"A Pluto Cartoon"

Release Date September 19, 1952

Running Time 6:30

Synopsis

Mickey holds a big birthday party for Pluto, but the guests that Mickey invites to the party lay waste to the occasion.

Characters

Mickey Mouse

Pluto

Credits

Director : Milt Schaffer

Animation : Fred Moore

Videos

Germany

Donald and Company

Happy Birthday Pluto!

Plutos Tollkühne Abenteuer

France

Les Aventures de Pluto

Donald et Compagnie

Italy

Le Avventure di Pluto

Laserdiscs

Japan

Donald and Company

Pluto's Tales

DVD

United States

Disney Treasures : Mickey Mouse in Living Color : Volume 2

Cartoon Classics Favorites : Best Pals: Mickey and Pluto

Television

The Ink and Paint Club : #37 : Mickey's Pal, Pluto

Mickey's Mouse Tracks : Episode #7

Donald's Quack Attack : Episode #40

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

Wallpaper for your computer from this short is available : Disney Shorts Wallpaper (Page 2).

From Ricky Hiller : I recently saw this short and taped it off of Toon Disney. (note: the only series that I watch on that channel is "Donald's Quack Attack") I thought it was sort of weird that Mickey invited children that were mice. It was Pluto's birthday party. Why didn't he invite dogs?

From Lee Suggs : This is an innocent, fun short with a couple of interesting features. The orphans are drawn as much older children and the take on the pin the tail on the donkey game was clever. However, this is an example of the fact that not every Classic Short was a classic. The short is really just a series of ideas from older shorts, and the overall feeling is that the animators (and story men) were just painting by the numbers. This helps me to understand "MouseWorks" rough start. It also makes me appreciate the current work on the series. "MouseWorks" does not produce the quality level of animation in this short, but the story lines of the "MouseWorks" shorts are a lot better than what was done here. I do wish Disney would produce a film quality animated short at least once a year.

From Ryan : This short is okay, but it isn't one of my favorites. In fact, it would have been a lot better if those annoying orphans were not in it. Here, they have flesh-colored skin and pupils within their eyes, just like Mickey. Nevertheless, their personalities have not changed at all. They're still the brats that they were when they appeared in "Mickey's Nightmare." Pluto hopes to have a fun party, but the orphans make it hell for him when they play too rough with him. They give him a shiny red wagon, which before opening it, he thinks is a bone. All of the orphans jump in it and make Pluto pull it. The ending, however, was happy when Pluto made a wish before blowing out the candles that came true; to have the orphans all disappear.

From Trae Robinson : Why is Mickey's face is in the opening titles despite that this is A "Pluto" short. I really do like the animation on this cartoon.

From Dino Cencia : Happy Birthday Pluto! I loved this cartoon. It looked like Pluto had a good birthday, but when the kids took all the cake, there was no cake for him! But Mickey saved him a piece of birthday cake. Pluto's birthday is September 5, 1930. So this year he will be 77 years old. Happy 77th Birthday Pluto, from your friend, Dino H Cencia.

Referenced Comments

Plane Crazy (1928)

This cartoon seems simpler to analyze than you think! It's so basic...Mickey throws Pluto a birthday party and has the placings set for his orphans, who are the invited guests to the special occasion. Even before they arrive, Pluto wants a taste of cake but has to take a bath first. He avoids it by running away from Mickey but crashes into his doghouse where a bath was already set up, not to his liking.

After Pluto is cleaned up, he still wants cake, even if it is icing...but again he has to wait for the guests to arrive, and they do in style by crashing the gate. The animation sequence shows what looks to be at least 100 of the orphans showing up, but in reality it was only an approximate dozen. They wish Pluto a happy birthday and then proceed to give him a large bone and a new wagon to ride on. After that, the orphans make Pluto the slave by having to pull them on the wagon. Eventually, Pluto goes flying off, nearly smaking the cake face-first.

The orphans continue to cause trouble by throwing Pluto down the slide. On one occasion, Pluto is sitting right in front of the cake, but he was sitting on a see-saw and with the orphans waiting to pounce on him at the other end, he goes airborne. Mickey calls for him to come down not knowing what was happening.

After that, everyone plays a weird game...Pin The Tail On Pluto. One of the orphans tries to pin the tail but misses badly, but when it became Pluto's turn, he gets spun around by the orphans to make things more interesting. Well, from far away, Pluto decides to take a sneak peek to see where to pin the tail...but he did nto know that he was looking at his OWN tail and pins it instead! The chaotic momentum he created somehow landed the tail right on the poster!

Finally, after all the olympic exercise, Mickey, Pluto, and the orphans gather for cake. It was finally time for Pluto to have some cake, but was told by Mickey to make a wish. Out of mere frustration, Pluto makes the wish to get the orphans out of his sight. Mute point, however. After blowing the candles out, the orphans take every slice of cake without Pluto getting his paws on it! After drinking punch, they all leave, announcing that the party is over.

Poor Pluto...no cake for him. As he cries his eyes out, Mickey comes up with a very nice surprise...a much LARGER piece of cake away from the cake that was on the table! Pluto is very happy about that, eats the cake up, and thanks Mickey in his usual "salivating" style.

The only thing this cartoon had to offer was a drawing of orphans whom were fewer and seemingly more mature, but yet created the same amount of chaos as they did in the past.

-- Tom Wilkins

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