Pluto (Disney)

Origin

The character of Pluto originated with animator Norm Ferguson, who came to the Disney Studio in 1929. Ferguson is credited with introducing the animation principle of "follow through and overlapping action": where different parts of the body move at different times and speeds compared to the main action. Ferguson first introduced this technique in the Silly Symphony short Frolicking Fish (released May 8, 1930): where he animated a trio of dancing fish, and offset the movement of their fins, having them "drag" along with the main body's movement. This gave the characters a more flowing and natural movement than in most other animation of that time. Walt Disney was so impressed with Ferguson's work on Frolicking Fish, that he ordered all of his animators study the scene.

Shortly after completing his work on Frolicking Fish, Disney assigned Ferguson to work on the Mickey Mouse cartoon The Chain Gang (released on September 5, 1930); where Mickey is portrayed as a prisoner who escapes from jail, and is pursued by two nameless bloodhounds. Ferguson was tasked with animating a scene where Mickey runs towards the camera and is followed by the two bloodhounds, who sniff Mickey's trail, look up, snort, and bark at the camera. According to Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, when describing this scene to Ferguson, Disney reminisced about different dogs he grew up with as a child, and acted out their mannerisms (much to the staff's amusement), which Ferguson would then translate into his animation.

When animating the scene, Ferguson applied his principle of "follow through and overlapping action" to the jowls of the dogs, which gave them surprisingly lifelike movement for the time. Animation historian Michael Barrier wrote about the scene:

Upon reviewing the scene, Disney was so impressed by Ferguson's animation on the dogs, he decided to develop one of them into a recurring character. Ferguson's dog character next appeared in The Picnic (released on October 23 of that same year), however he was portrayed as Minnie's dog, and was named "Rover". In his third appearance, The Moose Hunt (released on May 3, 1931), he appeared as Mickey's pet, and was finally given the name "Pluto". Disney animator Ben Sharpsteen claimed they changed the name to Pluto because: "We thought the name [Rover] was too common, so we had to look for something else. ... We changed it to Pluto the Pup ... but I don't honestly remember why." Some Disney animators reportedly believed that Disney chose the name "Pluto" to capitalize on the then-newly-named ninth planet of Pluto. However, animation historian John Canemaker states that Disney chose the name simply because he once had a dog named Pluto.

Other animators handled the character, but Ferguson became the Pluto specialist at the Disney Studio. Over the next few years, Ferguson continued to develop and refine the character, ultimately crystalizing with Playful Pluto (1934), in which Ferguson animated a scene where Pluto gets a piece of flypaper stuck to his rear end. The sequence was storyboarded by Webb Smith, and Ferguson padded the scene and added extra bits of comic business. The scene was considered a major landmark in the development of character animation. Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston described the scene as:

Following the circulation of Art Babbitt's Character Analysis of the Goof around the Disney studio, Ferguson wrote a 4-Page character bible on Pluto that was published on Jan 4, 1936, and detailed Pluto's body construction, facial expressions, mannerisms and personality.

Appearances

Pluto first and most often appears in the Mickey Mouse series of cartoons. His solo star debut is in two Silly Symphony shorts, Just Dogs (1932) and Mother Pluto (1936). In 1937, Pluto appeared in Pluto's Quin-Puplets which was the first installment of his own film series, then headlined Pluto the Pup.

His first comics appearance was in the Mickey Mouse comic strip on July 1, 1931, two months after the release of The Moose Hunt. In 1938, Pluto headlined in the Silly Symphony Sunday comic strip, in an adaptation of his Silly Symphony short, Mother Pluto. Pluto was later featured in several sequences of the Silly Symphony strip in 1939 and 1940.

In the various Disney theme park resorts worldwide, Pluto is an interactive character just like many of his film co-stars.

References

References

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