The general see-ask-pause-agree formula of the Little Einsteins franchise proves to be more than just an easily replicable gimmick. Disney, which owns the Little Einsteins series, has made a dubious effort to reproduce the success of the all-too-popular brand but with the flagship Disney characters in their place. Instead of four toddlers wandering about with classical music interludes we now have Mickey and Donald prancing about in a nonsensical series of encounters serving as little more than a shallow opportunity to get as many Disney characters in the minds of your kids so they’ll forever be consumers of the Disney Kool-Aid.
Alright, so this all sounds downright vindictive, but it really stems from good old-fashioned resentment for a poorly crafted production that feels like its entire premise was a rejected episode from the Little Einsteins line stretched to twice the acceptable length. To start, the title would invoke some parents to believe that maybe there will be some strong correlation to Alice in Wonderland – but there’s not. What you end up with is Mickey and Donald searching for a runaway cuckoo bird in an oddly constructed CGI-scape with loose ties to the animated classic the title invokes. Pete, the traditionally villainous cat known for terrorizing Mickey since his Steamboat days, greenlights as a poor-excuse for the Cheshire Cat asking “riddles” of the duck and mouse. Yes, there’s a queen. Yes, there’s an allusion to roses.
But let’s remember one thing: Disney owns the rights to the film they created back in 1951. There’s no need to stick so rigidly to the poor substitutions that keeps the endeavor rooted in the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse series which spawned this adventure. They could just as easily have taken the animated characters of their original film, transferred them into a CGI rendering and gone from there. But they didn’t, because despite the title, Disney had no intention of introducing the classic story to children.
Creative differences aside, Mickey’s Adventures in Wonderland doesn’t even boast a compelling set of lessons for your little ones. There are a great many things your child has yet to learn and only a slim portion of this feature is dedicated to those. Little attention is paid to the more essential things like numbers, colors, common items and the like; the variety instead centers closer to questions like “What are the two ingredients of chocolate milk?” That question represents a small part of reasoning ability, but it’s not one that has any pertinence to a child between the ages of 1-6, the established demographic for this series.
The entire picture is disjointed and poorly thought out. The songs aren’t catchy or even that fun, leaving the presence of Donald and Mickey as the sole consolation – and that’s a problem. If the DVD had a solid educational experience behind it the branding wouldn’t be so flagrantly irritating. But in the absence of any real lesson it shows its true colors: an induction into Disney consumerism for your child’s blossoming mind. It’s despicable.
The CGI animation isn’t wholly unsatisfying but call me a purist because I think the CGI looks horrible in comparison to the cell-animation of older productions. It looks modern, but it feels lifeless in comparison.
DVD Bonus Features
Further establishing Disney’s transparent desire to establishe the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse as a suitable replacement for Little Einsteins is the near identical layout of the disc in its extra features offering. In addition to the “Fastplay” option which translates to “digital babysitter with a penchant for repeating itself over and over”, there are two supplementary tracks for children ages 1-3 and 4-6 which pose questions about colors, shapes and more. The questions change in difficulty between the two age groups and it’s probably the only aspect of the disc that holds any educational merit.
On the plus side, Disney paid for top-notch voice actors including Wayne Allwine, Tony Anselmo, Bill Farmer, Tress MacNeille, Russi Taylor, Jim Cummings, Corey Burton,
"Mickey's Adventures in Wonderland" is on sale September 8, 2009 and is rated G. Children & Family. Directed by Rob LaDuca, Sherrie Pollack. Written by Leslie Valdes, Kevin Campbell. Starring Bill Farmer, Corey Burton, Jim Cummings, Tony Anselmo, Tress MacNeille, Wayne Allwine, Russi Taylor.
