Dog Watch (1945) User Reviews

I love it when the hero gets even!

[OllieSuave-007 · 7/10 · 10 June 2017]

This is more of an in-your-face Pluto cartoon as he serves as a seadog aboard a ship and sees himself confined to the brig thanks to a cocky rat who stole food from the Mess Hall and made a mess out of the place (Pluto was blamed for this). Much of the cartoon was just the rat toying with Pluto, so, nothing really funny or unpredictable. But, the ending was actually satisfying as Pluto got the last laugh when he made the rat lose the sandwich he made from the stolen food. That basically saved the story for me.

Grade B-

Nothing special but amusing

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 19 September 2013]

A good idea that could have been executed a little better. Some of the antics like the rat eating everything he sees off the table routine as predictable, the pacing could have been a little more swifter and there could have been more of Pluto's conflicting between good and bad and him trying to make the right choices, as there wasn't enough of that and at times it was more Tom and Jerry than Disney and Pluto. The animation is bright, colourful and beautifully drawn, while the music is lushly orchestrated and characterful, wonderfully synchronised with the action. The gags are never hilarious, but the best of them like Pluto roaring at the rat and the rat does it back and the ending are at least amusing. Pluto doesn't have the attention to detail that he usually does but he's still likable, while the rat is one of those adversaries that deserved everything that came to him.

In conclusion, amusing and colourful if nothing special. 7/10 Bethany Cox

I seem to remember a Chip & Dale outing . . .

[cricket30 · 6/10 · 9 January 2022]

. . . in which the mischievous pair of chipmunks are using a shoreline bunker artillery piece to crack their acorns. That being the case, surely the animators of DOG WATCH could have provided the beleaguered mutt Pluto with a double-barreled shotgun and ample ammo, at a bare minimum, when he's assigned to guard his vessel against red-haired rats. Unfortunately, the thoughtless cartoonists leave Pluto totally defenseless against the depredations of the rodent menace. Use DOG WATCH, therefore, as an apt reminder to support your local chapter of BANGS--Broke Americans Need Gun Stamps.

You Dirty Rat!

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 31 August 2003]

A Walt Disney PLUTO Cartoon.

Pluto is on DOG WATCH, guarding a ship for the Navy, when he encounters a roughneck wharf rat attempting to sneak aboard.

There is nothing cute or cuddly about Pluto's adversary in this humorous little film - he is pure vermin and his eventual comeuppance is just and well deserved. The two silhouetted profiles Pluto sees near his stash of bones are those of Hitler & Mussolini.

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 storm of naysayers, 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 always pay off.