Mickey and the Roadster Racers Review

It’s the start of a new year for us Disney fans. While Disney XD and Disney Channel will eventually get many new animated series such as Disney Tangled The Series, Disney Duck Tales and Disney Big Hero 6: The Animated Series later this year,  Disney Junior on the other hand has started the year off with a big bang with its newest animated series, Disney Mickey and the Roadster Racers.

Gone are the Clubhouse and Toodles, this series now takes place in the town of Hot Dog Hills (the only reference to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse that this series features) as Mickey and the gang are in charge of a garage for their frequent races held in the town. Chip and Dale joins them as assistant mechanics along with new character Cuckoo Loca who aids Minnie and Daisy with their side business which I will talk about later on.

The episodes I will be reviewing today are the first and fourth episodes of the series , these were all that was available on the Canadian ITunes. The episodes Agent Double-O-Goof and Egg-xasperating are labelled as Episode 2 on the service rather than Episode 4. Small problem aside. Let’s get on to it, shall we ?

MICKEY’S WILD TIRE

In the premiere episode of the series, Billy Beagle (voiced by comedian Jay Leno) announces that Hot Dog Hills is to honour the legendary racer Jiminy Johnson (voiced by professional NASCAR racer Jimmie Johnson) with the key to the city and honour this momentous day as Jiminy Johnson Day. Pete (voiced by Jim Cummings), meanwhile lurks outside of Mickey’s garage overhearing this as he plans on giving a miniature replica of Jiminy’s first car to the racer as a present hoping to become his newest friend.

Mickey (voiced by Bret Iwan), meanwhile presents the gang with his gift for the famed racer, one of the original wheels from Jiminy’s original race car. Pete now finds his chances of impressing Jiminy  plummeting, he sets out to steal the wheel from Mickey and give it to Jiminy instead. When the wheel ends up missing, Mickey sets out to retrieve it from the clutches of Pete.

SITTIN KITTY

The second half of the episodes of Disney Mickey and the Roadster Racers deal with Minnie (voiced by Russi Taylor) and Daisy (voiced by Tress McNeille)’s side business called the Happy Helpers where they solve small problems throughout town. In this premiere episode, the duo are called to babysit Hilda (voiced by April Winchell)’s pet called Snowpuff.

The two reach Hilda’s house as they soon find the pet cat already outside, having sneaked out while the girls were talking to Hilda. They soon chase the pet throughout town causing various hijinks such as interrupting Goofy’s picnic and breaking traffic light buttons. Will they get Snowpuff back ? Watch the episode to find out

AGENT DOUBLE-O-GOOF

The episode starts off with Donald Duck (voiced for the first time by Daniel Ross) leading Chip and Dale (voiced by Tress McNeille and Corey Burton) to the crossing of the guards when the Queen of England arrives. Goofy (voiced by Bill Farmer), meanwhile heads out to do his royal tea party errands such as getting a throne and some teacups from a friend of his, Mrs. KnickKnacks.

Meanwhile at a diner downtown, Lord Beagletwait (voiced by Jim Cummings) gets a call from the Queen for a update on the briefcase that the Lord is carrying. He is waiting for a secret agent called Chips to arrive to escort the briefcase safely to the queen from the evil Commander Heist (voiced by Steve Valentine) and his pet cat.

Agent Chips (voice of Peter Serafinowicz) waits for the perfect chance to get to the diner but Pete accidentally bumps into him for a easy buck and distracts Chips from his duty.Goofy heads to the diner for his daily Goofy dog (Veggie dog with fudge, sea salt and jalapeños). The Lord mistakes Goofy for Clauncey Chips and gives him the briefcase. Heist also believes him to be Chips and set out to steal the briefcase from the clueless Goofy.

EGG-XASPERATING

Minnie and Daisy are busy spending the Turnstyler at the Happy Helpings HQ as Pluto is the machine’s test subject to try and get the correct matching clothing onto its subject as they get an urgent call from long forgotten Disney character Clara Cluck (voiced by Russi Taylor) to supervise her latest egg while she goes out on errands.

The egg starts to crack right after Clara leaves as Minnie heads out to try to get her back home in time for her child’s hatching as Daisy and Pluto try to keep it from hatching by stalling it with music.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This show, overall in the two episodes I watched, reminds me that preschoolers deserve quality programming that isn’t dumbed down. That was my main problem with their early series, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, it was only entertaining for very young children with no redeeming qualities for older children and the parents watching it with them.

This, on the other hand is how a Mickey Mouse show for preschoolers should be done, a story with a good engaging plot, some conflicts from villains such as Pete , no talking directly to the audience halting the plot for some activity your young children most likely wouldn’t do  and a moral at the end relating to the story of the episode such as being responsible while babysitting or stealing is wrong while being entertaining for all ages including adults.

The animation received a major upscale courtesy of Technicolor Animation in India. The backgrounds and character animation are much more vibrant than Mickey Mouse Clubhouse had. The guest starts are a good selling point for this series as future episodes will features the likes of renowned chef Gordon Ramsay and Tim Gunn.

I heavily recommend Disney Mickey and the Roadster Racers if you have small children in your household or if you are a big Disney fan like I am. I cannot wait to see what the future holds for this animated series.

Special thanks to my friend Chris Leonido for the screenshots used for this review.

Will you be catching this show in the near future ? Which characters do you hope to see down the line ? Comment down below