Pluto’s attempts to play fetch accidentally cause Santa Claus to crash his sleigh and lose all the presents for the children of Hot Dog Hills in the latest Disney+ Christmas Special, “Mickey Saves Christmas.” Mickey and his friends head to the North Pole to make new toys for the kids while Santa and Mrs. Claus search Hot Dog Hills for Prancer who was left behind after the crash. Meanwhile, Disney’s animators decided to take a risk with the stop-motion style, a vast departure from how Mickey and his friends are usually animated.

I really like the stop-motion approach to this special. It gave a feeling like the old Rankin and Bass specials that many of us loved as children. It was a great nostalgic feeling. I wouldn’t bust it out for just any Mickey Mouse special, but it works well in the context of a Christmas special. They don’t need to make one of these each year, but if Disney produced a new stop-motion Christmas special every 3 to 4 years, I would be heavily in favor of it.

Much like a lot of other Mickey Mouse specials, this one is heavily targeted towards children. Yes, parents can enjoy it as well, but it’s clearly not targeting them. The story is one we’ve seen several times before where Mickey and his friends learn the “true meaning of Christmas” while helping Santa get toys for kids. Many children will love to see Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy and Pluto stepping up to help Santa Claus.

This is not a special that I will revisit every year on my own, but if my kids want to see it, I’ll happily sit down and watch it with them. It was very enjoyable overall. I’ve always loved Mickey Mouse, so I was very happy to get to sit down and watch a new special starring him. It was cute. It was fun. And it only took a half hour to watch.

Rating: 3.5 stars

What did you think of “Mickey Saves Christmas?”

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Jeremy Brown

Jeremy has been a big Disney fan since he was a kid growing up during the Disney Renaissance. One day he hopes to go to every Disney Park in the world.

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