| Playful Pluto | |
| Director: | Burt Gillett |
| Producer: | Walt Disney |
| Starring: | Walt Disney Pinto Colvig |
| Music: | Frank Churchill Larry Morey Paul J. Smith |
| Animator: | Character animation: Norman Ferguson Dick Lundy Art Babbitt |
| Studio: | Walt Disney Productions |
| Distributor: | United Artists |
| Color Process: | Black and white Color (1991 computer color edition) |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
Playful Pluto (1934) is a Walt Disney cartoon, directed by Burt Gillett. It was the first cartoon to showcase Pluto as a major character. It was the 65th Mickey Mouse short film, and the third of that year.[1]
While Mickey Mouse is working in his garden Pluto keeps bothering and interrupting him. After a while Pluto swallows a flashlight and gets stuck on a piece of flypaper.[2]
The cartoon is well known for a classic scene where Pluto gets stuck on a sticky piece of flypaper. This scene, animated by Norm Ferguson, has been described as vital in the history of character animation, because for the first time an animated character really seemed to think and have a mind of his own. The segment is also classic because it demonstrated how Disney artists were able to take a simple circumstance and build humor through a character.[2] [3] Clips from the cartoon, including the flypaper scene, were used in the Preston Sturges film Sullivan's Travels (1941), in which the title character (Joel McCrea) has a revelation while viewing Playful Pluto alongside an audience of church-goers and chain-gang prisoners.[2]
The short was released on December 7, 2004, on Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Black and White, Volume Two: 1929-1935.[4] It was released to Disney+ between September 5 and 8, 2023.[5]