From Ryan Kilpatrick at The Disney Film Project : Pluto is a difficult character to get right. If you are doing a Pluto short, you have to have humor, but also have some sort of compelling story. After all, the title character doesn’t speak, so the animation has to convey emotion and carry through some sort of thread in order to make the short work.

Canine Casanova was not one that worked for me. Pluto as a dog is definitely one who follows his impulses, so it makes sense that he chases after a dachshund named Dinah after passing her on the street. The problem I have with the short is that it just did not hold my interest beyond that simple premise.

The first half of the short is just a simple “hard to get” formula. Dinah continually rebuffs Pluto’s advances in a variety of ways. I give Pluto credit for continuing to try. It’s not until Dinah gets captured by a dogcatcher halfway through that things become somewhat interesting. When Dinah is thrown in the pound with other dogs, she suddenly realizes that Pluto is not so bad.

There should be more tension in Pluto’s rescue mission when he breaks Dinah out, but instead it falls flat. Despite a loaded gun in the lap of the dogcatcher, there’s never a moment where you feel like Pluto’s in real danger. Even his comedic twists and turns to try and make it to the cages don’t seem that funny.

I could possibly be too harsh on this short, but it doesn’t feel that funny to me. Pluto’s actions are predictable and don’t really hold my interest. Dinah as a new character doesn’t have anything that makes me care about her predicament. When the situation is resolved, and Pluto finally gets his kiss from Dinah, I was happy for him, but the short itself did nothing to make it enjoyable.

This is different for me, because I really like Pluto. Some of his shorts are very, very entertaining, especially when he’s playing the foil to Mickey or Donald. Solo, however, it takes a lot of work to make Pluto a funny character. I just didn’t see that in Canine Casanova.

From Calvin Daprice : I saw this short for the first time on the "Ink and Paint Club" with the editing. One time, however, I was flipping through channels and I came across a little boy popping out of a jack-in-the-box on the Disney Channel. This was the "Mickey Mouse Club" and the announcement of an upcoming cartoon. I watched it and I saw the scene with the sleeping dog catcher holding a gun in his hands. So if you want to see the Disney shorts without all that pesky editing, the "Mickey Mouse Club" is the best place.

From Ryan : This really isn't one of my favorite shorts, but I still enjoy watching it. Like Calvin Daprice, I saw this short on the "Mickey Mouse Club." When the pound scene came on, I did see the sleeping dogcatcher with the gun on his lap.

From Baruch Weiss : There's another way to see all your favorite classic Disney cartoons without that pesky editing. It's called Video and DVD. Anyway this was a nice cartoon, but nothing new; the plot seemed similar to earlier cartoons!

From Bryce : Dinah sure did tried to turn Pluto down at the beginning but at least they were together again at very end.

Poster

Canine Casanova

A Pluto Cartoon

Synopsis

Characters

Credits

Director

Animation

Backgrounds

Layout

Story

Music

Cut Scenes

Video

United States

Germany

France

Italy

CED

United States

Laserdiscs

Japan

DVD

United States

Germany

Television

Technical Specification

Released by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.

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