Mickey and Donald Christmas Parade #3 Review
The holiday season is upon us as 2017 comes to an end and 2018 begins in only a few days, as usual, IDW released their annual Christmas issue featuring our Disney pals. Christmas Parade #3 features mostly Scrooge and Donald focused stories compared to our big cheese Mickey with only one story that isn’t even holiday themed at all. Let’s dive in into each of the five stories shall we?
The Secret Santa Spell (2002, Italy, Topolino #2405) is the first story of the issue and the longest. It starts as Scrooge tests out Gyro’s newest invention the Virtuetron 3000 on some Scottish bagpipe panhandlers to test if their intentions are pure or villainous. The machine detects their intentions as Magica and her accomplice Rosolio drop their costumes as they get attacked by a security bot.
Back at her lair, Magica scolds her family for coming over during the holiday season at her base at Mount Vesuvius in Italy and decorating it for Christmas. Magica soon decides to leave as her niece points out that she should write to Santa for the dime, Magica points out she already did 6 times as she soon realizes it means the seventh letter will trigger a spell that will force Santa to grant that letter’s wish.
Magica soon decides to make her way to the North Pole to unleash the curse to benefit herself, will she finally get her dime or will Scrooge or her family end up bumbling her plans to figgy pudding ?
The Case of The Scrambled Formula ( 1970, Italy, Almanacco Topolino #159 ) is the second story of the issue and if Im going to be honest, a disappointment since its the only non-Duck story in this issue and its not even Christmas or holiday themed. It’s just a standard winter story.
The story starts with Mickey picking up Minnie for a movie date but she forgot due to being focused on a Scra-Babble contest that is happening that night as the two decides to go to the TV studio to participate. Elsewhere, the Beagle Boys gets their mitts on a recipe for a formula a scientist invented that could melt any metal with the spray of a bottle, they disguise themselves as investors as they trick the scientist to go with them but they lose the formula to a fire along the way.
The two kidnap the scientist to try and recreate the recipe but the scientist escapes by using the formula leaving behind the formula which has been rendered useless by the accidental scrambling of the letters by an incompetent Beagle Boy, the Beagles happened to watch the coverage of the Scra-Babble game and sees Minnie has won first prize. They soon get the idea of kidnapping her to reclaim the formula and steal from banks all over.
Will they succeed or will they fail once again in the hands of Mickey Mouse ? Read the issue to find out
Warm Friendship ( 1945, USA, Four Color Donald #62) is just a sample from the Sunday Donald Duck newspaper comic about Donald warming himself up during a cold winter night through various methods.
Tree Ring Bind (1995, Dutch, Donald Duck Weekblad #51) deals with Daisy spraining her leg keeping her from shopping for a Christmas tree and Donald volunteers to get her a tree in time for her nieces’ visit.
Duckburg is nearly sold out of trees everywhere as a disgruntled Donald tries to buy the one his nephews raised for a Junior Woodchuck badge but they tell him to buy some raffle tickets to win a pre-decorated tree but rips his ticket once he notices Gladstone having bought two tickets to the same raffle.
Bin and Gone (Italy, 2014, Topolino #3083) is the final story of the issue and is a quick one page story about Donald and Fethry decorating Scrooge’s money bin for the holidays against their uncle’s wishes due to him wanting to save money from the resulting electric bill.
FINAL THOUGHTS :
Christmas Parade #3 is a great stocking stuffer for Disney fans, despite its delay resulting in it being released after Christmas, this will still make a great holiday book to give to your children or Disney fans in your families. From encounters with Magica and the Beagle Boys to a hunt for the perfect Christmas tree, this issue is packed with numerous Disney holiday adventures to warrant its purchase.
Despite how I felt about Scrambled Formula sticking out due to it being a winter story rather than a holiday story, these stories are worth reading, be sure to pick up the previous issues as well for even more holiday goodness.
RATING : 6.5 out of 10