Pluto's Playmate (1941) Online

I've always enjoyed/loved Disney, and while I can think of better Pluto cartoons, I enjoyed Pluto's Playmate. The story is routine and unsurprising and the cartoon is more amusing than hilarious, though I did smile and chuckle quite a few times.

That said, it is beautifully animated, with wonderful music, crisp pacing and good chemistry between Pluto and the seal. Pluto is very cute and energetic with some excellent work done to make him more realistic and the seal is a worthy foil, though I have more of a soft spot for Figaro and Chip 'n' Dale.

Overall, enjoyable and recommendable, but Pluto's Playmate didn't strike me as his very best. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Pluto is playing with a ball on the beach and attracts a sea lion. The sea animal wants in on the phone, but Pluto won't have it. He goes after the sea lion and gets tangled with an aggressive octopus. The sea lion sees this and goes in for the rescue.

It's a nice, heroic cartoon. Not much laughs, but the octopus bit added some action and intrigue in the story. It's good to also see Pluto return the favor to others once in a while.

Grade B-

A Walt Disney PLUTO Cartoon.

PLUTO'S PLAYMATE at the beach is an obstreperous young seal determined on romping with the disgruntled hound.

Enjoyable, but totally routine, this is another in the long series of films in which Pluto gets to encounter a small, cuddly critter. This tale has been told before...

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by 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 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, Bambi, Peter Pan and Mr. Toad. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.