Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers

Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers
VHS cover
Directed by	Donovan Cook
Screenplay by	Evan Spiliotopoulos David M. Evans
Based on	Mickey Mouse from Mickey Mouse universe by Walt Disney The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, père
Produced by	Margot Pipkin
Starring	Wayne Allwine Tony Anselmo Bill Farmer Russi Taylor Tress MacNeille Jim Cummings April Winchell Jeff Bennett Maurice LaMarche Rob Paulsen
Edited by	Bret Marnell
Music by	Bruce Broughton
Production companies	DisneyToon Studios[1][a] Walt Disney Pictures
Distributed by	Walt Disney Home Entertainment[2]
Release date	August 20, 2004 (2004-08-20)
Running time	65 minutes[1]
Country	United States[1]
Language	English

Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers is a 2004 American animated direct-to-video musical adventure comedy film based on original characters of Mickey Mouse universe from Mickey Mouse by Walt Disney and film adaptations of the 1844 novel The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, père. As the title suggests, it features Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy as the three musketeers in their first full length feature film together. This film was directed by Donovan Cook, produced by Walt Disney Pictures and the Australian office of DisneyToon Studios. It was released directly to VHS and DVD on August 20, 2004 by Walt Disney Home Entertainment, and was later re-released on Blu-ray Disc on August 15, 2014, coinciding with the film's 10th anniversary. The film received mixed to positive reviews from critics, who praised its musical numbers, action sequences and faithfulness to the original material, but were mixed on certain aspects and elements.

Plot[]

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Troubadour, a French-accented turtle who loves songs, backstage of a show trying to remind the narrator that he promised to use one of Troubadour's songs. The narrator ignores the turtle and breaks his promise, but accidentally falls through a trapdoor just as the show is about to begin. Consequently, Troubadour is ushered to tell the audience the story at the last minute. Panicking, Troubadour quickly picks up The Three Musketeers comic book and begins reading. He describes every single word and expressions of the characters as he is so into the comic.

Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto are street urchins, who, while being robbed by masked bandits (played by the Beagle Boys) are saved by the Royal Musketeers, Athos, Porthos, Aramis and D'Artagnan. Mickey is gifted one of their hats, inspiring them to follow their example and become musketeers; however, in the present day, Mickey, Donald and Goofy are lowly janitors for the musketeers' headquarters and their dream is still far away. Unfortunately, they are very clumsy and constantly cause messes. After an incident disturbs the captain of the musketeers, portrayed by Pete, he scornfully tells the trio that they cannot become musketeers because Donald is a "coward", Goofy is a "doofus" and Mickey is "just too small", leaving the three downhearted.

Meanwhile, Minnie Mouse, princess of France and her lady-in-waiting, Daisy Duck, are in a palace discussing Minnie's obsession with finding her "one true love". Daisy says that she must marry someone who is of royal blood, and Minnie insists that she cannot marry someone she does not love. Minnie says she will know "the one" when he makes her laugh. Minnie then takes a walk in the palace garden and barely survives an attempt on her life as the Beagle Boys attempt to drop a safe on her.

The Beagle Boys run to tell their boss, revealed to be Captain Pete, that they were not successful in dropping the safe on Minnie. Pete clobbers them for misunderstanding his orders, saying he wanted them to "keep her safe" until he can take over the kingdom. The Beagle Boys are misunderstood and are punished by Pete's lieutenant "Clarebelle", who all fall into a short pit. Minnie then summons Pete, demanding he produce musketeer bodyguards. Realizing that skilled musketeers will jeopardize his plan to overthrow the princess, Pete quickly goes to the janitor room and tells Mickey, Donald and Goofy that they passed his test and have what it takes to become musketeers, knowing they will be easy to get rid of. After meeting each other and attacking Daisy by mistake, Minnie falls in love with Mickey and feels safe at the hands of his bravery. Pete gives a chance to the Beagle Boys to kidnap Minnie and Daisy, so he can become King tomorrow when he is announced at the Opera.

While Minnie and Daisy are protected by Mickey, Donald and Goofy, who all go on a journey in a carriage, they are all ambushed by the Beagle Boys who attack and fight Mickey, Donald and Goofy. Donald hides, with Minnie and Daisy trying to persuade him to fight back, and Goofy is easily defeated and thrown off the carriage. Mickey is also defeated and thrown off, leaving only Donald, but he is too scared and throws himself off. The trio are stranded, but Mickey encourages his friends not to lose hope when Pete made them become musketeers. The trio rush to rescue Minnie and Daisy from an abandoned tower. When they are unable to open the door, Goofy tries to break it down, but Mickey, upon seeing a Push sign on the door, opens it as Goofy rushes by. He zooms past the Beagle Boys and out the tower window where is thrown by a tree, kicked by a cow, and launched back into the tower by a windmill where he falls past the Beagle Boys and back down to where Mickey and Donald are. The trio quickly catch up to the Beagle Boys just as they throw Minnie and Daisy into a cage. While battling the Beagle Boys, Donald retreats while Mickey and Goofy are cornered but Goofy, upon seeing a Goofy-shaped hole in the window behind the Beagle Boys, remembers what happened when he tried to break down the tower door and gets the idea to do the same thing again with Mickey, knocking the Beagle Boys into the river and allowing them to save Minnie and Daisy. Donald reconciles with the group and declares victory. Afterwards, Mickey unties Minnie and makes her laugh, and the two mice fall in love and spend time alone with each other as they head home.

Pete is furious that the Beagle Boys failed in their task and realizes that the three protagonists are more of a threat than he originally anticipated. He then plans to get rid of them individually. While on night duty, Goofy is lured away from the palace by Clarabelle, who uses a shadow puppet of Mickey with her hands, which makes Goofy follow the shadow (after hearing about escargot peanut butter). The shadow then vanishes, in which Goofy is cornered, subdued and kidnapped by Clarebelle. The Beagle Boys appear before Donald and attack him, scaring him into hiding, before Pete traps him and puts Donald in a guillotine. Donald discovers a picture of Pete dressed as a king and laughing at a caged Minnie along with three gravestones with his, Mickey, and Goofy's names on them and finds out about Pete's plan to become King and trap Minnie somewhere, where she will be hidden, and that the trio will be killed and not able to rescue Minnie. At that moment, Donald escapes at the last second, causing Pete to lose his peg leg after he dives under the guillotine's blade to try to prevent his escape.

Pluto finds out that Goofy and Donald are missing and bumps into Mickey to warn him. Donald returns to the castle and tells Mickey the whole story, but fearfully says they ought to quit being musketeers, claiming "it's every duck for himself". Mickey tries to convince Donald by saying that they were able to stop Pete from kidnapping Minnie, but Donald reveals that he had been hiding when they fought the Beagle Boys before. Mickey tries to reassure Donald that he will be by his side, and that Donald coming to warn him took courage. However, Donald apologizes before frightfully running off, leaving Mickey and Pluto behind. Mickey is then captured by Pete, with Pluto being unable to save Mickey. Pete chains him up in a dungeon in Mont Saint-Michel that will flood when the tide comes in.

Goofy, meanwhile, is chained by Clarabelle and about to be thrown off a bridge into a river to drown, but Goofy falls in love with Clarabelle and wins her heart with his "numbskull charm". Clarabelle abandons her evil ambitions and reveals Pete's true intentions to Goofy, and that Mickey is in danger. However, the bridge suddenly crumbles and sends both Goofy and Clarabelle into the river below. Donald, who is rowing across the river to escape France, breaks their fall. The tide arrives, where Mickey is about to drown. Goofy fails to convince Donald to help him save Mickey, but thanks to a song from Troubadour ridiculing Donald's cowardice, an infuriated and now confident Donald decides to join Goofy. The duo are just barely able to save Mickey before he drowns. After reconciling with each other, they set off to rescue Minnie and Daisy.

The Beagle Boys capture Minnie and Daisy in a theater and lock them in a chest, and one of them impersonates Minnie, announcing to the public that the throne is now being handed over to "King Pete the Magnificent". Pete is happy to become the King and the Opera begins. Pluto uses his nose to track down Minnie and Daisy. Mickey, Donald and Goofy arrive and battle Pete and the Beagle Boys onstage, first defeating the Beagle Boys by making them collapse downstage to the basement along with Donald and Goofy.

Pete then challenges Mickey into a final sword fight, but after Mickey disarms Pete, he is punched and easily beaten. However, Donald and Goofy (having survived their fall) return and help Mickey defeat Pete by knocking him out. The trio save Minnie and Daisy right in front of the audience, although it is unknown what happens to Pete and the Beagle Boys. Clarabelle arrives, reuniting with Goofy as Mickey and Minnie finally declare their love for one another, as the others do the same: Donald and Daisy, Goofy and Clarabelle. At the end, Minnie dubs Mickey, Donald and Goofy royal musketeers. Troubadour announces that this was the day where the three heroes finally made their dream come true. Mickey, Donald, Goofy and the rest of the musketeers of France sing the final song "All For One and One For All" at the end of the film.

Voice cast[]

• Wayne Allwine as Mickey Mouse^[3]
• Tony Anselmo as Donald Duck^[3]
• Bill Farmer as Goofy and Pluto^[3]
• Russi Taylor as Minnie Mouse^[3]
• Tress MacNeille as Daisy Duck^[3]
• Jim Cummings as Pete^[3]
• April Winchell as Clarabelle Cow^[3]
• Jeff Bennett and Maurice LaMarche as The Beagle Boys
• Rob Paulsen as Troubadour
• Jess Harnell as Major General
• Frank Welker Additional Voices
• Trevor Devall as Pirate Crew (Singing voice)

Production[]

An adaptation of Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers, with Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy as the Musketeers; was planned during the 1980s at Walt Disney Animation Studios. In 1983, storyboard artists Steve Hulett and Pete Young developed the project with Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, and José Carioca as the Musketeers, but it fell into development hell.^[4] In 2002–2003, in honor of Mickey Mouse's 75th anniversary, it was announced that a featurette entitled The Search of Mickey Mouse was in development. The project was about Mickey who gets kidnapped by unknown forces, forcing Minnie Mouse to enlist Basil of Baker Street to investigate his disappearance, and later encounters one character from Disney's animated film canon such as Alice, Peter Pan, Robin Hood, and Aladdin.^[5] However, the project suffered script problems with the multiple cameos being thought to be too gimmicky.^[6] After the cancellation of the latter project it was announced that a feature film based on The Three Musketeers with Mickey, Donald, and Goofy in the lead roles was in development, meaning that Hulett's and Young's project had been revived. However, the film did not include José Carioca as in the early development.

Reception[]

As of October 2020, Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers had a rating of 36% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes based on 11 reviews with an average score of 4.84/10.^[7]

Release[]

The film was first released on DVD and VHS on August 20, 2004.^[2][8] For the film's 10th anniversary, it was released on Blu-ray on August 15, 2014.^[3]

Video games[]

A world named Country of the Musketeers based on the movie appears in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance.^[9][10] This is the first time a world in the series has originated from a direct-to-video feature.^[11] Like the Timeless River world in Kingdom Hearts II, it is featured as a period of Mickey Mouse's past. All the characters except Daisy, Clarabelle, and the Troubadour do not appear.

Soundtrack[]

The soundtrack for the film, titled Mickey, Donald & Goofy: The Three Musketeers, was released on August 13, 2004, by Walt Disney Records.^[8] In addition to seven classical songs reinterpreted with new comedic lyrics,^[12] it also features a rewritten cover of the Schoolhouse Rock classic "Three Is a Magic Number" by Stevie Brock, Greg Raposo and Matt Ballinger.^[8] In 2018, "Mickey, Donald and Goofy: The Three Musketeers" became the first direct-to-video Disney film to have its full musical score, released on CD by Intrada Records. Like the original album, Intrada's release includes all the songs from the movie, though in this release, most of them are put together with the respective pieces of Bruce Broughton's background music that leads up to them. Some of the music cues include pieces of the score that ultimately went unused in the movie. The "Three is a Magic Number" cover is also omitted this time.

References[]

External links[]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers

• Official website
• Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers at IMDb
• Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers at The Big Cartoon DataBase