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Western Animation / Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas

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Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas is a 2004 direct-to-video film and the sequel to Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas. It's one of the first productions to show Mickey Mouse with 3D animation. Narrated by Clive Revill, it contains five short Christmas stories featuring characters like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy.

  • "Belles on Ice": Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck are competing in an ice skating competition. Daisy becomes jealous of the crowd's reaction to Minnie and tries to take over the spotlight. The battle for the spotlight escalates when Minnie summons Fantasia alligators, Daisy responds with Fantasia hippos, and both girls perform daredevil stunts.
  • "Christmas: Impossible": Huey, Dewey, and Louie are celebrating Christmas Eve. They're convinced that they're on Santa's naughty list, so they travel to the North Pole to write their names on the nice list themselves. However, at Santa's workshop, they accidentally make a huge mess and ruin the gifts. The boys feel guilty and have to fix the mess to save Christmas.
  • "Christmas Maximus": Most of this story takes place within the song "Make Me Look Good". An adult Max brings his friend Mona home for Christmas. Unfortunately, Max finds Goofy's behaviour amazingly embarrassing.
  • "Donald's Gift": Donald wants a Christmas of peace and quiet. The others want Donald to enjoy Christmas, but Donald just becomes annoyed.
  • "Mickey's Dog-Gone Christmas": Pluto accidentally ruins Mickey's Christmas decorations and is sent to the dog house. He leaves Mickey in shame and ends up being adopted by Santa's reindeer. As Christmas approaches, Pluto becomes homesick and Mickey searches for his lost pet.

This film provides examples of:

  • Acquaintance Denial: In the segment "Donald's Gift", when Donald gets caught wrecking the Christmas display at Mousy's in front of an audience of children.
    Dewey: Uncle Donald?
    Kid: He's your uncle?!
    Dewey: Him? Uh-uh. I've never seen him before! (hugs a man next to him) This is my uncle!
  • Acrofatic: In "Mickey's Dog-Gone Christmas", one of Santa's reindeer is overweight but can still fly. He's not mentioned by name, but he does come out of Cupid's stable in a freeze-frame moment.
  • Aesop Amnesia: Once again, we have Max learning to appreciate his dad and that he is lucky to have him even if he is embarrassing. You know, the exact same lesson that he learned in A Goofy Movie and An Extremely Goofy Movie?
  • Age Lift: First and only time we see Max as a fully grown-up after him usually portrayed as either a kid, a teenager or a college student. He was a kid in the preceding movie.
  • Alternate Continuity: Despite being promoted as a sequel to the first film, it is computer animated and has several continuity errors (such as Max and the nephews having a large age gap, whereas in their previous appearances, including the first movie, they were the same age).
  • Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: When Max brings home his friend Mona to meet Goofy, Goofy shows Mona baby pictures of Max.
  • Attention Whore: Daisy in "Belles on Ice."
  • Award-Bait Song: Share This Day by Josh Kelley.
  • Arc Words: "Less is more" in Mickey's Dog-Gone Christmas.
  • Bait-and-Switch Comment: After Pluto accidentally knocks over the Christmas tree in the reindeer's stable, Donner starts to chide him, saying "What do you think, those ornaments grow on trees?", leading Pluto to whimper as it was just like when Mickey yelled at him.
    Donner: Well...(Grins as he opens a door, revealing a forest of Christmas trees outside) They do!
    (The other reindeer except Blitzen laugh at his joke)
    Blitzen: (Sarcastically) Oh, yeah, that never gets old.
  • Break the Cutie: This happens to all of the main characters.
  • Brick Joke:
    • "Christmas: Impossible" has Santa and an elf reference a horrible sleigh crash that occurred in 1964. It's discussed later on in "Mickey's Dog-Gone Christmas" by Blitzen and Donner.
    • A cranky-looking heavyset man in a plaid shirt keeps turning up somewhere in all the stories except the first. He most noticeably appears in "Donald's Gift", getting his hot chocolate spilled on him, twice.
  • The Cameo: The alligators and hippos from Fantasia perform with Minnie and Daisy's skating shows.
  • Christmas Light Chaos: Played for Drama in "Mickey's Dog-Gone Christmas". Mickey's over-the-top Christmas lights actually work painlessly at first. Pluto then tries to put the star on the tree but falls, which causes a bowl of punch to spill onto a power strip and short circuit everything. Mickey then scolds Pluto and sends him to the dog house. This makes Pluto feel unappreciated and disgraced, so he decides to run away from home.
  • Color-Coded for Your Convenience: While Minnie is performing, the spotlight is pink, but it turns green when Daisy steals it, representing her jealousy. Then when both perform together, the spotlight becomes a bluish white.
  • The Comically Serious: Blitzen.
  • Defcon 5: Averted. Santa's Workshop gets it right. The code for catastrophe is "Elf-Con 1".
  • Defrosting Ice King: Donald spends the segment "Donald's Gift" being grumpy and not wanting to be part of the Christmas festivities, but after feeling guilty for destroying the windows display, he redeems himself at the end as he helps the carolers sing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" properly and becomes happy, and reconciles with Daisy and his nephews in "Donald's Gift".
  • Denser and Wackier: When compared to the more emotional stories of the previous film.
  • Disappointed in You:
    • Daisy and the triplets, after Donald wrecks a display in a fit of annoyance.
    • Mickey becomes this towards Pluto after he accidentally destroy's Mickey's Christmas decorations.
  • Do Not Do This Cool Thing: In-universe. Scrooge tries to tell Huey, Dewey and Louie to be nice. When they point out that Scrooge became rich despite not being nice, he says it was because he was selfish, HD&L's reaction? "We want to be rich and selfish, too!", followed by talking about some cool stuff they could buy with the money they wanted.
  • Dreadful Musician: Scrooge is shown to play the bagpipes so bad, the nephews and Donald have to plug their ears.
  • Drives Like Crazy: "Mickey's Dog-Gone Christmas" sees a snowplow driving up onto Mickey's lawn. Goofy was driving. It's heavily implied that he was also driving the snowplow that buried Mickey's car earlier in the story.
  • Embarrassing Nickname: Max hates it when Goofy calls him "Maxie", even though he was okay with it in all of his other appearances.
  • Embarrassing Old Photo: In "Christmas Maximus", Max brings his girlfriend home from college to meet his dad. At one point while Max is proudly showing her old pictures of himself as a child graduating high school, Goofy brings in an enlarged photo of Max as a naked baby.
  • Even the Subtitler Is Stumped: The guy doing the subtitles for both the DVD and Blu-Ray apparently has trouble understanding Donald's voice. During the end of "Donald's Gift", Donald says "Everybody, from the heart!" while the subtitles claim he's saying "Everybody, clap your hands!", despite the fact that no one is clapping in that scene.
  • Everything's Louder with Bagpipes: At the end of "Christmas: Impossible", Scrooge gets a set of bagpipes for Christmas. He's unskilled and plays loudly. Santa saw this coming and sent Huey, Dewey and Louie earplugs.
  • Failed a Spot Check: At the end of "Christmas: Impossible", Huey, Dewey, and Louie initially think that, per their plan, only Scrooge received a present from Santa. Then Donald reveals that Santa left their presents on the other side of the Christmas tree.
  • Flushing Toilet, Screaming Shower: In "Christmas: Impossible", Huey, Dewey and Louie flush the toilet while Donald is in the shower. Donald screams because the temperature of the water abruptly changes.
  • Friend to All Living Things: The other characters drop whatever they were doing in "Mickey's Dog-Gone Christmas" to help look for Pluto. Scrooge even bought an entire snowplow company.
  • Gilligan Cut: Daisy tells Donald to stop being selfish and to come with her and his nephews to the mall.
    Donald: I'm not going! And that's final!
    (cut to Donald and Daisy at the mall)
    Daisy: Don't dawdle Donald.
  • Gone Horribly Right: Mickey orders Pluto to "get out, and stay out" when sending him to his dog house in order to make his point clear and have him stay put until he gets back from shopping. Unfortunately, Pluto ends up misinterpreting it as disownment and runs away.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Daisy and later Minnie in "Belles on Ice" when fighting over the spotlight. All of this while their respective boyfriends watch in concern.
  • Heroic BSoD: Mickey while searching for Pluto. Pluto is initially thrilled to be with the reindeer, but after seeing a cloud resembling Mickey, he becomes depressed.
  • Hypocrite: In “Donald’s Gift”, Daisy calls Donald selfish for preferring to stay in his house drinking his cup of hot chocolate, and yet she selfishly forced him to go to the mall, uncaring of the fact that he has spent the previous hours working and surviving from the Christmas havoc.
  • Imagine Spot: After being sent to his doghouse by Mickey for ruining his Christmas decorations, Pluto imagines Mickey disowning him and telling him to go away. This proves how Pluto took Mickey's words to "get out and stay out"note  too much to heart.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: After having lectured the boys on their manners throughout "Christmas Impossible" while ignoring his own poor manners, Donald gets the "Big Book of Manners" for Christmas.
  • Living Photo: In "Mickey's Dog-Gone Christmas", after Pluto gets sent to his doghouse for ruining Mickey's Christmas decorations, he looks at a picture of himself and Mickey taped to the wall and imagines the Mickey-in-picture coming to life and giving him a "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
  • MacGuffin: The key to Santa's list room.
  • Meaningful Echo: From "Mickey's Dog-Gone Christmas": "Who's my pal? Who's my pal?" It's what Mickey says to Pluto early on and Donner later saying it briefly shakes Pluto from his depression.
  • "Mission: Impossible" Cable Drop: Louie does this to get the key from a sleeping Santa.
  • Mistaken for Stray: Pluto runs away from home after Mickey yells at him, and he winds up in the North Pole, adopted by Santa's reindeer, who assume he's a stray dog and name him "Murray", as in, "Murray Christmas".
  • Musical Episode: Most of "Christmas Maximus" is set to the song "Make Me Look Good".
  • My God, What Have I Done?:
    • Minnie and Daisy's antics in "Belles on Ice" reach this point.
    • Huey, Dewey, and Louie in "Christmas: Impossible" after realizing that their antics in Santa's workshop have made it impossible for Santa to make the big trip thus ruining Christmas for the world.
    • Donald in "Donald's Gift" after ruining the Christmas window display and being disowned by Daisy and Huey, Dewey, & Louie.
    • Mickey during "Mickey's Dog-Gone Christmas":
      "Oh, Pluto, if only I hadn't yelled at you."
  • Mythology Gag: While looking over the mess in his living room, Mickey comments he'd have to be a sorcerer in order to clean it.
  • Narrator: Clive Revill narrates the film.
  • Needle in a Stack of Needles: In "Christmas: Impossible," Huey, Dewey and Louie get their hands on the key to Santa's office, but accidentally knock over a stack of Jailbreak Bob boxes and lose it among hundreds of similar-looking Jailbreak Bob keys.
  • Never My Fault: Daisy disowns Donald in "Donald's Gift" when he embarasses her by trashing a Christmas exhibition. The problem was that he was under a lot of stress and had already told her he didn't want to go to the mall, but she forced him to go anyway, which led to his breakdown.
  • Noodle Incident: The Sleigh Crash of '64. First brought up in Christmas: Impossible by a minor character, it's referenced again by Donner and Blitzen in Mickey's Dog-Gone Christmas.
    Donner: I've never seen so many toys scattered!
    Blitzen: That barn came out of nowhere!
  • Oh, Crap!: Played for laughs during "Belles On Ice"; as the skating war escalates, Minnie and Daisy end up trading insults, which gets to the point where Mickey's and Donald's reaction is basically "run and hide". Just a minute later, they nervously hold on to each other when Minnie tries a reckless stunt while covering her eyes with her bow, knowing that this won't end well.
  • Out Of Control Popcorn: The "Christmas Maximus" segment ends with a house being filled to the brim with popcorn thanks to Goofy's clumsiness.
  • Over The Top Christmas Decorations: As usual Mickey has a very over-the-top Christmas display at his house despite Minnie warning him not to overdo it. When Pluto ruins the very fancy Christmas display Mickey is forced to simplify, which does make Minnie happy.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: Huey, Dewey, and Louie mosey around Santa's workshop wearing their usual monochrome shirts plus green hats. Their doubts of success disappear the moment an elf addresses one as "fellow elf." The end of the short, though, reveals that Santa wasn't fooled.
  • Pun-Based Title:
    • Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas is the sequel to Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas.
    • "Mickey's Dog-Gone Christmas". "Doggone" is an an exclamation of annoyance/disappointment, hence Mickey's feelings towards Pluto's recklessness & impatience, and the episode is about Mickey's dog being gone.
  • Punny Name: Donner names Pluto "Murray" as a spin on "Merry Christmas."
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Santa to Donner and Blitzen in "Mickey's Dog-Gone Christmas", as he realizes Pluto's homesickness and happened to get a picture taken with Mickey so he can take him home.
  • Running Gag:
    • A grumpy dog citizen having his hot chocolate spilled on his shirt.
    • A snow plow driving along, getting Mickey covered in snow. Turns out, it is Goofy.
  • Sarcasm-Blind: Donner constantly, much to Blitzen's annoyance.
  • Saving Christmas: When, Huey, Dewey and Louie accidentally ruin the gifts at Santa's workshop, they try to fix the problems they've caused.
  • Self-Serving Memory:
    • A more mild version happens when Donald is recalling people calling him out for being such a grump. One of the lines he remembers is one of his nephews saying "He blew us off for a beverage?". This line was never said by anyone prior to this. Crosses over into Flashback Fail.
    • After Pluto accidentally wrecks the Christmas decorations, Mickey orders him to stay in the doghouse until he returns from shopping for new decorations. However, Pluto's mind warps it into Mickey blaming him for ruining Christmas and telling him to go away.
  • Shout-Out:
    • At Santa's workshop the PA system being a statue with a mouth that drops opens when "speaking" and then snaps closed when done, both with a clunk sound, might be a nod to the old design of Cybermen.
    • When Pluto, Santa, and the reindeer land on the roof, they hide themselves by pretending to be a rooftop decoration. Decorations that look just like them have been real for a long time.
  • Storefront Television Display: A Deleted Scene from "Mickey's Dog-Gone Christmas" has Mickey pasting a "lost dog" flyer in front of an in-store TV camera so that it can be seen on every display in the store.
  • Sustained Misunderstanding: When Santa tells his reindeer that the dog "Murray" that they adopted is really Pluto.
    Donner: Who's Pluto?
    Blitzen: I think he's Murray.
    Donner: Murray's Pluto?
    Blitzen: Bingo.
    Donner: Bingo's Pluto?
    Blitzen: [beat] Yes.
  • Tranquil Fury: After Pluto destroys all the decorations, Mickey calmly replies, "Just perfect..." to Minnie in a calm but livid tone just before unleashing his full anger on Pluto after he hangs up.
  • Tropey, Come Home: Pluto running away after a harsh scolding from Mickey can be pretty hard to stomach for pet owners.
  • Verbal Tic: Jailbreak Bob has one, see?
  • Was Too Hard on Him: Mickey sends Pluto to his doghouse after his attempt to put the star on the Christmas tree results in all of Mickey's decorations being destroyed. He later regrets his outburst after fixing everything, and goes to the doghouse to apologize, only to find that Pluto had run away.
  • What You Are in the Dark: Having traveled to the North Pole, intent to get their names on the Nice List; Huey, Dewey & Louie are able to make it to the room with the Naughty & Nice List, but rather than writing their own names on the Nice List, they decide to write Uncle Scrooge's name. This selfless act proves them nice as well, and they get presents too.
  • You Are Fat: Blitzen reminds the other reindeer to watch what they eat. He says they're supposed to be eight tiny reindeer while glancing towards Cupid, who's considerably the heaviest of the lot.
    Cupid: What?
  • You Need a Breath Mint: Subverted. Santa yawns in Louie's face, causing him to recoil. He suddenly says that his breath smells like peppermint and mocha.

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