In the first new episode, Goofy and Clarabelle are going together to the Fancy Dance at the Clubhouse but Goofy still has to get ready.Note: Clarabelle joins in the Hot Dog Dance at the end of this episode. Note 2: The Mouskedoer Song has added two new lyrics that were first introduced in Playhouse Disney Live on Stage in the theme parks and the travelling show Playhouse Disney/Disney Junior Live on Tour!

Goofy plans to build a bird house for the Red Birds beside the Clubhouse.

The Clubhouse's Handy Helpers are not working properly. All of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse friends try to figure out what has happened to them. Pluto's squeaky ball is stuck in the handy dandy machine. When they get it out, the Handy helpers are working again and make dinner. Rare moment: The 'never have dinner' line is a negative word. That line will stop in more episodes.

Goofy has accidentally been turned into a baby by Professor von Drake's time machine. So with a little help from Minnie and Daisy, Mickey and Donald have to bring him back to normal.Note: This is the first CGI appearance of Goofy Baby.

Minnie organizes a picnic, inviting all their friends to come celebrate the grand opening of the Mickey Park Picnic Grounds.

Goofy is practicing for the Mickey Mouse Obstacle Course in hopes of winning a medal.

Mickey and friends practice their band's music for the Mickey Park Polka-Palooza Dance Festival where the elephants will dance the Pachyderm Polka. (The Sensational Six: Mickey on ukulele, Donald on tuba, Minnie on piano, Daisy on xylophone, Goofy on trombone and Pluto as metronome), but their instruments need to be repaired (Minnie's piano has the incorrect pitch, Goofy's trombone slide is stuck, Daisy's xylophone is falling apart, Mickey's ukulele strings are out of tune and Donald's papers keep blowing away).

Today is the Clubhouse's 'Picture Day,' where all of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse friends get their picture taken. But it seems that Goofy is too disappointed to take his picture because he lost his hat.Note: This is the first episode where Goofy is seen without his hat since he looked like that in Goof Troop,A Goofy Movie and its sequel An Extremely Goofy Movie.

The Clubhouse mail has arrived for all of the Clubhouse friends except Donald. It's up to the Clubhouse friends all make Donald feel better.

With Mickey and friends' help, Clarabelle sets up a carnival at the Clubhouse grounds. The reason for it is her need to feed the chickens with lots of corn.

Minnie wants to have a picture of a hulahibiscus to complete her flower picture collection, but she has only one day to get it, when it is in full bloom. She will need help from all of her Clubhouse friends to get to where the flower is located.
PS: Toodles has another task, besides holding onto the Mouseketools. It has the task of becoming a 'Mousekemap' as well.

Mickey and the rest of the Clubhouse friends have a 'Big Clubhouse Camp Out.' They are trying to earn a Clubhouse Camp Out badge for each one of them by doing two tasks at a campsite.

Daisy has trouble finding a pet for the Pet Parade. She must find a pet before the Pet Parade starts. She gets three pets, an elephant named Bubbles, a giraffe named Longfellow and a bunny named Captain Jumps-a-Lot.

The gang helps Mickey take care of Willie the Giant's farm while he's away.

Ludwig Von Drake's package of wild numbers has arrived at the Clubhouse. However, they are accidentally let out and it is up to Mickey and his Clubhouse friends to don cowboy/cowgirl clothes and gear and round them all up to the 'MickeyCorral' on the grounds before the Professor returns from an errand.Note: This is the only time something is alive.

Clarabelle and Bella are coming over for tea and biscuits and dog biscuits and Pluto is all dirty and needs a bubble bath. But when Pluto's bubble bath gets out of hand, Mickey and Pluto each get stuck inside a giant bubble and float away from the clubhouse.

Goofy learns to sculpt, paint and draw so he can compete in an arts and crafts show sponsored by Mickey.

The clubhouse's 'silly switch' gets stuck and makes everyone act in comical ways, such as Mickey only speaking in rhyme and Pluto making every animal sound except barking (such as meowing like a cat and mooing like a cow).

Minnie uses a growth spray in her garden to help her fruits and vegetables grow in time to be picked for Thanks A Bunch Day, but it turns them all into gigantic creations.

Daisy protects Clarabelle's secret recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies from Pete.

Pluto comes to the rescue when Donald and Goofy build a snowman so big, they can't climb around it or over it.

Goofy wants to be knighted by Queen Clarabelle, so he proves his bravery by going on a quest to retrieve three items.
Note: This episode originally streamed online at DisneyOnDemand on January 2, 2009.

Minnie attempts to find out who took her fresh baked muffins from the clubhouse.
Note: This episode was released on DVD on September 2, 2008 and this is the first episode since the Rolie Polie Olie episode Silly Willy Day where fireworks appear in CGI and is down on the ground like a 4th of July fireworks display.

Everyone wants to view Mickey's Comet, but first they have to find Professor Von Drake and his telescope.
This was the second episode in the series, following 'Doctor Daisy, M.D.', that the 'Mystery Mousketool' was chosen first.

Clarabelle stages a musical about nursery rhymes starring chickens from the petting zoo, but they practice so much, they lose their voices.

Minnie searches for a pot of gold and meets a leprechaun after a rainbow appears over the clubhouse.
Note: At one point in the episode, Leprechaun Pete brings out 'Sheamus,' a leprechaun parody of Toodles, whose 'mystery Leprechaun tool' is a fog machine.

Donald leads the gang on a mission to the moon to retrieve Pluto's bouncy ball from the moon.

Help Detective Minnie and Secret Spy Daisy search for missing party hats for the clubhouse's Friendship Day celebration.
Note: Minnie and Daisy announce the title of this episode after the opening sequence. This episode also marks the second time Minnie and Daisy's alter egos are shown.

Mickey, Daisy, Goofy and Pluto fly up to Mars and help a Martian Mickey find a secret treasure.
Note: Wayne Allwine, the longtime voice of Mickey Mouse, died 16 days after this episode aired of complications from diabetes.

Mickey and his friends throw a beach party to cool off on the hottest day of the year and Pete invites everyone including the viewer.
Note: This episode was released on Mickey's Big Splash DVD on May 5, 2009.

Donald helps a group of ducks get to a warm beach for their winter retreat.
Note: This episode was released on Mickey's Big Splash DVD on May 5, 2009.

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When Goofy's friend Coco the Monkey can't find any coconuts for her 'coconutty party,' Goofy, Mickey and the clubhouse gang take a trip into the jungle in search of coconuts.

A fireworks display, as it's presented to you by Mickey. But first, five puzzles need to be solved.
Note: This episode was first released exclusively on the Playhouse Disney website in February 2009, a year before its official TV broadcast.

Mickey finds an egg that hatches a baby dragon and he tries to return the dragon to its home and prove to Wizard Pete that he did not steal it.

Goofy gets cloned after Professor von Drake's new experimental Gooey-Goo splashes onto him. Mickey and his friends must take care of the clones until the effect wears off.
Note: This episode was released to DVD on September 8, 2009.

Mickey and his friends help Salty the Seal do tricks for the circus.
Guests - Salty the Seal, Clarabelle Cow, Pete and Chip n' Dale

Note 4: In the UK, the episode was titled as Mickey's Clubhouse Choo Choo in December 2009, the UK airing of the episode was renamed again Choo-Choo Express.
Note 5: This episode was dedicated 'in loving memory' to Wayne Allwine, who had voiced Mickey Mouse since 1977, as he died on May 18, 2009 of complications caused by diabetes.
Note 6: All the guests at the end of the episode participate in the Hot Dog Dance.

Mickey and his friends help Minnie's friend, Buzz-Buzz the Bee, find his way back home after a strong wind blows him off a sunflower, especially after Donald swats him.
Note: Minnie announces the title of this episode after the opening sequence.

Goofy trains to be a superhero and uses his skills after Clarabelle's moo-muffin maker breaks.

A mechanical cuckoo bird that's a birthday gift for Daisy flies away, and the gang embarks on an imaginative Alice in Wonderland-like adventure to retrieve it.
Note: This episode was released on DVD on September 8, 2009.

By Kelvin Cedeno

Disney is no stranger to the surreal world of author Lewis Carroll. Time and time again they've utilized Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass as springboards for films (the 1951 animated classic), shorts (Mickey Mouse's 1936 cartoon Thru the Mirror), and television series (the early '90s Disney Channel program 'Adventures in Wonderland'). Walt clearly adored the whimsy and fantasy prevalent in Carroll's novels. He intended for his first full-length film to be an Alice adaptation that utilized both animation and live-action, an echo to his own Alice Comedies series that had little to do with Wonderland outside of name.

With that project finally becoming a reality next year through the eyes of Tim Burton, it seems logical that Disney would want to raise public awareness of Wonderland early. A low-key but effective approach has been implemented via their popular 'Mickey Mouse Clubhouse' series. After many delays, the direct-to-video special once again reunites Disney and Carroll in Mickey's Adventures in Wonderland.

The program joins Mickey and the gang on Daisy's birthday. Donald plans on giving her a cuckoo clock as a present, but his trademark temper scares off the cuckoo bird. Determined to catch it before Daisy's surprise party that afternoon, Mickey and Donald follow it into the madcap world of Wonderland. Here, all of their clubhouse friends (minus Daisy, of course) appear as alter egos influenced by Lewis Carroll's classic menagerie of characters. Among these are Goofy Hatter (who has an affinity for chocolate milk), the disappearing Pete the Cat, nutty twins Tweedle Chip and Tweedle Dale, and Queen Clarabelle, who never says no to a good croquet game. With the help of trusty pal Toodles, Mickey and Donald assist the eccentric personalities they run into in hopes of getting closer to the cuckoo bird.

'Mickey Mouse Clubhouse' has always been an exceptional preschool program from the get-go, but that doesn't mean it can't use some shaking up to break potential monotony. Mickey's Adventures in Wonderland does a fine job mixing the familiar with the out-of-the-ordinary. The marriage of Disney and Carroll has, for the most part, proven successful, and the episodic nature of the Alice books that lends itself perfectly to this show's format. Each Mouseketool used nicely links itself to an encounter, bookended with segments that feel free from some of the self-imposed restrictions of 'Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.'

It also doesn't hurt that this venture feels more ambitious than usual. With a widescreen aspect ratio and new settings to visit, this truly does feel like a special and not just an extended episode. It brings enough fresh material to the table to make it easier to swallow than the double-length episodes of something like 'Little Einsteins.'

It may seem like a nitpicky criticism for a series clearly aimed at a younger demographic, but it's befuddling trying to figure out how Wonderland relates to the established Clubhouse universe. When Mickey and Donald arrive in this surreal world, one would expect the characters they meet to be totally new individuals that reflect the 'real life' ones à la MGM's The Wizard of Oz. Instead, characters like Ludwig von Drake and Minnie Mouse outright acknowledge the fact that they're themselves, even if they exhibit slightly different personality quirks. This wouldn't be so odd if the whole experience were a dream as it was in Carroll's text, but there's no indication that these events were imaginary. To top it all off, none of the characters at the end even acknowledges the adventure. Of course, this could purposely be an intentional 'Was it a dream or wasn't it?' approach, but the producers probably weren't putting that much thought or complexity into the narrative.

Only ardent Alice fans would scrutinize something clearly meant to be taken at face value. With that in mind, Mickey's Adventures in Wonderland is a fine entry into both the 'Mickey Mouse Clubhouse' series and the Disney/Carroll canon. It takes elements of two already strong properties and fuses them together in a memorable and charming manner. A bittersweet aura pervades this special, however, as this is likely one of the last times the public will get to hear new material from the recently deceased Wayne Allwine as Mickey Mouse. Such a thought adds a bit of melancholy to the experience, but it's also quite fitting that one of Allwine's last performances would hark back to a collaboration as old as the Walt Disney Company itself.

VIDEO and AUDIO

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Mickey's Adventures in Wonderland comes to DVD in an anamorphic 1.78:1 aspect ratio. While not perfect, the transfer is still more than pleasing. Colors are bold and vivid, but don't feature the blown-out contrast that early episodes of the series did. Sharpness may be hard to tell due to the rounded nature of the animation, but it seems perfectly acceptable. Only a few minor instances of color banding and jagged edges mar an otherwise rich presentation.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 surround soundtrack is surprisingly active for a show of this nature. When it comes to animation, a certain level of fidelity is expected when you're dealing with effects and dialogue that are recorded and mixed from scratch. While there's still a general focus towards the frontal speakers, effects take advantage of the surrounds at times, as does some directional dialogue. Both these and the score come across cleanly and clearly.

BONUS FEATURES, MENUS and PACKAGING

Some minor supplements round out the disc. First is the option to watch the feature in Adventure Mode. Here, the program periodically branches out to questions that can be answered via the DVD remote. Level One uses only the left and right arrow keys and asks simple questions about what's on screen. Level Two uses all four arrows and is actually a bit challenging as it removes key elements and asks the player to identify what's missing.

Finally, a bonus episode is included. Originally aired on November 20, 2008, 'Goofy Goes Goofy' (24:03) focuses on the lovable, silly dog as he's multiplied several times thanks to a Professor von Drake experiment. Mickey takes it upon himself to make sure all the Goofys stick together for when the effects wear off, but this is easier said than done. There's not much to tie this episode to the main feature, but it still a welcome and entertaining inclusion.

Via Disney's FastPlay, the disc opens with trailers for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving 10th Anniversary Special Edition, Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse, and Disney Movie Rewards. These can be found within the Sneak Peeks menu along with promos for Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure, The Princess and the Frog, The Tigger Movie: 10th Anniversary Special Edition, 'Handy Manny,' and Little Einsteins: Animal Expedition.

The animated menu feature Mickey and Donald gazing up at an hourglass as Ludwig von Drake's bubbles float around them. Music is featured both here and in the submenus, but those merely feature static character images.

Disney tends to be hit or miss when it comes to disc art, and this time it's a miss. The gray disc is held in a white Amaray case which itself is housed in a shiny, embossed cardboard slipcover. Inside the case is a leaflet advertising other Playhouse Disney programs, a Disney Movie Rewards code, and an insert that explains how to access the 'Adventure Mode' game.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Mickey's Adventures in Wonderland may disappoint Carroll purists or those expecting something more mainstream from Mickey and the gang. Those already familiar with the Playhouse Disney series, however, should find this a charming and creative breath of fresh air. The image and sound are both strong considering their limitations, and while the Adventure Mode doesn't add a great deal, the bonus episode is fun. Fans of the show are encouraged to pick this up. For those curious about a new Disney and Carroll marriage or one of Wayne Allwine's last performances as Mickey, the disc merits a rental.

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