming out of the chimney on Pete's roof believing it must be Santa, but it turns out to be a burglar robbing Pete's house. Goofy then falls off the roof and goes into a deep depression, now believing that everything Max said was true. Max eventually cheers his dad up by dressing as Santa Claus himself. After Goofy finds out it's actually Max, they look up into the sky and see the real Santa Claus, who gives Max the snowboard he wanted and then blows the snow from Goofy's house onto Pete's house to teach him a lesson. Max then tells his dad that he is going to go share his present with little Jimmy, the poor kid next door. The narrator explains that Christmas is found in the way that we live by not what we receive but by what we give.
Mickey and Minnie's "Gift of the Magi"[]
It is Christmas Eve, and Mickey wants to get Minnie a chain for her watch, while Minnie wants to get Mickey a case for his harmonica, but neither of them have any money. Mickey is working at Crazy Pete's Tree Lot and makes a lot of money for his kindness and helping people. But when he suggests a poor family buy a small Christmas tree that he found out back instead of one of Pete's ten-foot Christmas trees, Pete takes away the money he has earned and kicks him out. Then, Pete accidentally puts his still-lit cigar into his pocket with Mickey's money without noticing, which eventually sets himself and his trees on fire. Also destroying his chance to sell his expensive 10-footers as well. Meanwhile, Minnie is working in the gift-wrapping department at Mortimer's department store, hoping that her Christmas bonus from her boss, Mortimer Mouse, will be enough to pay for Mickey's present. Unfortunately, her Christmas bonus is nothing but a fruitcake.
Mickey plays his harmonica for a Charity Toy Drive and is told that his harmonica plays so great that it must be worth lots of money. Mickey gets the idea to trade his harmonica for the chain, so he and Pluto rush off to the store. Later, at Minnie's house, Mickey gives Pluto a bone for Christmas, and Minnie gives her cat, Figaro, a ball of yarn. Mickey and Minnie then give their presents to each other. Minnie's present to Mickey is a case for his harmonica, and Mickey's present to Minnie is a chain for her watch. Both of them reveal that they gave up what meant the most to them to buy each other a present for Christmas. The narrator explains that giving a present from the heart is cherished forever and that a present is best when love is given.
Epilogue[]
As the movie comes to a closing, we see Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Max, Donald, Daisy, Huey, Dewey, and Louie joining each other in the streets outside (somehow taking place in the early 19th-century), singing a medley consisting of "Jingle Bells", "Deck the Halls", and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", and wishing the audience happy holidays.
Cast[]
| Voice actor | Character(s) |
|---|---|
| Kelsey Grammer | Narrator |
| Wayne Allwine | Mickey Mouse |
| Russi Taylor | Minnie Mouse Huey Duck Dewey Duck Louie Duck |
| Tony Anselmo | Donald Duck |
| Diane Michelle | Daisy Duck (Stuck on Christmas, and finale song) |
| Alan Young | Scrooge McDuck |
| Bill Farmer | Goofy Pluto |
| Shaun Fleming | Max Goof |
| Tress MacNeille | Daisy Duck (The Gift of the Magi) Chip Aunt Gertie |
| Corey Burton | Dale |
| Jim Cummings | Pete Santa Claus Policeman Postman Fire Chief Dad Man Onlooker Collectibles Shop Owner |
| Jeff Bennett | Father Firefighter #2 Mortimer Mouse Store Announcer Man Customer |
| Gregg Berger | Mr. Anderson Shopper |
| Kylie Dempsey | Kid #2 Little girl |
| Taylor Dempsey | Kid #1 Little Jimmy |
| Andrew McDonough | Poor boy |
| Pat Musick | Angry woman Distressed woman Eccentric lady Mrs. Anderson Shopper |
| Frank Welker | Turkey Figaro |
| Mae Whitman | Girl |
| April Winchell | Firefighter #1 Mother Old Woman Firewoman |
- Clarabelle Cow, Horace Horsecollar, Owl, and a Beagle Boy make silent cameos.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
Continuity notes[]
- Chronologically-wise, the first segment of this movie, "Stuck on Christmas", serves as a functional prequel to the 1987 DuckTales animated TV series.
- In this segment, Huey, Dewey, and Louie are depicted as children who live with their Uncle Donald, which was their status quo prior to the first episode of DuckTales, in which the boys are sent to live with their great-uncle, Scrooge McDuck, after Donald joins the Navy.
- What's more, "Stuck on Christmas" also presents Donald as having dreams and aspirations of sailing on the high seas, which is what he wants to do upon joining the Navy at the beginning of DuckTales.
- Furthermore, Huey, Dewey, and Louie are presented as far more rambunctious and troublesome than they ever were in DuckTales, similar to their depictions in the classic Donald Duck shorts, but by the end of "Stuck of Christmas", they reform themselves to behave more civilly, further matching up with how they act in DuckTales.
- Meanwhile, the second segment, "A Very Goofy Christmas", is definitely a prequel to the Goof Troop animated TV series and its two feature films A Goofy Movie and An Extremely Goofy Movie.
- In this segment, Goofy lives in a suburban house as a single father to his son, Max, and both of them live next-door to Pete. This is the very same status quo of Goofy, Max, and Pete as seen in Goof Troop (however, see the next first-tier bullet point further below).
- Max is also depicted as a child of a much younger age than he was in Goof Troop, for the purposes of telling the story that this short wanted to tell, of Max questioning his beliefs in the existence of Santa Claus, which is more of a thing that younger children do rather than older children. This would place "A Very Goofy Christmas" and the final caroling scene of this special a few years before the time of Goof Troop.
- As a bonus piece of continuity, this special also introduces a teddy bear of Max's named Old Stuffed Bear, who would go on to make a second appearance in An Extremely Goofy Movie in the very next year after this special's release.
- However, there is a potential continuity error between the segment "A Very Goofy Christmas" from this special and Goof Troop.
- In this special, Goofy and Max already live in a house next door to Pete, who acts like Goofy and Max have been his next-door neighbors for quite some time, as Pete behaves in a rather chummy manner with the two of them in one scene. This is at odds with the premiere episode of Goof Troop having Goofy and Max start off by living in a trailer and only just then moving into the house next-door to Pete for the first time, even moving to Spoonerville from another city entirely. Plus, everyone in that episode acts like Goofy and Pete hadn't seen each other in years (since high school), and act like Max and Pete had never met each other beforehand.
- On the other hand, Goof Troop itself also tended to forget that Goofy and Max first moved to Spoonerville at the beginning of the series, with several episodes of the series instead treating Goofy and Max as having always lived in Spoonerville next-door to Pete for many years, while only two episodes ever referred back to the events of the series premiere. So, this is just a case of Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas simply reiterating a pre-existing continuity error.
- Officially, no fix for this has ever been given, but one possible, theoretical solution would be to think of the Pete from this special as a different Pete from the one seen in Goof Troop, A Goofy Movie, and An Extremely Goofy Movie, since the Pete who lives next to the Goofs in this special doesn't seem to harbor the same deep-seeded hatred of Goofy that the Pete from Goof Troop has for most of that series. Various Goof Troop media such as "Where There's a Will, There's a Goof" have depicted Pete-look alikes, some of which even share the same first name. In addition, this "Pete" in the segment has brown fur, unlike his other appearances in the Mickey Mouse segment "The Gift of Magi" and his other appearances where his fur is black.
- Plus, the city that Goofy and Max live in during "A Very Goofy Christmas" is never actually named, so it very well might not be Spoonerville, but could very well be the other city that Goofy and Max first lived in before they move to Spoonerville (the two would have simply had to have first moved out of their house from this special and into their trailer at some point between this special and Goof Troop for everything to line up).
- With Pete also living in this same city in "A Very Goofy Christmas" and being Mickey's employer during "Gift of the Magi", it could very well be that the cities seen in both segments are actually one and the same, which would mean that Goofy and Max originally lived in the very same city that Mickey, Pluto, and Minnie all live in. And since Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto don't live in Spoonerville either, that further supports the notion of this city being a different one from Spoonerville.
- This also raises the possibility that Goofy and Max might have moved to Spoonerville from none other than Mouseton, the traditional hometown of Mickey, Pluto, and Minnie (as well as Goofy himself in certain media external to the Goof Troop universe).
- Overall, this implies that both the events of DuckTales and Goof Troop take place at the exact same time, with this film serving as prequels to both TV shows.
Other notes[]
- Cameo: One of Goofy's Christmas tree ornaments resembles Angelique from Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas.
- Recycled Animation: In The Gift of the Magi segment, Mickey performs one of his dance moves from Mickey's Birthday Party.
- Errors: When Donald knocks the Christmas decorations off the table while chasing after the turkey, the decorations seem to stop in mid-air before the next shot.
- When Max wakes up to see "Don't forget Max" it is 4:39. But when he wakes up to hear Goofy yelling, it is only 3:00, There is a possible explanation this scene was animated first, but ended up later in the film.
- The cover art for the home video releases was done by Rick Law.
- However, despite Mickey's appearance on the cover, he's never seen in his iconic red shorts and yellow shoes in the movie.
- Scenes from this movie were used for the 2002 version of Very Merry Christmas Songs.
- Huey tearing off the calendar page was reused for the Toon Disney Weekday Bonus Stacks promo.
- Ironically, ducks eating turkey is considered cannibalism.
- This is the only post-Goof Troop project where someone else besides Jason Marsden voices Max, due to him being a much younger child in this film.
- The Stuck on Christmas segment marks Tress MacNeille's first performance as Daisy Duck. This is the film where she becomes Daisy's official voice, with her redubbing Daisy's other lines for later releases of this film.
- One of the stores in the shopping mall Goofy visits is called Lumberjack Lingerie. This is a reference to Monty Python's "The Lumberjack Song", in which the titular lumberjack reveals himself to be a crossdresser.
- The band that Mickey plays harmonica with is based on the Firehouse Five Plus Two.
- In 2024, the film's rating on Disney+ was changed from its TV-G rating to TV-PG. It was reverted back to its TV-G rating on December 2, 2024, but was reverted back to its TV-PG that same month. It was reverted back to its original TV-G rating at the beginning of January 2025.
See also[]
External links[]
Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas on WikipediaMickey's Once Upon a Christmas on Christmas Specials Wiki
- Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas on Disney.com
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This page uses content from the English Wikipedia page Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. Text from Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. |
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