Pluto's Housewarming

A Walt Disney PLUTO Cartoon.

PLUTO'S HOUSEWARMING of his splendid new home is hampered somewhat by a tiny turtle who is determined on moving in, too.

Here is a rather routine Pluto cartoon, in which he gets to interact with yet another small, cuddly critter. That's Pluto's nemesis Butch who shows up in the second half of the film.

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, Bambi, Peter Pan and Mr. Toad. 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.

For some reason, these animals think it is OK to just take an-other's food without their permission or knowledge. Poor Pluto had to endure both the turtle and the bulldog invading his doghouse and taking away his bone stash. Those supposed cute scenes with the turtle got old, but the scenes with the bulldog was pretty fun. But overall, it's more of an average cartoon - not much humor in this one.

Grade C-

Most of Pluto's shorts are enjoyable to watch, and Pluto's House Warming is enjoyable. Pluto's House Warming is also an example though of the titular character having been in and done better. The first half is very standard stuff with the humour amusing and cute but not hilarious with a predictable story and solid if un-vital pacing. Pluto also isn't as compelling as he has been. He still is a likable and energetic character and his chemistry with the turtle is very well done but compared to the support characters he is a little bland and could perhaps have been more mischievous. The animation however is colourful and fluid with a lot of vibrancy and attention to detail. The music matches every gesture, emotion and gag brilliantly, so clever as usual the orchestration, and still manages to be characterful and a beauty to listen to. While standard in the first half, the pacing and humour really pick up in the second half once Butch arrives on the scene. The confrontation between Butch and the turtle was the highlight. The gags in this half are helped by good timing and are very funny, the confrontation mentioned in the previous sentence is hilarious. Butch is a good adversary, but the best of the three characters is the turtle. He has a very cute appearance but is very charismatic and is funny without effort seemingly, a character deserving of more appearances and even a short of his own. All in all, good short but not great, the first half is alright but picks up later to entertaining. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Wow, what an amazing-looking new doghouse Pluto has, and it's just about done with it, except to back to his old beat-up house and get the "Home Sweet Home" sign. His new place even has a big wooden compartment where his bones are categorized and given separate slots (t-bone, sirloin, ribs, etc.)

When he returns from getting that last piece from his old house, he sees some little turtle is taking over his house, throwing out his bones and dog-dish. Pluto has a few unsuccessful attempts and keeping the little guy out of his new house.

The humor doesn't really start until the second half when a big bulldogs also makes himself at home in Pluto's place. What follows is good stuff with the little turtle providing some humor and surprises.

Kudos to the team which restored this animated short. It looks fabulous on DVD. The colors were bold and magnificent. It was part of the "Best Pals - Mickey & Pluto" DVD.