Disney has been responsible for some of my favourite ever movies, shows and animated shorts/cartoons. Although I loved it as a child, Pluto's Purchase is not up there with my list of favourites. I still like it, but I don't love it. I wouldn't say that the story is dull, because there are some entertaining moments, but it does lack the crisp efficiency pace-wise than some other Disney shorts. It is also very routine, in the sense that you do have a feeling that you've seen it all before in the concept and how everything's laid out. The ending was a pleasant surprise though. I was also disappointed by how bland Mickey was here, I really miss the days where in shorts like The Klondike Kid, Mickey's Good Deed, The Little Whirlwind and Shanghaied he had a lot of personality, whether funny, loving or heroic and altogether endearing. Here, he is reduced to a secondary role and has practically nothing to do. However, there are some good gags, there is not much new but there is some fun stuff, like with the fleas and the switching the sausage for a metal weight-thing, revolving around Pluto and Butch's attempts to get the sausage back from one another. The animation is also bright and colourful, and the music has some lovely orchestration and a great deal of jauntiness. Pluto's Purchase mainly works for the opposing rapport between Pluto and Butch, Pluto is very sweet and does what he does best and Butch is an appropriately brutish contrast, looking quite scary when Pluto manages to get the sausage back from him and he gives chase. Overall, a decent short but had it been less routine and had Mickey in a bigger and much more interesting it would've been better. 7/10 Bethany Cox
4 Reviews
Butch the less meanest in this cartoon.
OllieSuave-00730 June 2017
Mickey sends Pluto to go to the butcher shop to buy a piece of sausage and, when coming back home, Butch the bulldog sees Pluto and attempts to steal the sausage. Pluto ends up successfully defending the piece of meat and bringing back home to Mickey, not realizing that the sausage is actually a birthday gift for Butch.
There are scatter of funny moments in this cartoon, particularly where Butch runs into fences and things. This is probably the one cartoon where Butch acts the least meanest in. However, even though the sausage was for Butch, he wanted to steal it in the first place, so, it doesn't give the dog much redeeming qualities and the turn-of-events wasn't a very exciting angle for the entire cartoon.
Grade C-
There are scatter of funny moments in this cartoon, particularly where Butch runs into fences and things. This is probably the one cartoon where Butch acts the least meanest in. However, even though the sausage was for Butch, he wanted to steal it in the first place, so, it doesn't give the dog much redeeming qualities and the turn-of-events wasn't a very exciting angle for the entire cartoon.
Grade C-
A Pup Tale With Bulldog
Ron Oliver12 November 2002
A Walt Disney PLUTO Cartoon.
Butch the bulldog is out to steal PLUTO'S PURCHASE of a large bologna from the local butcher shop.
This is a routine, but enjoyable, little film. Mickey Mouse has a small role; Butch is as brutish as ever.
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.
Butch the bulldog is out to steal PLUTO'S PURCHASE of a large bologna from the local butcher shop.
This is a routine, but enjoyable, little film. Mickey Mouse has a small role; Butch is as brutish as ever.
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.
Though this tale ends like a typical . . .
pixrox119 May 2022
Warning: Spoilers
. . . 19th Century O. Henry story, it does serve to underline the differences between the human mind and the rodent brain. No man would give his dog some money, and send him down to a meat store to buy a brat. However, a vermin pest never thinks once, let alone twice, so Mick the Mouse has no problem foisting off a people job onto a half-witted mutt. As a pair of contentious canines slobber and drool over a once-fresh protein tube, most viewers are likely to upchuck. Therefore, if you have PLUTO'S PURCHASE on hand, you can trim or cancel out your budget line item expense for Ipecac Syrup.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
