Playful Pluto

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.

The antics of PLAYFUL PLUTO causes trouble for Mickey in the yard, down in the cellar and around the house.

This excellent black & white cartoon provides lots of sturdy laughs at the Pup's expense, who runs afoul of a whirlwind, a water hose, a flashlight, flypaper & a window shade. Walt Disney provides Mickey with his squeaky voice.

It is excerpts from PLAYFUL PLUTO that Joel McCrea and the Hall Johnson Choir are watching during the emotional climax to Preston Sturges' classic film, SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS (1941).

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by pictures & 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 comic 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 childlike simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.

A little funny Disney cartoon, which features Pluto in his first major role. He gets a little playful while Mickey is trying to do some yard work. When some flies get into Mickey's house, he spreads flypaper around, resulting the two getting stuck. There was some funny scenes containing that, but the plot mostly consists of misadventures and slapstick stuff.

Grade B-

Playful Pluto is a very enjoyable short. I personally would have preferred a stronger and more coherent story where everything wasn't so randomly structured. Mickey is also a secondary character that you don't see very much. To his credit, he generally interacts with Pluto better than Donald, who is too different in personality for my tastes. The main focus this said is Pluto, and he is on top form. Playful Pluto does play to his strengths and to his character, which always did work best when he is curious, causing chaos or wanting fun. However, the animation is crisp and clean as you would expect, with Pluto especially well drawn, while the music is catchy and upbeat while also being beautiful and successfully enhancing the action. The gags are imaginative and funny and helped by lively pacing. However two sequences in particular stand out. One is when Pluto swallows the torch and it turns on so you can see his bones which is hilarious. The other is when Pluto tries to get unstuck from the flypaper, a gag repeated in Beach Picnic but in a tiring fashion, which is an outstanding piece of character animation where the audience can see clearly what Pluto's thoughts and reactions are. Overall, an enjoyable short with two truly great sequences and Pluto on top form. 8/10 Bethany Cox