Canine Patrol

Not a terrible short or a great one, more mediocre than those two extremes. The animation and the music are the best aspects. The animation is full of colour and detail and it always flows smoothly, Pluto's facial expressions and actions really come to life through the drawings. The music is nearly always a high point with the Disney shorts, and Canine Patrol is not an exception, the whole score is lively and orchestrated just beautifully. What was also special about the music, and that is true of the Disney shorts and of the Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry ones too, was how well it matched with the animation and humour. The ending is very cute also and Pluto is still appealing. The turtle is adorable but never much more than that, it never really does anything that stands out. The chemistry between Pluto and the turtle is rather lacking too, not helped by that one character is much more compelling than the other and that they don't really have much that stands out. Canine Patrol may be cute but sadly it's not very funny, the pace could have been crisper and the gags are rather obvious and too few. The story is formulaic with not much that sparkles. So in conclusion, very well animated, scored and is very cute, but in the laughs, chemistry and story departments Canine Patrol did fall short for this viewer. 5/10 Bethany Cox

A Walt Disney PLUTO Cartoon.

A friendly newborn turtle tries to cross a forbidden beach much to the annoyance of Pluto, who is on CANINE PATROL for the United States Coast Guard.

The formula plot of Pluto confronting a cute little critter has certainly been used by Disney before, but that doesn't stop this film from being enjoyable. Walt Disney had these words placed just below the title: "Dedicated to the dogs of the U.S. Coast Guard."

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a blizzard of doomsayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.

A rather cute little cartoon featuring Pluto has a patrol guard for a beach. Doing his duty, he disallows a just-hatched turtle from trespassing into the swimming area. However, all the turtle wants to do is swim, creating more headaches for Pluto than anticipated.

This was not a very humorous cartoon, but was a little entertaining seeing Pluto deal with the playful turtle and refreshing the two ended up compromising and helping each other at the end.

Grade B-