The Moose Hunt (1931) User Reviews

Pluto-cracy

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 1 December 2018]

As Mickey goes around shooting off his gun, Pluto is his right-hand dog. He gets in loads of trouble and is much more interesting than Mickey. He has issues with fleas which are always finding ways to torment him. There is no Minnie this time so romance doesn't ruin the episode. Also, while there is the obligatory music, Mickey isn not the progenitor.



tory.

If there's anything more disheartening than men . . .

[pixrox1 · 7/10 · 28 December 2021]

. . . on a moose hunt, it's probably viewing a mouse on THE MOOSE HUNT--especially one that's careless enough to shoot his own dog. In the first place, it's an abomination to allow rodents to own--and mistreat--man's best friend. Secondly, when's the last time you've observed a repentant member of the rat family? Whether big or small, such vermin delight in destroying irreplaceable family heirlooms, and running around in the spaces between your walls and floors, loudly cracking walnuts in the middle of the night. Such brazen pests should be dealt with with extreme prejudice.

First one with Pluto.

[OllieSuave-007 · 5/10 · 5 June 2017]

This is one of the first Disney cartoons featuring Pluto - a simple, non-exciting black and white program where Pluto and Mickey goes on a moose hunt. After some bumbling moves from Mickey's shotgun and Pluto battling it out with fleas and "playing dead," the two characters get frightened by a gigantic moose.

Again, it's a very simple cartoon with less laughs and less excitement. Not the most entertaining of Disney cartoons, but it's a touching one with Mickey and his best friend.

Grade C-

Although classified as a Mickey Mouse short, it's Pluto who steals the show

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 3 August 2012]

I always enjoy Disney, and Mickey and Pluto are just two great characters. While not among Disney's very finest, The Moose Hunt still has many things that make a typical Disney short great. The story is good, fun and well paced and not as routine as some Disney shorts of the time have been. The animation is smooth and beautifully shaded, and I love the rounded design of Pluto, while the music is as characterful as ever. As ever there are some great gags, inventive for then and still work now, the final gag is worth of note but I also love when Mickey plays fetch with Pluto with the branch that looks like antlers and when Pluto plays dead. Mickey is likable as he always is, and he is still drawn with his grief over the "dead" Pluto making us genuinely feel for him. But it is Pluto who steals the show, I just love his innocence whether he is sniffing around the tree or when he's waiting to pounce. All in all, a great short though one for a Mickey cartoon where Pluto is the one who makes the bigger impression. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Beware What You Seek

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 10 September 2003]

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.

THE MOOSE HUNT upon which Mickey & Pluto have embarked just might get them more than they bargained for...

The Mouse & the Pup were still in the early days of their association in this jaunty, slightly bizarre little film. Pluto actually speaks a few human words and talks to his master - an experiment the folks at Disney were quick to discontinue. Walt Disney provides Mickey with his squeaky voice.

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.

Pluto steals the short, with Mickey in support

[llltdesq · 8/10 · 27 August 2014]

This is an early Disney short featuring Mickey Mouse and Pluto. There will be spoilers ahead:

For all that this is officially a Mickey Mouse cartoon, the best bits are those focusing in on Pluto. Mickey isn't a very good hunter, as is shown early when he fires at a tree full of birds, blows off all the leaves but hits not a single bird, one of which taunts him.

Pluto goes wandering and investigating, with a number of gags in the early part of the short, one a bit about Pluto's fleas bailing out and climbing back on.

Pluto reunites with Mickey and they play a round of "Fetch". Pluto brings back a stick which makes him look like a moose in silhouette from a distance. Mickey fires, runs up and sees he's shot at Pluto and fears he's dead. There's a nice bit breaking the fourth wall and Pluto eventually stops playing dead and wanders off again, unwittingly finding a moose, which follows him back to Mickey. Hunting large game suddenly seems less wise to Mickey and he an Pluto run, jumping over one another to get away. The end is great.

This short is on the Mickey Mouse In Black and White, Volume Two Disney Treasures DVD set and is worth tracking down. Recommended.