So, two nights ago, a new Christmas special titled "Mickey Saves Christmas" premiered simultaneously on ABC, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, and Disney XD, and is also now on both Disney+ and Hulu.
It's a stop-motion special starring Mickey, Pluto, Minnie, Goofy, Daisy, and Donald as they help Santa out of a jam on late-night Christmas Eve:
I just watched it and, like a lot of current Mickey stuff, it's charming enough. It also surprised me in how it even a few moments of genuine sadness and sincere emotion, rather than trying to keep everything happy and cheery all the time per the common conception about Mickey and Friends. Mickey honestly got to show a decent range of emotion in this special. No anger or serious frustration, but he was definitely written with a bit more emotional depth than one would typically expect from the modern-day Mickey Mouse.
Pete and Clarabelle make cameo appearances and the story is set in the city of Hot Dog Hills, the same setting as the Roadster Racers/Mixed-Up Adventures series.
The stop-motion model work was done by Stoopid Buddy Stoodios of Robot Chicken fame, and it's definitely a step-up in quality from that show's work. The designs of Mickey and Friends are both true to their traditional cartoony looks but also very detailed with visible fur on Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, and Goofy, and visible feathers on Donald and Daisy.
Speaking of Daisy, this special marked the first time that she is voiced by Debra Wilson instead of Tress MacNeille. Donald is voiced by Tony Anselmo, Goofy and Pluto by Bill Farmer, Minnie by her new voice Kaitlyn Robrock, and Mickey by Bret Iwan.
Since I personally haven't been watching any of the current Mickey stuff that's aimed at preschoolers, this special was the first real instance that I listened to Iwan and Robrock's takes on Mickey and Minnie in a full production. While Robrock sounds like a convincing-enough match for the late great Russi Taylor's Minnie, Iwan I find has a very noticeably deeper voice compared to Wayne Allwine's Mickey. While, one could say the same about Walt Disney and Jimmy MacDonald's Mickey voices, I've just gotten so used to Allwine's Mickey over the years that hearing Iwan's deeper Mickey sounded just a little jarring to me. He captured the spirit of the character, but his voice just took some getting used to for me.
Overall, it was a nice, quaint little thing, and I wouldn't mind seeing more stop-motion model work like this to come out of Disney, as this kind of animation is always impressive.