LEND A PAW was the Oscar winner for Best Animated Short for 1942 and while I was not bowled over by its brilliance, this year a particularly distinguished one for animation. Looney Tunes was still a few years away from greatness as they still hadn't switched to the sillier and edgier films of Bugs Bunny. MGM had only made one or two Tom and Jerry cartoons and Tex Avery's best with this studio was still a few years away. So, for the 1941-42 era, LEND A PAW was probably as good as any cartoon. The quality of the nominees would skyrocket in just the next year or two.
The film begins with Pluto finding a sack with a baby kitten in it that had been thrown in the river! When Pluto realizes it's a kitten, he's rather sad to have done this good deed by rescuing the little kitten! Talk about a dark cartoon premise!! Well, the nice kitten follows Pluto home and Mickey decides to keep it. However, Pluto isn't happy about this and wants to get rid of the thing! The old cliché of an angel and a devil that appear and tell him what to do--and at least for a while the devil has his sway. Eventually, however, by the end, Pluto has done the right thing and everyone lives happily ever after--which is exactly what you'd expect from a Disney short.
No major surprises but an exceptionally well animated and enjoyable short film.
The film begins with Pluto finding a sack with a baby kitten in it that had been thrown in the river! When Pluto realizes it's a kitten, he's rather sad to have done this good deed by rescuing the little kitten! Talk about a dark cartoon premise!! Well, the nice kitten follows Pluto home and Mickey decides to keep it. However, Pluto isn't happy about this and wants to get rid of the thing! The old cliché of an angel and a devil that appear and tell him what to do--and at least for a while the devil has his sway. Eventually, however, by the end, Pluto has done the right thing and everyone lives happily ever after--which is exactly what you'd expect from a Disney short.
No major surprises but an exceptionally well animated and enjoyable short film.