Pluto and the Gopher (1950)

This Disney short rather highlights Pluto's limitations in cartoons and also owes a debt to the Tom and Jerry cartoons. Even my son mentioned it reminded him of the cat and mouse capers.Pluto finds a gopher in Minnie's garden and tries to get rid of the annoying gopher without much success. In fact in trying to get rid of him Pluto has destroys the garden in the process.Minnie Mouse makes a small cameo appearance but we have seen this variation of a formula before as Pluto tries to get rid of a pesky animal that is annoying him. An energetic short but also instantly forgettable.

The Disney shorts are still fun to watch, and there are a number of classics. Pluto is not as strong or effortlessly funny a character as Goofy and Pluto, but his energy and cuteness gives him a real likability. Pluto and the Gopher is pleasant but Pluto has done and been in much better. While it is nice to have the general setting as inside the house rather than in the gardens, much of the short consists of a fair number of Tom and Jerry-like chase scenes and not a lot of else. The story does have energy and does well in accommodating Pluto's personality, but the formula of Pluto vs something/somebody else(usually an animal) has been used a lot(almost all of his shorts actually) and very little new is done with it, coupled with it being driven by chase scenes and not much else it is routine and predictable. And Minnie's role here is so small that her presence felt unnecessary and wasted. The animation on the other hand is bright and colourful with more fluid and refined movements and drawings than the animation in the shorts of the 30s-40s(which is still nice and charming). The music is bouncy and lively with lush orchestration, while the gags are still amusing- if not hilarious- and Pluto and the Gopher is quite cute too. Pluto's personality is played more to his strengths than in the previous 7 or 8 shorts and the scenario in a way helps him. He is likable and very energetic, being careful not to antagonise too much. He is well supported by the gopher, one of the foils that matches Pluto rather than stealing the show from under him. He may have a cute appearance but goodness isn't he crafty or what? The two work very nicely together. On the whole, nothing special but it is a nice watch still. 6/10 Bethany Cox

A Walt Disney PLUTO Cartoon.PLUTO AND THE GOPHER he catches in Miss Minnie's garden create quite a disturbance inside & out.Although enjoyable, this is a routine film in which Pluto chases yet another canny little critter. The Gopher makes the second (and final) appearance in a Disney cartoon here, having previously provoked Pluto in BONE BANDIT (1948). Minnie Mouse has a small cameo role.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 will always pay off.

Who doesn't enjoy classic Disney shorts? I quite enjoy them, but I must confess that this one isn't one of the classics. Pluto on his own, fighting a small animal doesn't offer much variety. I have seen this before, like in Canine Patrol (1945) (fighting a turtle), Pluto's Playmate (1941) (a sea lion) or Bone Bandit (1948) (another gopher).