Pluto's Sweater

A Walt Disney PLUTO Cartoon.

PLUTO'S SWEATER, a gift from Minnie, gives him no end of trouble.

Although not one of Disney's classics, this little film offers some funny moments as the Pup deals with his hideous new possession. Minnie Mouse is given a few moments to shine as the dreadfully dedicated sweater knitter. Making one of his limited appearances in a cartoon short, Pinocchio's pal Figaro proves to be a good antagonist for Pluto. Look fast for a cameo by Butch the bully bulldog.

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.

I watch a lot of Disney cartoons even now, having grown up on them. Pluto's Sweater is not one of my absolute favourites but I still love it. The story is somewhat unremarkable, but still crisply paced with plenty of funny and cute moments to enable me to ignore this minor discrepancy. The animation is full of vibrancy and fluidity, and the music is just wonderful, jaunty and dynamic as it should be. Pluto is typically cute and energetic and Figaro is still adorable with priceless facial expressions and a suitably antagonistic-foil-air. Minnie also shines although not as prominent as Figaro and Pluto, while there is a blink-and-miss-it appearance from Butch. Overall, hugely enjoyable. 10/10 Bethany Cox

In this Disney cartoon short, Minnie has just finished knitting a pink sweater for Pluto, who balks at wearing it. Minnie forces it on Pluto as Figaro watches in delight, resulting Pluto frantically trying to get it off.

I've seen funnier Disney cartoons, but this one is not bad. It's pretty amusing seeing Figaro laugh at Pluto as he tries to get the sweater off of him, only to later see Pluto get the last laugh. The story doesn't have much plot or memorable moments, but it's still laughable at certain moments.

The animation is great, as usual in many of these cartoons. It won't hurt to skip over this cartoon, but it still isn't bad.

Grade B-