MICKEY’S ONCE UPON A CHRISTMAS and WINNIE THE POOH: SEASONS OF GIVING (Disney, $22.99 each, not rated) 1999.
Although these two videos are advertised as original made-for-video animated movies and “feature-length” adventures of approximately 70 minutes in length, don’t be misled.
They are each only slightly longer than 60 minutes, including credits. And each comprises three segments that will fit nicely into a 30-minute TV time slot a few months after the video sales have died down.
Thus, neither one can really be considered a movie in terms of running time or continuous story line.
So to judge them on that basis, the three segments of the Winnie the Pooh program are as good as the weekly Winnie the Pooh TV series, which is no surprise since the video and the TV series are created by the same Disney division.
That is to say that the segments are good, although not particularly memorable, as are some of the episodes of the TV series.
The only difference here is that the introductory shot in the bedroom of Christopher Robin is digitally animated, which lacks the warmth of the more customary live-action film of objects like the stuffed Pooh bear.
Also unmentioned in the advertising is that all three segments are centered on Rabbit, not Pooh.
The first 13-minute segment in this program involves Rabbit’s confusion over the time of year. With too many pages torn from his calendar, he thinks it is Groundhog Day in the middle of winter. After sending Piglet out dressed as a groundhog, he tells all his friends to prepare for spring just before a snowstorm hits the Hundred Acre Wood.
The second 21-minute segment involves Rabbit’s chaotic preparations for a Thanksgiving feast.
And the third 26-minute segment centers on Rabbit’s adoption of a young bird, which Rabbit teaches everything except what the bird wants most to learn — how to fly. The artwork on the cover of the video would have you believe that it is Pooh that adopts the bird.
Despite the title, none of the “Seasons” has anything to do with Christmas, and only one involves a little snow.
All three of the approximately 20-minute segments of Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas are geared toward the holiday and wintertime.
Once again, the segments are created by the same division that produces the weekly Mickey MouseWorks Saturday-morning TV series, so everything looks the same. None of these segments is especially memorable, either.
The first is a Donald Duck version of the movie Groundhog Day, in which Donald’s three nephews get their wish of having every day be Christmas, which soon has them sick of the same old holiday dinner and the same yucky kisses from their grandmother.
The second segment involves Goofy’s efforts to convince his disbelieving son that there really is a Santa Claus.
And the third is a Mickey Mouse version of the Gift of the Magi story, in which Mickey and Minnie each sacrifice something they treasure in order to buy the other a gift, which in both cases turns out to be connected with the possession they gave up.
