Blu-Ray Review: Mickey, Donald and Goofy - The Three Musketeers 10th Anniversary Edition

Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers is geared for the younger set and is a cute movie produced by the folks at DisneyToon Studios.

Mickey, Donald and Goofy are best friends and also janitors with dreams of becoming Musketeers. But the evil plans of Peg-Leg Pete, captain of the Musketeers and his lieutenant Clarabelle use them in a plot to overthrow Princess Minnie. Mickey, Donald and Goofy must work together to save the day.

Video Quality:

Another fine effort by Disney with a beautiful 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation. Colors are bright and details are crisp. There is nothing really here to criticize. The animations is nice and sharp, backgrounds look fantastic, an exceptional transfer.

Audio Quality:

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is decent. While there is nothing wrong with the mix, the soundfield just feels flat and not dynamic. It does the job it is meant to do. Dialogue is clear, there is a bit more power when it comes to the action scenes, and the rear channels create an involving environment, 

Bonus Features:

• Cast Commentary (SD, 5 minutes): Oddly enough there is this random scene-specific commentary instead of a film commentary. While it includes Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Pete, it would have been really cool to have all the characters give the full movie commentary.    
• Deleted Scenes (SD, 5 minutes): DisneyToon Studios Vice President Brian Snedeker provides commentary on these unfinished, storyboarded deleted scenes.
• Get the Scoop (SD, 10 minutes): A Three Musketeers behind-the-scenes featurette.
• Disney Song Selection (HD, 7 minutes): Five songs to sing along karaoke style.
• Get Up and Dance (HD, 2 minutes): A dance-along for your kids.
• Sing-Along (HD): Hidden within the Disney Song Selection is a Sing-Along track so everyone can sing-along.

Conclusion:

Excellent video and audio presentation with some interesting bonus features make this a film to add to your Disney collection.

*Disclaimer: A review copy was provided but the review is strictly my own.*

Review of The Three Musketeers (2011) on Blu-Ray

Hello again movie fans! Welcome to another blu-ray movie review! This time it is for The Three Musketeers.

Now, as a fan of the Three Musketeers I'm not really sure what happened to the story in this movie. I mean for the first 10 minutes of the movie, we get The Three Musketeers, but then the film centers around D'Artagnan, a teenage swordsman played by Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief). By the 30 minute mark, he becomes a Musketeer. So, this film should have been called D'Artagnan The Musketeer or The Three Musketeers Plus One!

The movie follows The Three Musketeers, Athos (Matthew Macfadyen), Porthos (Ray Stevenson), and Aramis (Luke Evans) as they protect France from the threat of evil. D'Artagnan (Logan Lerman) ends up joining the musketeers, and they work together to try to stop the plans of the Duke of Buckingham (Orlando Bloom) and the beautiful Milady de Winter (Milla Jovovich).

This seems to be Director Paul W.S. Anderson's (Resident Evil) attempt at making his version of Pirates of The Caribbean. Even the score seems to be borrowing pieces of Pirates. Not a bad idea, but this film is nowhere near as fun as any of the Pirates movies. There is a huge lack of character development and you are not vested in any of them. The story is all over the place and you are literally introduced to the character three separate times. The third time however, you find out details of what will happen later on in the film. Kids might enjoy the repetition of how each character is different from one another but I found it annoying.    

The film is bland and has you thinking more about what was Anderson's thought process than enjoying the film. It's too bad because I really wanted to enjoy this but couldn't get past the confusing storyline.

The Video

The video presentation is actually quite stunning as should be expected on blu-ray. The bright colors pop off the screen.The great locations such as castles and landscapes look flawless.

The Audio

The audio presentation is quite superb. There is a great balance between dialogue and score. Plus, the surround sound is put to great use throughout the film.

The Extras

• Audio Commentary with Filmmakers - Director Paul W.S. Anderson is joined by producers Jeremy Bolt and Robert Kulzer. This is a pretty standard track with nothing particularly revealing.
  
• Featurettes (HD, 10 min) - Four featurettes focus on Anderson's take on the material, the casting of Orlando Bloom, the sets & visual effects, and the filming locations. These are all better presented in the Access: Three Musketeers feature.
• Deleted & Extended Scenes (HD, 14 min) - Twelve deleted and extended sequences are presented here and really provide no further insight into the story or the characters.
  

HD Bonus Content: Any Exclusive Goodies in There?

• Access: Three Musketeers (HD) - This is a very worthy watch for fans. It is a comprehensive scene specific supplement that plays along with the film, displaying featurettes, behind-the-scenes footage, and trivia. 
  
• BD-Live - Standard BD-Live connectivity is included.