Pluto's Judgement Day

This is one of what I like to call, the Disney Halloween Triple. Among them are "Lonesome Ghosts" "Trick or Treat" and this one. In this cartoon Pluto is chased by cats into hell where he is tried by cats, do to his many crimes against the feline species. Kind of creepy!

Pluto chases a cat right into the mud then right into Mickey's arms. Mickey scolds Pluto for chasing cats and tells him he will have a lot to answer for on his judgement day. Pluto then lays by the fire and dreams he is in hell for chasing cats. It is Pluto's judgement day in his dream. In the end Pluto awakens and learns to like cats.

Cute lesson cartoon of not torturing animals.

8/10.

This cartoon sees Pluto dream of a cat-controlled hell. After chasing a cute little kitten about the house and throwing mud everywhere, Mickey tells Pluto off and gives him some kind of Puritan Christian warning of hell and damnation.

Once fallen asleep in front of the fire, Pluto's vision of cat-run hell and all the cats he's ever tormented coming back for vengeance quickly teaches him the error of his ways and he wakes up with a new-found love for felines.

Kind of cute if you can get around the not-so-subtle Christian values message.

"Pluto's Judgement Day" is one of the darker Disney shorts I've ever seen...so much so that I am a bit surprised they ever made it in the first place. And, incidentally, MGM later copied the idea and used it in a Tom & Jerry cartoon.

The story begins with Pluto chasing a kitten. Mickey stops him and scolds Pluto for being mean to cats...telling him that he'll get his on Judgement Day if he doesn't stop. Soon Pluto falls asleep and dreams about going to cat Hell...where he's judged for all his nefarious anti-cat actions. It's all very dark and weird....and great for adults. As for kids....it's one you just might want to skip due to its dark theme.

As usual for the era, the artwork is second to none, with vivid full color* and great animation. Well worth seeing and very weird.

*While a few studios used color in 1935, only DIsney could use full color, as they had an exclusive contract with Technicolor to use their three-color process. Other studios were stuck using two-color Technicolor or Cinecolor, two color processes that only used red-orange and green-blue....resulting in a strange look and less than lovely results.

A large number of the old Disney cartoons have a creepy side. "Pluto's Judgement Day" is a prime example. Basically, Pluto dreams that he gets sent to Hell run by cats who prosecute him for crimes against felinity. This is NOT something that should get shown to tykes. It's borderline violent and the whole thing is basically scary. "The Simpsons", "South Park" and "Family Guy" have displayed fine examples of twisted humor (including scenes set in Hell). This cartoon, on the other hand, has to be one of the meanest productions in animation history. If you show this to your children, then you are a HORRIBLE excuse for a parent. Keep it away from the young ones at all costs.