Following the release of Mickey and Minnie on Blu-ray, Disney continues the trend of releasing classic shorts to Blu-ray for the 100th anniversary of the Disney company with a volume two called Mickey and Friends.
Continuing where Mickey and Minnie began back in the winter, this set would be considered just as exciting as cartoon shorts are far and few shown, especially on Blu-ray. The last great year for classic shorts on Blu-ray was 2018 with Celebrating Mickey. So when Mickey and Minnie and now this set, Mickey and Friends, were announced, fans were intrigued to buy it in hopes of more releases to come. Like the last set, the art cover makes it look like a very attractive set with many of the famed characters in their classic form. It's the same helping as last time however, 10 cartoons, all of which we have seen over and over again. This time, however, it's not just about Mickey Mouse. You get Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Pluto, Daisy, Chip and Dale, and a few others.
As much as you liked Mickey and Minnie if you enjoyed that Blu-ray, this one's slightly better. Content wise it features some of the best of the famous characters. If you were to show off some vintage Disney cartoons, these are some of the best selections like The Band Concert, which was Mickey's first color appearance in the series and features Mickey conducting to the William Tell Overture competing against Donald's Turkey in the Straw. Other memorable shorts include Pluto's Party, Pluto and the Gopher, Mickey's Trailer, Pluto's Sweater, and Lonesome Ghost. While Goofy cartoons appear to be absent, the Goof does easily appear in some Mickey Mouse cartoons alongside Donald Duck. Not all of them are as funny as other studios like Warner Bros., but still enough to be entertained especially for a Disney fan. Content wise, however, many shorts are overlapped from the Celebrating Mickey Blu-ray, so fear of double dipping is evident.
Since these are the same restorations used for the past decade, no surprises here with picture quality. Since the shorts don't come around as much as the features, Disney never went too far with restoring the shorts. Still, it varies from cartoon to cartoon as to how far they went to clean them up. Some like Lonesome Ghosts being one of their first ones to be restored in HD look very natural. Some of the recreated titles still looked photoshopped, but some fans have noticed a few corrections compared to previous HD releases. I wouldn't know that, and I don't think I can prove that, but maybe one with a good eye can second that. One minor thing they fixed this time around is that all the cartoons don't dissolve in and out like the Mickey and Minnie Blu-ray did, but they still have the character introductions in the beginning of each cartoon. Again, just VOs of the characters looking back on memories with no historical context, and possibly will hit a nostalgia vib with some 80's and 90's fans who grew up seeing these on VHS.
Like with Mickey and Minnie, Mickey and Friends will easily please the Pixie Duster in your family wishing to celebrate 100 years of Disney. It's got a mix of different shorts with different characters spanning at least 3 decades worth. It's still not comprehensive, and sadly it overlaps too much this time with Celebrating Mickey, but it feels much more collectible than the previous Celebrating Mickey Blu-ray with an attractive art cover, variety of characters, and since it's considered volume 2, that makes it more an addition with Mickey and Minnie. Hopefully this trend will continue with more releases if sales are successful.
