Pantry Pirate

A Walt Disney PLUTO Cartoon.

Pluto becomes a PANTRY PIRATE as he attempts to filch the beautiful ham just baked by Mammy Twoshoes.

This enjoyable little film allows Pluto to act almost completely unrestricted by involvement with any other character (Mammy only appears for a few seconds) and he does quite nicely as a solo performer.

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.

I've always liked Pluto, finding him very cute and energetic. And I wasn't disappointed here, as Pluto is both those things and more. And he is well supported by some often hilarious gags especially with Pluto using an ironing board to get to the stove, the hiccoughing bubbles gag and also trying not to break the cups with his tail. The animation is very fluid and colourful, the story is simple but fun and not too routine, even in the slower bits at the start and the music is rousing and really helps to enhance the quality of the gags. Mammy's appearance is brief, but could be seen as controversial, being somewhat politically incorrect and potentially offensive for those who don't know or understand the context.

In conclusion though, very funny and definitely worth watching. 9/10 Bethany Cox