"A Pluto Cartoon"

Release Date April 2, 1943

Synopsis

Pluto is in the infantry guarding a pillbox from saboteurs.

Characters

Pluto

Chip 'n' Dale

Credits

Director : Clyde Geronomi

Animation : Al Bertino

Milestones

First appearance of Chip 'n' Dale, although not named in this short.

Videos

United States

Cartoon Classics : First Series : Volume 2 : Pluto

Germany

Die Abenteuer von A-Hörnchen und B-Hörnchen

France

Les Aventures de Tic et Tac

Italy

Le Avventure di Cip e Ciop

DVD

United States

Disney Treasures : On the Front Lines

Disney Treasures : The Complete Pluto Volume 1

Laserdisc

United States

Pluto

Television

The Ink and Paint Club : #4 : Disney Firsts

Technical Specifications

Color Type : Technicolor

Animation type : Standard

Sound mix : Mono

Aspect ration : 1.37 : 1

Negative format : 35mm

Print format : 35mm

Cinematographic process : Spherical

Original language : English

Released by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.

Comments

From Jerry Edwards : Private Pluto is ordered by his drill sergeant to guard a pillbox gun because saboteurs are in the area. Pluto suddenly has a private war on his hands - two chipmunks have been using the pillbox to store their nuts, with the gun as a giant nut-cracker. In Pluto's attempts to evict them, the chipmunks continually get the best of him. They fill Pluto's helmet with nuts and then crunch the gun down on top of the helmet to crack the nuts - unfortunately for Pluto, he is wearing the helmet at the time. When Pluto steals their nuts, the chipmunks use the gun to shoot Pluto up into the air and fill his landing site with nuts. The impact of his fall cracks the nuts and the chipmunks retreat into the pillbox with their nuts. Pluto is left outside - beating against the locked door, weeping with frustration.

This is considered the first appearance of Chip and Dale, although the chipmunks are rather generic in appearance and do not have the later distinctive features that separate Chip from Dale.

The cartoon is well done, but I'm not much of a fan of the "Chip 'n' Dale against Pluto" cartoons.

From Ryan : Here are Chip and Dale in their first cartoon. Except that they aren't named Chip and Dale and they don't even look like they do in later shorts. I'm not really a fan of Chip and Dale as I find them quite annoying. Pluto was standing guard at an army base. Chip and Dale store their acorns in the cannon and use it to crack them on Pluto's head. I can't help but feel sorry for poor Pluto. Not one of my favorite shorts, but it's still okay to watch from time to time.

From Baruch Weiss : This cartoon marks the first apperance of Chip and Dale who were originally intended to be used once and never again after this short. Anyway, they are depicted as generic chipmunks in this short. They wouldn't get their distintive personalities(and their names) until a later cartoon in 1947 titled "Chip 'N' Dale". They didn't recive their distinctive looks (Dale with the red nose and Chip with the black nose) untill the 1948 cartoon "Three for Breakfast". They were named after the 18th century furniture maker Thomas Chippendale. So now that I gave a history of these two chipmunks back to the short, I like some Chip and Dale cartoons while some I don't, this one I don't like because Pluto was doing nothing to the chipmunks, all they did was torment him throughout the cartoon.

Referenced Comments

Food for Feudin' (1950)

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