Donald's Halloween Scare/Donald's Lighthouse/How to Take Care of Your Yard

Love animation to bits. It was a big part of my life as a child, especially Disney, Looney Tunes, Hanna Barbera and Tom and Jerry, and still love it as a young adult, whether it's film, television or cartoons. Actually appreciate it even more now, having more knowledge of the different animation styles and directors and what work went into them.

Am most familiar with the 'Mickey Mouse Works' cartoons from them featuring on 'House of Mouse', a show still held a fondness for by me. With the colours and sound effects, that 'Mickey Mouse Works' makes a real effort to retain the spirit of the old/classic/golden age Disney cartoons is to be lauded. The characters' original personalities are admirably stuck true to as well, particularly Goofy and Donald, while also expanding those for a few, Mickey being more interesting here than before. The hyperactive energy present here is one of few things that is different.

The "Pluto Gets the Paper" cartoons, while slight and formulaic, are cute and amusing enough and provide good and well suited situations for energetic Pluto. 'Vending Machine', one of two 'Mickey Mouse Works' cartoons to not appear on 'House of Mouse' ('Minnie Takes Care of Pluto' is the other), is no exception.

Being someone who loves the old Donald Duck and Humphrey Bear cartoons, it is lovely to see 'Donald's Grizzly Guest' stick close in spirit in terms of humour, energy and the two characters' personalities to those cartoons. Donald is wonderfully temperamental and Humphrey shows why he should have made it bigger as a character and been in more cartoons. The two work really well together.

'Snowman' is another enjoyable, if too short, cartoon from the "Donald's Dynamite' series, for me it's one of the better ones too and that it was the only "Donald's Dynamite" cartoon to feature twice on 'House of Mouse' seems to suggest from personal view that the writers for that show seemed to think so. Some funny gags, a nice scenario and how Donald reacts to the situation ensure that it doesn't get too repetitive.

Of the 'Mickey Mouse Works' cartoons, 'Mickey Foils the Phantom Blot' is a strong contender for the best. Mickey, Donald and Goofy are a dream team in working together, their personalities, how they gel and clash with each other and their interaction is delightful. The fun and thrilling story that is sometimes noir-ish is also a big part of the appeal, as is the villain the Phantom Blot. The ending can be seen from some way off, but this is a case of that not mattering because the climactic moments excite.

While not surprising in outcome, the stories are lively and engaging, kept afloat by the character interaction, characters and the atmosphere.

The writing is clever and very funny, even with the deliberately corny moment and pun which made me grin rather than groan.

Really enjoy the spontaneous flow of the episode and Donald's spotlight stealing/accident with the boat and whale is very funny indeed and one of the better ones perhaps.

Furthermore, the animation is very colourful, smooth in movement and with some meticulous detail. The music is suitably groovy, jaunty and cleverly used.

Voice acting is very good with some of the best voice actors in the business involved. Wayne Allwine, Bill Farmer and Tony Anselmo are more than worthy successors to Walt Disney/James MacDonald, Pinto Colvig and Clarence "Ducky" Nash. John O'Hurley is very sinister as the Phantom Blot and Corey Burton's Von Drake is entertainingly eccentric

Overall, very enjoyable once again. 8/10 Bethany Cox