Pluto's Judgement Day

What happens when you're put up for judgment for the things that you've done? Pluto's Judgment Day is somehow a very funny short, but probably the most darkly, savagely satirical one that Disney made at the time. In Pluto's Judgment Day, Pluto gets scolded by Mickey for being the dumb mutt that he is - chasing cats and causing mayhem. But of course, that's what cartoon dogs do, right? The mention of judgment day puts a dream into Pluto's mind, and he has a really dark dream - let's just call it a nightmare - having to atone for his crimes against Cat-Kind: the one that he let get squashed by the steamroller; the one who is traumatized for life every time he hears a dog bark; the list goes on.

The scariest part though is how Disney and company make this into a tale of not so much injustice but how scary justice CAN be when there is no good defense. To be sure, this is set in hell, but I have to think the idea is to make it a cautionary tale for people as well - what you do now in life, the small things, may not seem to matter if you can get away with them... but after-life? In a way this is like the unofficial rehearsal for the 1943 short Der Fuhrer's Face, where Donald Duck had to face the nightmare-space of the Nazi world. In this short instead of Nazis we get the sense of brutal, pitch-black comic sense of justice: the cats on the jury who go round the door from one side to the other without missing a beat, and sing, "We find the defendant GUILTY, GULTY, G-U-I-L-T-Y!"

Is it Kafkaesque? Not exactly - Pluto knows what he's done wrong, and ultimately it's kind of a soft ending in the sense that Mickey makes Pluto and a little cat kiss and make up. But I think the terrifying part of the short are the implications that are set for this cartoon dog from these cartoon Cats From Hell. Maybe I read too much into Pluto's Judgment Day, but I found this short could apply to other cases, especially those where a "jury of your peers" is definitely not the case (ironic that there was a supposedly racist Uncle Tom bit that has been cut out of recent available copies, when I found that part of the satire is that this could apply to black people being on trial for whatever the case might be at the time).

I first saw this cartoon short when it was part of the special Halloween Treat program from Disney video. It consists of Pluto chasing a kitten through a window and right into Mickey's lap. After Mickey scolds him, Pluto skulks away and falls asleep in front of the fire and dreams of a of himself being put on trial in a cat underworld.

This was a pretty intense cartoon that from a Disney story in my opinion, as it features a cross between judgment day and the underworld. It was intriguing, making you wonder how Pluto what get out of his predicament and if he would change his ways in dealing with cats. It definitely is an attention grabber, but it has a dark story that may scare some children a little.

Grade B-

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.

After being unfriendly to one cat too many, PLUTO'S JUDGEMENT DAY finally arrives via a vivid nightmare.

This is a fun little film, with some good imagination used to depict the Afterworld Court - staffed entirely by felines. Walt supplies Mickey's voice, who makes little more than a cameo appearance.

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.

This cartoon sees Pluto dream of a cat-controlled hell. After chasing a cute little kitten about the house and throwing mud everywhere, Mickey tells Pluto off and gives him some kind of Puritan Christian warning of hell and damnation.

Once fallen asleep in front of the fire, Pluto's vision of cat-run hell and all the cats he's ever tormented coming back for vengeance quickly teaches him the error of his ways and he wakes up with a new-found love for felines.

Kind of cute if you can get around the not-so-subtle Christian values message.

"Pluto's Judgement Day" is one of the darker Disney shorts I've ever seen...so much so that I am a bit surprised they ever made it in the first place. And, incidentally, MGM later copied the idea and used it in a Tom & Jerry cartoon.

The story begins with Pluto chasing a kitten. Mickey stops him and scolds Pluto for being mean to cats...telling him that he'll get his on Judgement Day if he doesn't stop. Soon Pluto falls asleep and dreams about going to cat Hell...where he's judged for all his nefarious anti-cat actions. It's all very dark and weird....and great for adults. As for kids....it's one you just might want to skip due to its dark theme.

As usual for the era, the artwork is second to none, with vivid full color* and great animation. Well worth seeing and very weird.

*While a few studios used color in 1935, only DIsney could use full color, as they had an exclusive contract with Technicolor to use their three-color process. Other studios were stuck using two-color Technicolor or Cinecolor, two color processes that only used red-orange and green-blue....resulting in a strange look and less than lovely results.