In Dutch

A Walt Disney PLUTO Cartoon.

Milk dog Pluto romances the Mayor's hound, Dinah, in old Holland, the land of windmills, wooden shoes...and leaky dykes.

Underneath the colorful setting, the story & animation for IN DUTCH are both routine & unexciting. Nice use is made, though, of the evocative background paintings during the town scenes.

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, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. 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.

When this short cartoon began, I immediately was struck by how beautiful the colors were as well as the overall animation. It really looked much better than the typical Pluto short.

Inexplicably, Pluto is in Holland and meets up with a cute girl wiener dog The fall for each other, but Pluto soon gets in trouble over a dike alarm (no joke intended) and they are cast out of the town. However, soon the dike really IS about to burst and the two dogs do their best to save the very stupid residents--who keep thinking that Pluto is once again signaling a false alarm. I say let 'em die, but Pluto is a nice dog and does his dog-gone best to get their attention. In the end, Pluto is a hero and the town is saved.

It's a pretty nice cartoon, except for the annoying way they portray the Dutch--who sound too German and too stupid. But, nevertheless, it's pretty good.

In this short, Pluto is a milkdog in the Netherlands. He meets a female dachshund and falls in love with her. One of the funniest parts was hearing the Dutch people talking to Pluto and the other dog. After the female dog gets tangled on a rope used to ring the dyke emergency bell, Pluto accidentally pulls it trying to set her free. The town is upset and the mayor says "Don't you never two come back" and the rest of the residents say "Ya, don't you never two come back!" It got a little annoying after the citizens repeated everything the mayor said. I'm surprised that the Disney people didn't edit out the scenes with the Dutch talking (well let's be thankful that they didn't).

Pluto is always fun to watch, not the strongest of characters but he's cute and amusing at least. In Dutch is not a disappointment from Disney or from Pluto. Don't expect too much from the story, not really ever has been a strong suit in the Pluto shorts, it is rather routine and predictable. The energy, colour and emotional impact however is to be admired. The animation is great, some of the most fluid and colourful of the (relatively) middle-era Pluto shorts. The Dutch setting and attention to detail is just as impressive. The music doesn't disappoint either, it is as characterful and as lush as you expect. In Dutch is a lot of fun, with the right amount of tension(the whole fixing of the dam), tenderness(with Pluto crying like raindrops and Dinah trying to console him) and charm(the very end), and the pacing is without a hitch too. Pluto is wholly likable and Dinah is beyond cute.

All in all, while not much new story-wise, In Dutch is a winner. 9/10 Bethany Cox