REVIEW | Mickey Mouse Clubhouse+: Mickey's Country Farm

🚨 SPOILERS AHEAD! 🚨

I had the chance to check out the new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse+ 45-minute special, Mickey's Country Farm, and out of both the original series and the revival, this might honestly be one of my favorite episodes yet. There were so many things this special did right, from its callbacks to classic episodes to its music, animation, and surprisingly emotional story.

Viewers of the original Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, like me, may remember the season 4 episodes Mickey and Donald Have a Farm and Mickey's Farm Fun Fair. One thing I've noticed about Clubhouse+ is that it often builds brand-new stories by taking inspiration from older episodes. Rather than simply retelling old ideas, it takes familiar concepts and gives them an entirely new adventure.

One example is Please the Bees. In that episode, Mickey and the gang head out for a picnic, but after Donald accidentally breaks a beehive while flying his kite, the bees spend the day pestering him while everyone else tries to figure out why they're so upset. Compare that to the season 2 episode Minnie's Bee Story. There, Mickey and his friends help Buzz-Buzz the Bee find his way home after he's blown away from his favorite sunflower, though Donald initially shoos him away. It's clear that Minnie's Bee Story inspired Please the Bees in several ways.

For example, the original episode has Donald and Daisy enjoying a honey picnic, while Please the Bees begins with Mickey and the gang setting out for a picnic before the bees interrupt Donald. When they finally get to enjoy it at the end of the episode, the bees even reward them with honey for their biscuits because Mickey forgot to pack any. Another callback is Goofy's kazoo. In Minnie's Bee Story, Goofy is seen practicing it when the gang encounters him during their search for Buzz-Buzz, mistaking the kazoo's sound for buzzing. In Please the Bees, he performs an entire musical number on the kazoo as the gang tries to cheer up the bees. Those are just a few examples, but I'll save the rest for another time. What really fascinated me was seeing that same philosophy carry over into Mickey's Country Farm, because it's clear those two season 4 farm episodes helped shape this special.

The special begins with Mickey and his pals heading down to his farm in a brand-new tractor that Professor Von Drake built for him. When they arrive, the Professor reveals that he has also made personalized tractors for everyone else, each with its own unique abilities. Minnie's shakes trees and catches apples, Donald's functions as a hay baler, Goofy gets an ATV, which he proudly calls his "ATG" (All-Terrain Goofmobile), and Daisy receives a tractor equipped with a giant mallet.

I immediately loved this idea because it gave every character something unique to contribute throughout the special. Instead of everyone solving problems the same way, each tractor played to its owner's strengths and personality.

That mallet isn't just any ordinary tool. Fans of Mickey and the Roadster Racers and Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures may recognize it as Molly the Mallet, Daisy's trusty gadget from those series. Molly is basically an absurdly overpowered mallet that somehow manages to fix almost anything. What surprised me, though, is that this special flips that idea on its head by making Molly the source of Daisy's biggest problems.

It was also nice to see Clubhouse+ continue bringing back characters and elements from Mickey and the Roadster Racers and Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures. Rather than treating those series like separate continuities, it feels like Disney is embracing them as part of Mickey's larger world. As someone who really enjoyed both shows, I love seeing those connections continue to carry over into Clubhouse+.

One thing I really appreciated about this special is how much focus Daisy gets. She doesn't often get to carry an entire Clubhouse story, and here she's very clearly the heart of the episode. I also liked that the conflict never came from Daisy intentionally doing anything wrong. She genuinely wanted to help her friends, which made her frustration feel much more relatable when everything kept going wrong.

Inspired by her hero, the legendary cowgirl Lasso Lucy, Daisy suggests building "the fairest farm fair of them all." Lasso Lucy is famous for visiting the most unique farm fairs imaginable, and Daisy dreams of creating one worthy of her admiration. Everyone quickly gets to work. Mickey builds a parade route, Minnie gathers apples for pies, Goofy rounds up pigs for a pig race, and Donald bales hay for climbing stacks. Daisy wants to contribute too, but she's unsure what her role should be, so she decides to help everyone else until she finds something that's truly her own.

Helping out, however, turns out to be much easier said than done.

Each tractor has a red lever to stop and a green lever to go, but Daisy's has two additional controls: a purple gearshift-esque lever with numbered settings and a yellow lever marked with a hand. Since Professor Von Drake forgot to explain what they do, Daisy unknowingly experiments with them, and chaos quickly follows.

Every attempt to help ends in disaster. When Mickey asks her to move barrels, the tractor smashes them instead. While helping Donald shape hay bales, the tractor's extendable arms keep forming the wrong shapes. She accidentally destroys Minnie's apples after the tractor trips over a rock and she pulls the purple lever. Then, while trying to fetch water for Goofy's pigs, she gets stuck in the mud. A piglet climbs into the tractor, activates Molly once again, and sends everything even further out of control.

I really liked that none of these moments felt mean-spirited. Daisy genuinely wanted to help her friends, and that made every mistake feel more frustrating for her rather than simply being played for laughs.

By this point, Daisy is completely discouraged. Even though her friends reassure her that she was only trying to help, she can't shake the feeling that she's making everything worse. She eventually removes Molly from the tractor and sings what is honestly one of the saddest songs I've ever heard in Mickey Mouse history. It's a surprisingly emotional moment for a preschool series, and one that really stood out to me.

When Daisy runs into Professor Von Drake, he immediately realizes the problem: he never explained how her tractor works. He tells her that the higher the purple lever is set, the larger Molly becomes, while the yellow lever controls what he calls the "Extra Handy Handy Helper," allowing Daisy to simply tell the tractor what she wants it to do. With her confidence restored, Daisy reunites with Molly and heads back, determined to make the farm fair the best one ever.

Meanwhile, Mickey and Pluto head up the hill to check on the parade route, where Pete is driving a truck carrying a giant watermelon grown from one of Willie the Giant's watermelon seeds. When Pete suddenly slams on the brakes after spotting Mickey, the enormous watermelon rolls free and begins barreling down the hill.

What follows is one of the most entertaining action sequences the series has done so far, as everyone scrambles to stop the runaway watermelon while protecting both themselves and the farm animals using their tractors in increasingly creative ways. It made for one of my favorite climaxes the series has pulled off so far.

Eventually, the watermelon races back toward the farm and threatens to crash straight into the barn. Mickey tries to stop it but accidentally presses a button that deploys nothing more than an ordinary-sized umbrella, which is not exactly the tool for the job.

That's when Daisy steps in.

Now fully understanding how her tractor works, she confidently enlarges Molly the Mallet and smashes the giant watermelon just before it reaches the barn, saving the farm and finally proving to herself that she really can help. It was such a satisfying payoff after watching her struggle throughout the entire special.

As the watermelon bursts apart, its seeds scatter into the surrounding dirt, instantly growing into dozens of new giant watermelons. At first, Minnie worries they'll ruin the fair, but Daisy quickly comes up with a clever solution: turning the entire event into a watermelon-themed farm fair instead. I liked that the episode didn't just solve the problem; it turned it into part of the celebration.

Just when everything seems perfect, the ground begins shaking once again. Is it another giant watermelon?

Nope. It's the legend herself.

Lasso Lucy arrives riding her purple polka-dotted bull, Poncho, and proudly declares it the fairest farm fair she's ever seen. After hearing the story of the brave duck who saved the entire fair, Lasso Lucy happily spends time exploring everything Daisy and her friends created. With Megan Hilty bringing so much charm and personality to the character, seeing Daisy finally meet her hero after everything she went through makes for a genuinely satisfying ending.

Overjoyed, Daisy celebrates by dancing as Lasso Lucy teaches everyone the Hoedown Throwdown in a brand-new rendition of the song made famous by Disney Legend Miley Cyrus in Hannah Montana: The Movie.

With Lasso Lucy riding off into the sunset, Mickey and the gang return to the Clubhouse for one final celebratory Hot Dog Dance, bringing the special to a close.

There was seriously so much I loved about this episode. For one, this was the first 45-minute special for the series, which was really exciting considering how the original Mickey Mouse Clubhouse featured so many memorable "2-part" specials, like Mickey's Adventures in Wonderland, Space Adventure, The Wizard of Dizz, and many more.

Before I even get into the episode itself, one small thing I really appreciated was the title card. Disney has largely moved away from putting episode titles directly on their title cards in many of their newer productions, so seeing Mickey's Country Farm prominently displayed again was a surprisingly nice touch. It's a tiny detail, but it immediately gave the special a more classic feel.

What really helps this special stand out, though, is the music. One of the biggest differences between the original series and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse+ is just how much more music there is in every episode. Mike Himelstein and Michael Turner absolutely knocked it out of the park here with all of the country-themed songs. Since the episode runs 45 minutes, they had plenty of room to turn it into a full-blown musical, and I think they took full advantage of that.

For the first time in the series, the show's main musical themes were also completely reimagined. Unless I'm forgetting something, I don't recall any previous Disney Jr. Mickey series ever giving the opening theme, the Mousekedoer song, and the Hot Dog Dance entirely new arrangements to match an episode's setting. Hearing all three receive country-fied versions was such a fun surprise.

One little detail I especially appreciated was during the Hot Dog Dance, when they brought back Wayne Allwine's recording of Mickey saying, "That's me!" -something the previous Clubhouse+ episodes hadn't done. Interestingly, though, this special also marks the first time the opening theme uses Bret Iwan's recording of Mickey saying, "Right here!" during the roll call. Up until now, Clubhouse+ had continued using Wayne’s original recording for that moment. In fact, Bret's line is the same recording that was previously used for the Disney Jr. Let's Play! Live tour. I thought it was a really thoughtful way to honor both Mickey voice actors in the same episode. As a longtime Mickey fan, it was one of those little details that couldn't help but make me smile.

Along with that, this is also the first time we've seen the characters perform those songs while wearing their country farm outfits. One thing I always appreciated about the original Mickey Mouse Clubhouse was that the characters usually kept whatever outfits they had been wearing when the episode transitioned into those musical segments. Clubhouse+ has generally saved time by reusing the standard versions of those sequences for the Mousekedoer song and the Hot Dog Dance, so it was genuinely refreshing to see them reanimated specifically for this special. It's a small detail, but I think it really helped make the episode feel special. I also thought the pacing was noticeably better than some previous episodes. It still moves quickly, but it didn't feel nearly as rushed as some of the earlier installments. That being said, there were a few things that I wasn't the biggest fan of.

Because this new series is so heavily music-driven, a lot of each episode's runtime is devoted to songs. While I really enjoy the music, I do think it's one of the reasons the overall pacing often feels faster than the original series. One thing I've noticed is that many of the show's recurring musical segments have been shortened. The original series generally kept these sequences at a consistent length, while Clubhouse+ seems to vary them from episode to episode. Unfortunately, that often means Mickey's recap during the Hot Dog Dance gets condensed into only one or two quick lines, with transitions that don't always flow as naturally. Since this special was nearly 45 minutes long, and they had composed an entirely new country version of the song, I was honestly hoping they'd let Mickey do the full recap this time. Sadly, that still wasn't the case, and I found that a little disappointing.

Another element that feels noticeably scaled back is Toodles. Personally, Toodles having less screen time isn't really my biggest complaint. Sure, I'd love to see him appear more often, but that's not what bothers me most. My biggest issue is that they continue reusing the exact same shortened version of his jingle in nearly every episode, with very little variation. Thankfully, this special at least used Toodles' cowboy-themed jingle, which isn't heard very often, so it helped add a little variety.

I also wish the Mouseketools had been spread out more evenly throughout the episode. All of them were used within the first half, and I think spacing out Toodles' appearances would have helped the pacing even more.

There was one exception that worked really well, though. The first two Toodles calls happen very close together, but the context makes them feel natural. When Pete visits Willie the Giant's garden, he assumes Mickey won't mind him borrowing a Mouseketool, so he calls Toodles to help transport the giant watermelon seed back to his market. Then, completely unaware that Pete has already used one, Mickey calls Toodles himself to help stop Daisy's out-of-control tractor. Because those moments happen independently of one another, the back-to-back calls never felt repetitive to me.

The one thing that really didn't work for me, though, was the Mystery Mousekepartner.

I actually loved the idea of renaming it for this special. Calling it the Mystery Mousekepartner and changing the icon into a cowboy hat with the question mark was a really creative touch. My problem was who they chose.

Throughout Clubhouse+, the Mystery Mousekepals haven't felt nearly as surprising as I'd hoped. More often than not, they simply end up being supporting characters under slightly different personas. This time, the Mystery Mousekepartner turned out to be Piggy Herding Pluto, whose job was helping round up the pigs after Daisy accidentally broke their pen. That choice honestly bothered me because Pluto was already there the whole time. Even more than that, Pluto had literally been the Mystery Mousekepal in the previous episode as Sheep Herding Pluto... doing the exact same job essentially. Personally, I think Lasso Lucy would've been the perfect Mystery Mousekepartner. Not only would it have surprised Daisy, but it also would've made her eventual arrival feel even more rewarding.

Finally, I want to talk about the animation, because I genuinely think this episode contains some of the strongest visuals the series has produced so far.

For starters, I thought Toodles looked especially smooth throughout the special. His animation was some of the best it's been in the series. I also noticed some interesting changes to the lighting. I'm not entirely sure whether it was an intentional stylistic choice or just something different about this episode, but it definitely caught my attention. For example, the lighting during the Mousekedoer song felt noticeably brighter and more vibrant than usual, while the Hot Dog Dance seemed a bit darker. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, just an interesting detail that stood out to me.

The sequence that impressed me the most, however, was Daisy's emotional song. As she sings, the world around her melts away into a deep blue, stage-like backdrop. She stands alone under a spotlight atop a swirling platform before the spiral stretches beneath her feet, causing her to fall through it. She then leaps between oversized versions of her tractor's control levers, even sliding down the giant purple lever, before seamlessly transitioning back to reality. Especially for a preschool series, it was an incredibly creative and visually expressive sequence. It perfectly captured Daisy's emotions while giving the animators a chance to do something far more stylized than we typically see in Mickey Mouse Clubhouse+. It's easily one of my favorite animated moments in the series so far.

Overall, Mickey's Country Farm was such a blast. Between the heartfelt story, fantastic music, gorgeous visuals, clever callbacks to the original series, and one of Daisy's strongest starring roles yet, this feels like one of the best episodes Mickey Mouse Clubhouse+ has produced so far. More than anything, this special continues to give me the never-ending confidence in where the series is headed. It honors what made the original Mickey Mouse Clubhouse so memorable while still finding new ways to tell fresh stories. If this is the quality Disney has in mind for future specials, I'm already looking forward to the next one.

Huge applause to the entire Mickey Mouse Clubhouse+ crew, and be sure to check out Mickey's Country Farm on Disney Jr. and Disney+!