Playful Pluto
Pluto struggles with a piece of flypaper.
Directed by	Burt Gillett
Produced by	Walt Disney
Starring	Walt Disney Pinto Colvig
Music by	Frank Churchill Larry Morey Paul J. Smith
Animation by	Character animation: Norman Ferguson Dick Lundy Art Babbitt
Color process	Black and white Color (1991 computer color edition)
Production company	Walt Disney Productions
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	March 3, 1934 (1934-03-03)[1]
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.^[2]

Plot

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.^[3]

Voice cast

• Mickey Mouse: Walt Disney
• Pluto: Pinto Colvig
• Fly: unknown

Legacy

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.^[3][4] 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.^[3]

Home media

The short was released on December 7, 2004, on Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Black and White, Volume Two: 1929-1935.^[5] It was released to Disney+ between September 5 and 8, 2023.^[6]