Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Mickey's Great Outdoors DVD & Mickey Mote

Just in time for summer! Mickey Mouse and his famous pals (Minnie, Donald, Pluto, Goofy and Daisy) are here to encourage kids and families to enjoy the outdoors by camping, fishing and exploring nature in Walt Disney latest DVD release, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Mickey’s Great Outdoors.

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Mickey’s Great Outdoors features four episodes from the “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” TV show plus one all-new, never-before-seen “Mickey’s Fish Story” episode and comes packaged as a special DVD Play Set (DVD + Digital Copy + Mickey Mote.)

This set really is a great value for parents and a fun, portable play set for kids, Disney has packaged Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Mickey’s Great Outdoors to include a DVD, a Digital Copy and a Mickey Mote –(a child-friendly handheld remote control) which provides hours of interactive fun. The digital copy allows parents to dowload the episodes onto a secondary device for easy, portable on-the-go access. Smart!

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episodes never fail to disappoint and these are no different - plus my kids like to play with the Mickey Mote even after the DVD is done. Score!

Thanks to Disney for sending me a copy to review. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Mickey's Great Outdoors is in stores now. See you real soon!

Mickey Mote & DVD Playset: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Handy Manny

What is a Mickey Mote? I'm glad you asked:

The Mickey Mote works with any Disney Preschool DVD that includes the Discovery Mode(tm), which is the interactive "Watch & Play" feature on the DVD! Parent's program the remote control  (there's an easy and quick set-up guide in each DVD) and then select the Discovery Mode feature on the menu screen. Within minutes, kids will be easily responding to questions, throughout the story, about scenes they just watched (such as "What color is Goofy's hat?") by pressing one of four color-coded buttons on the device -- a yellow star, green circle, orange triangle or blue square -- to click in their responses. The Discovery Mode also features two levels of play, which provides more challenging questions as your child grows.

The Mickey Mote is in stores now and comes packaged with the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Numbers Roundup DVD. This Disney DVD features more than 100 minutes of content with five numbers-themed adventures and bonus features including a never-before-seen bonus episode (which will air in January 2011) as well as the Discovery Mode feature.

Disney was kind enough to send me the Mickey Mote & Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Numbers Roundup DVD to review and threw in a copy of the Handy Manny Big Construction Job DVD, which is also compatible with the Mickey Mote so my five year old could give it a try.

We liked it for a number of reasons:

• The Mickey Mote. In our house we're always telling him not to touch the remote so it was fun for him to have one that is JUST HIS.
• The Numbers Roundup DVD. He's learning all about numbers in his kindergarden class and so this DVD was very timely and entertaining.
• Handy Manny: Is there any little boy out there who doesn't like trucks?

I like it that Disney came out with the Mickey Mote but also gave parents the option to play these DVDs independent of the Mickey Mote. These DVDs are rated G and you don't need the Mickey Mote to watch them because while questions and challenges are great, sometimes you just want kids to enjoy Mickey Mouse and be entertained. It's nice to be able to do both.

How great is it that your pre-schoolers can watch a DVD and learn math? Maybe if there were DVDs and Mickey Motes like this around when I was a kid I'd be much better at balancing my checking account than I am.