Western Animation / Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers

All for one and one for all!

A 2004 Direct to Video feature from Disney that for once isn't a sequel to a theatrical film or a TV episode compilation. As the name suggests, it's the stars of the Classic Disney Shorts in the roles of The Three Musketeers, or at least a story similar in nature. At 68 minutes, it is the longest fully-animated non-interactive sustained story that Mickey and Donald have ever starred in.^note Goofy has starred in two feature films based on the TV series Goof Troop.

Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy are three janitors who dream of becoming musketeers, but Mickey's size, Donald's cowardice and Goofy's intelligence (or lack thereof) are handicaps from their goal. However, they get their chance when Princess Minnie Mouse demands bodyguards from Captain Pete. Since said captain is planning to take over the kingdom, he decides to promote the three, hoping they'll be bungling enough not to ruin his plans.

The story is told by the Troubadour, a singing turtle who is supposedly narrating it on live television. (Though not given a real name in the film, Word of God has it that the Troubadour is an updated version of 1930s Disney character Toby Tortoise.)

A world based on the film, called Country of the Musketeers, appeared in Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], making this the first direct-to-video Disney movie to appear in the Kingdom Hearts series. In addition, this film's versions of Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Minnie appear as cards in the first wave of Lorcana with Mickey and Donald being Steel cards and Goofy and Minnie being Amber cards. Mickey, Donald and Goofy all have Bodyguard as their ability, naturally enough. The third wave adds Clarabelle's verse from her and Goofy's song as a Song card..

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This movie contains the following tropes.

• Adaptation Decay:
  • Admitted by the movie, especially in the commentary provided by Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Pete in the fixing-the-plumbing scene.
  • Bizarrely, it seems to be a sort-of sequel to the original Three Musketeers, as the four Musketeers show up at the beginning to inspire Mickey.
• Adaptational Villainy: Clarabelle Cow, normally being one of the protagonists among Mickey and his friends has a more villainous role in this movie as she is Pete's henchwoman and works with him to sabotage the musketeers' plan to become true musketeers and overthrow Princess Minnie.
• All Part of the Show: During the final where Mickey, Donald, and Goofy work together to stop Pete's plan and rescue Princess Minnie, they fight against Pete and the Beagle Boys at an Opera house during a show. The audience believes that everything going on is simply part of the Opera.
• Amusing Injuries: The film is essentially a Zany Cartoon, so neither the villains nor the heroes are safe from suffering these. No, not even the Princess and her handmaid.
• Anachronism Stew: The film's general aesthetic suggests an 18th century French setting, pre-revolution, though it also features indoor plumbing, landline telephones, electric lights and even modern day fast food, all of which adds to the wacky absurdity. In a more straight example, the opera performed in the climax is Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, which didn't debut until 1879.
• Angrish: As the Troubadour calls out Donald for being a coward, he goes into his trademark unintelligible angry rant.
• Anything but That!: When Clarabelle threatens the Beagle Boys with "La Pit" they say "Anything but La Pit!" Averted when the pit turns out to be no more than three feet deep.
• Aside Glance: Pete after the second mention of the Opera followed by the fanfare.
• At Arm's Length: The Beagle Boys to Mickey, due to how short he is.
• At the Opera Tonight: Cut to the poster and cue the fanfare!
  Pete: "That little ditty's startin' to grow on me!"
• Berserk Button:
  • "French words make me mad!" said by a Beagle Boy.
  • Donald, when he's had enough of the Troubadour Turtle berating him in song.
• Beta Couple: Donald and Daisy, with Goofy and Clarabelle forming a Gamma Couple.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Instead of killing Mickey, Pete locks him up in a dungeon that will be flooded with water and leaves, allowing Goofy and Donald to come and rescue him.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: The Troubadour does it repeatedly, and Pete does it briefly.

• Call-Back: During the first fight with the Beagle Boys, one of them slice through Mickey's musketeer uniform, revealing his trademark outfit underneath. Cue Mickey making his well-known stock pose before cut to the next frame. Donald is also shown wearing his trademark sailor suit under his uniform when he decides to quit being a musketeer.
• Changed My Mind, Kid: Donald stops being a coward and goes to help Goofy save Mickey after hearing the Troubadour berate him.
• Chekhov's Gun: The Disaster Dominoes sequence.
• Comedic Underwear Exposure: Subverted when one of the villain's lackeys rips Mickey's clothes to shreds. It instead reveals his familiar red shorts.
• Company Cross References:
  • At one point, one of the Beagle Boys is peering through a keyhole at Pete and tells the other Beagle Boy with him to "have a gander at Monstro's better side".
  • Pete namedrops "I just can't wait to be king" as he leaves Mickey in his cell at Mont St. Michel.
• Continuity Cameo: The Musketeers from the book save Mickey, Donald and Goofy when the latter were children. They even autographed Mickey's hat, which has the correct number of four signatures.
• Covered in Kisses: Daisy Duck does this to Donald at the end of the film.
• Cowardly Lion: In contrast to most depictions of him, Donald is portrayed as a Lovable Coward who needs to overcome his cowardice in order to become a musketeer.
• Creepy Crossdresser: Pete has his smallest henchman pose as Minnie in order to fake a succession ceremony.
• Cue the Flying Pigs: At his low moment, Donald declares he'll be a musketeer if cows fall from the sky. Cue Clarabelle falling onto him.
• Curse Cut Short: "Villains, bad guys run in fear, when they see the Musketeers. Saving Minnie is our duty, mess with her, we'll kick your..." (Musketeer stabs a training dummy through the chest with his sword) However, the cut-off word in question is actually "booty".
• Damsel in Distress: Minnie and Daisy both get kidnapped by the Beagle Boys working for Captain Pete, and it's up to the Musketeers to save them.
• Dating Catwoman: Goofy hooks up with Clarabelle.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Daisy is shown to act resentful and uninterested in Donald due to his cowardice, unlike Minnie who immediately became infatuated with Mickey until the end where she returns Donald's love.
• Dirty Coward: Donald was willing to retreat from fights leaving only Mickey and Goofy to do the heavy work and wasn't above abandoning his friends by leaving Paris, but he eventually comes back in the end.
  Donald: It's every duck for himself!
• Disaster Dominoes: Between Mickey's short height, Goofy's stupidity and Donald's cowardice, they manage to screw up cleaning so badly Pete's bathtub falls several stories while he was in it, and they weren't even on the same floor.
• Divide and Conquer: With the trio proving more effective than Pete anticipated, he has his men opt for this. First, Goofy is made to think Mickey is calling to him, so he's lured away from his post and grabbed. Next, Donald is confronted and nearly beheaded; he escapes and warns Mickey, but he's too scared to keep fighting and leaves. Mickey's on his own when Pete gets the drop on him.
• The Dragon: Clarabelle works for the Big Bad Captain Pete, at least until her High-Heel–Face Turn.
• Dressed in Layers: Mickey dresses in at least two layers, and Donald dresses in at least three, judging by the way they rip off their clothes to reveal either Musketeer uniforms or their classic outfits underneath. Even Pete dresses in at least two layers.
• Drowning Pit: Captain Pete tries to off Mickey by locking him in a dungeon in Mont-Saint-Michel, which floods when the tide rises.
• Dying Alone: Pete leaves Mickey to die in an isolated prison. Thankfully, Goofy and Donald save him.
• Even the Dog Is Ashamed: Pluto does a Face Palm when Minnie chastises Mickey, Donald and Goofy for mistaking Daisy for a crook and beating her up.
• Expy: The Troubadour is essentially an updated version of Toby Tortoise from the two Silly Symphonies shorts.
• Extreme Omnivore: When Pete is getting the Beagle Boys out of the pit, they are doing things to pass the time (drawing Pete with an arrow though his head for one). One of them was playing with jacks, and when Pete sees them relaxing, he quickly eats all of the jacks and the rubber ball.
• Evil Laugh: Pete, naturally. But also Clarabelle, who as his number two gets a hilariously cow-themed maniacal laugh.
  "Moooohoohahahaha!"
• Evil Laugh Turned Coughing Fit: Early on, when Mickey, Donald, and Goofy reveal to Captain of the Musketeers Pegleg Pete their plans to eventually join, he launches into mocking, evil laughter that within a second or two devolves into a coughing fit that lasts longer than the laugh did.
• Face Palm: Pete. Understandable, considering that he is Surrounded by Idiots with the Beagle Boys as henchmen.
• Fake King: At the opera, Princess Minnie is imprisoned in a chest, and the shortest Beagle Boy pretends to be her long enough to abdicate the throne in Pete's favor.
• Fake Ultimate Hero: Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are picked explicitly to fail, but Pete hypes them up as extremely competent and trained.
• Falling-in-Love Montage: Mickey and Minnie when they first met in this film.
• Framing Device: The film is told through a live recording of the Troubadour reading a comic book.
• Freudian Excuse: Pete says his reason for being evil is because his mom didn't like him. However, his excuse doesn't really work here because he tells himself that the reason his mother didn't like him in the first place was that he was really always an evil selfish jerk, even as a newborn.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: It zips by for half a handful of frames before getting too far to tell, so you gotta have sharp eyes: The license plate of one of the carriages is A113.
• Funny Animal: The entire cast is this, apart from Pluto and some background animals (notably, the cow that kicks Goofy in the tower scene).
• Furry Confusion: Naturally, with Goofy and Pluto in the same movie. Clarabelle and a non-anthropomorphic orange and white cow show up, as do horse-driven coaches.
• Furry Reminder: Pete's furniture is subtly cat-themed.
• Hair-Trigger Sound Effect: Every time Pete mentions the opera, it cuts to a poster and a snippet of The Pirates of Penzance.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Donald, as usual, wears a shirt, but no pants.

• Happily Ever After: Well, it's Disney, what'd you expect?
• Heroic BSoD: A very brief bout. Already struggling with his cowardice, Donald is ready to give up upon learning Pete set them up to fail. After being saved from the dungeon, Mickey also laments they're not real Musketeers. Goofy snaps them out of it.
• Hero vs. Villain Duet: "Chains of Love" features Goofy who, after having fallen in love with the evil Clarabelle, confesses his love while she tries to kill him. Though she initially sings her disdain towards him and the rejection of his advances, his continuous complimenting and flirtations end up winning her over, and the song becomes a love ballad.
• High-Heel–Face Turn: Hilariously spoofed with Clarabelle Cow who defects after Goofy woos her.

• Holding in Laughter: After Captain Pete promotes Mickey, Donald and Goofy to Musketeers as part of his plot to usurp Princess Minnie, the three mistakenly think her lady-in-waiting Daisy is a villain and attack her. Amused by them showing their incompetence already, Pete tries to stifle his laughter, but composes himself when he notices Minnie watching him.
  Pete: (clears throat) Um.. Uh, you'll have to forgive them, Your Highness. They're like a well-oiled machine. It's wound just a little too tight.
• Iconic Outfit: Mickey and Donald were both shown wearing their default clothing at some point in the movie. However, the weight of the situation when they started wearing them were completely different, Mickey was revealed to be wearing his outfit under his Musketeer uniform as a gag, while Donald quickly changed into his sailor suit when he decides to abandon Mickey at a crucial time of need.
• Idiot Ball:
  • It don't matter how badass you think you are - anytime a villain who's three times your size starts saying, "By the power vested in my fist..." that's a good time to run away.
  • Pete's way to chase Donald is to jump through the guillotine itself instead of just running around it.
• The Idol's Blessing: Captain Pete chooses Mickey, Donald, and Goofy to guard Princess Minnie, saying they have what it takes to be Musketeers. He doesn't actually think they are capable, and in fact only recruits them in hopes that they will fail. However, Mickey doesn't know this, and so having the captain of the group he idolizes tell him that he is capable falls well into this trope.
• Inspirational Insult: Donald almost abandons Mickey to die because of his cowardice but after The Troubadour mocks him with a whole song, Donald becomes so enraged he forgets his cowardice and goes to save Mickey. Donald actually thanks The Troubadour for singing that insulting song.
• Kicked Upstairs: Pete actually promotes Mickey, Donald and Goofy to musketeers because of how unfit for the job they are. He's sure they're too inept to properly serve as Princess Minnie's bodyguards, so they won't interfere with his plans to take over the kingdom.
• Kissing Discretion Shot: When Minnie first kisses Mickey, as is tradition in classic Disney media, with special thanks to Mickey's hat. Averted at the end when they kiss on the stage.
• Knight of Cerebus: Pete, to an extent. While he swaps back and forth from Laughably Evil to vile and intimidating throughout the whole movie, as the plot goes on his villainous scenes become darker and more intense, and the movie becomes more tense as a result. The part where he throws Mickey into the dungeon to drown has almost no humor at all, and the final battle against him an action (if cartoony) scene played surprisingly straight.
• Large Ham: Pete as always. Just LISTEN to the "Bad Guy Song"!
• Last Note Nightmare: Love So Lovely ends with Minnie almost being crushed by a safe.
• Lemony Narrator: The Troubadour inserts himself into the narrative as a commentator on the ongoing events, as well as the conductor of the orchestra.
• Loophole Abuse: Mickey doesn't care if Pete set them up to fail; he says they're honor bound to be heroic so long as they wear the Musketeer uniform. Donald agrees completely and immediately changes into his traditional sailor suit.
• Lovable Coward: Donald's main personality flaw to overcome in this movie is cowardice, but he's one of the heroes.
• Love at First Sight: Mickey and Minnie immediately fall for each other before even exchanging a word.
• Love Redeems: Clarabelle ends up falling for Goofy while having him executed.
• Loves Me Not: Minnie does this in her introductory scene.
• Major General Song: Pete's Evil Plan is to kidnap Minnie during a performance of The Pirates of Penzance, so of course the most famous song of the opera shows up.
• Man Hug: Mickey to Goofy and then Donald once rescued from the dungeon.
• Medium Awareness: Pete. "Why'd the music stop?" He actually does this twice. When he is bringing The Beagle Boys out of the pit, the scene shifts to the poster for the opera and plays the same music bit again. When the scene shifts back to Pete, he stare at the poster, blinks his eyes a few times and continues speaking. He does it a third time when the opera bit happens, saying, "That little ditty's starting to grow on me."
• Mythology Gag:
  • The three protagonists being rescued by four musketeers, as there was in the original book: Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and d'Artagnan.
  • When Mickey's musketeer uniform is sliced off, he's shown to be wearing his classic red shorts underneath and strikes his iconic spread-armed pose. Likewise, when Donald goes AWOL he strips out of his musketeer uniform to reveal his classic sailor suit underneath.
  • When Captain Pete captures Mickey, he mockingly sings the "Hey there, Hi there, Ho there, you're as welcome as can be!" lyrics from the Mickey Mouse March.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Pete made our main heroes Musketeers believing they were completely unqualified—setting them up to put his evil plan at risk. Also, when the Beagle Boys try to drop a safe on the princess—and miss—the action encourages her to want bodyguards, again putting their plan at risk.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: The smallest of the Beagle Boys at first seems like he's incompetent and silly. However, it's revealed he's an expert with a sword, especially a great wicked-looking one.
• Oh, Crap!: Mickey's reaction to the "You Must Be This Tall to Survive This Dungeon" sign when the sewer begins to flood.
• Parental Bonus:
  • For a few seconds in which he is seen falling into a hole, the original narrator (who was a complete ass towards the Troubadour) is revealed to be a donkey.
  • One of lines in the Falling-in-Love Montage song is "birds and bees".
  • When Captain Pete goes for a shower early in the movie, his bar of soap is tightly bound in ropes as to not drop it.
• Parodies for Dummies: While driving Minnie's carriage, Goofy can be seen reading "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Musketeering".
• Pit Trap: Pete puts the Beagle Boys in one when he finds out that they were going to kill Minnie, However, the danger is subverted by the fact that the pit is just a few feet deep.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Pete turns Mickey's attempt to arrest him into one of these.
  Mickey: Captain Pete, by the power invested in me, I arrest you!
  Pete: Well, with the power invested in my fist, I clobber you! (cue ass kicking)

• Princess Classic: Princess Minnie is spoof of this trope with her over-the-top prancing around dreaming of her true love.
• Princesses Rule: Minnie is cast as a princess, though she seems to be the monarch of France and a queen in everything but name. No mention is made of any king or queen existing.
• The Power of Friendship: It's what ultimately enables Mickey and co. to emerge victorious.
• Public Domain Soundtrack: The musical numbers are sung to the tune of classical pieces.
  • Pete's Villain Song is set to "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Edvard Grieg.
  • The main theme sung by the Musketeers is set to the Infernal Galop from Offenbach's Orpheus In the Underworld, better known as the Can-Can.
  • Some other classical tunes you'll hear are Blue Danube Waltz by Johann Strauss, Jr., and the "Habanera" aria from Bizet's Carmen.
  • The Gilbert and Sullivan opera The Pirates of Penzance plays a minor part in the plot. Even though it shouldn't exist yet.
• Quirky Mini Boss Squad: The Beagle Boys are Pete's minions, though they're hardly competent at their job.
• Red Boxing Gloves: When kidnapping Minnie, the Beagle Boys conceal one in a jack-in-the box to lure Goofy into looking at it. Considering that this is a cartoon, it's kind of surprising that the glove isn't oversized.
• Rewritten Pop Version: This movie has a strange case where the song isn't a variant of one of the songs from the film. The song used in the music video to promote this film, "Three Is A Magic Number", is actually a cover of a song from another Disney property, Schoolhouse Rock!.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: The Beagle Boys normally only menace Donald when he's interacting with his Uncle Scrooge; here, they're working for Pete.
• Rousing Speech: With Mickey lamenting they're not real heroes, it's Goofy who snaps him out of it. He says he knows they're not perfect (citing Donald's cowardice, Mickey's short stature, and his own stupidity), but he says they can do anything if they work together.
• Rousseau Was Right: Inverted with Pete who explains how he was abandoned by his mother because he was already a despicable villain with no redeeming quality when he was a newborn.
• Running Gag: The same music, which happens to be the chorus of "With Catlike Tread" playing everytime the opera poster is shown.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After narrowly avoiding an execution by guillotine, Donald decides it's time to call it quits, switching to his default sailor attire and running off in fear. Don't worry, he comes back around eventually.
• Shout-Out:
  • Pete sings a few bars from The Mickey Mouse Club theme to taunt Mickey at one point (singing the part he sang in the intro, at that). A few minutes later, he mentions waiting for the song "I Just Can't Wait to be King" while heading to the opera.
  • A Shout-Out to Gilbert and Sullivan is also made during the opera scene. They're seeing The Pirates of Penzance, and the songs "With Catlike Tread," "Poor Wand'ring One," "Climbing Over Rocky Mountain" and "Modern Major General" are heard.
  • A minor one to The Prince and the Pauper, Pete is once again the Big Bad trying to take rule of the land from the rightful heir.
  • The multiple Goofy clones appearing is undoubtedly a reference to the recurring use of this phenomenon in his original theatrical cartoons.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: The Toby Tortoise Expy incites Donald into this by singing "This is the end"—to the tune of a classic Beethoven song.
• Shy Shelled Animal: The Troubadour is a cartoon turtle who gets nervous around some characters, like his apparent boss Mr. Narrator, and Captain Pete. He sometimes literally hides in his shell from them.
• Slapstick:
  • Pete did warn Clarabelle about the bricks at least.
  • Minnie and Daisy also tumble down the stairs along with Mickey and Goofy.
  • Daisy is also piled on by Mickey, Donald and Goofy, who mistake her for a bad guy. (in the comics adaptation, there is a justification for why they did so, as an earlier scene has Mickey tell Donald that "Prince Gimlet" was seemingly murdered by a royal waitress with an hors d'oeuvres knife)
• Spanner in the Works: Pete's new plan to kill the three musketeers after they prove to be more competent than expected so that no one can stop him from getting rid of Minnie and becoming king nearly succeeds. Mickey and Goofy are captured and prepared to be executed and while Donald escaped, he decided to flee rather than fight. But Goofy's love for Clarabelle causes her to make a High-Heel–Face Turn before she can kill him, which in turn allows him to stop Donald from running away and the two of them saving Mickey, leading to them coming back and stopping Pete.
• Springtime for Hitler: Pete, upon being ordered by Minnie to find Musketeer bodyguards to protect her, deliberately picks Mickey, Donald, and Goofy in hopes that their bumbling will prevent them from protecting her, and therefore make it all the easier for him to kidnap her. It comes to backfire on him spectacularly when the trio actually starts becoming competent at their job.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Minnie is forbidden to date Mickey since he's a commoner. This just attracts Minnie more.
• Stealth Sequel: Strangely enough, this cartoon is technically a sequel to the original The Three Musketeers, as all four of the noble heroes show up in the prologue and inspire Mickey and his friends to become musketeers themselves.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Pete has a low opinion of his bumbling Beagle Boy henchmen.
• Terrible Trio: The Beagle Boys.
• That Reminds Me of a Song: Justified in some places, since the Troubadour openly admits to wanting to pepper the narration with songs that he wrote; in other parts, not so much.
• The Unintelligible: Donald explains Pete's whole Evil Plan to Mickey, but because he does it in his quacky voice, Mickey doesn't understand a word of it.
• Universal-Adaptor Cast: The film uses the regular cast of the Classic Disney Shorts to tell a story very loosely based on The Three Musketeers.
• Unreliable Narrator: All the Anachronism Stew and other forms of Artistic License can be justified by the Troubadour narrating the story out of a comic book.
• Uptown Girl: Mickey (commoner) and Minnie (princess).
• Vapor Wear: Daisy may or may not wear any bloomers underneath her skirt.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Pete. While he is Laughably Evil, he also has several dark moments that clash with the general tone of the film. The scene where he throws Mickey into the dungeon to drown is played straight and completely devoid of humor. Similarly, he's treated as a serious threat in the climax.
• Villain Has a Point: As harsh as he was in telling Mickey, Donald, and Goofy why they have no hope of becoming musketeers, one can't deny the fact that Pete was correct in pointing out that Donald's cowardice, Goofy's idiocy and Mickey's shortness were traits that would make them largely unsuitable for jobs as important as musketeers, which are proven to be a hindrance several times during the movie. The only reason Pete allows them to become musketeers at all is to use these weaknesses to his advantage to make it easier for him to usurp Minnie and become king of France.
• Villain Song: "Petey's King of France". Disney knows they love these things, and even the Troubadour shows it by enthusiastically announcing it.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Pete. He is captain of the guard.
• Visual Pun: Whenever Donald gets scared, he morphs into a clucking chicken. He's literally chickening out.
• World of Funny Animals: This seems to be the setting of the movie, which is unsurprising considering who the main characters are.
• What the Hell, Hero?: The Troubadour literally sings this to Donald, calling him out on his cowardice and the fact that he's willing to let Mickey drown just because he's afraid. This being Donald Duck, he naturally does NOT take it well.
• With Lyrics: The classical pieces that are used in the soundtrack have lyrics added to it, except Habanera which has changed lyrics instead.
• You Must Be This Tall to Ride: When Mickey is locked in a Drowning Pit by Pete, the dungeon has a sign well above Mickey's head that reads "You must be this tall to survive this dungeon".

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