On my last post, I resented how much attention that Minnie Mouse seemed to get on the new Mickey Mouse series. By contrast, another character gets nowhere near as much love. He is Mickey Mouse's dog, Pluto.
While he has started to appear more frequently in recent shorts, the fact of the matter is, Pluto's initial appearances have been infrequent. He has appeared in 13 shorts (out of 78), which is not bad, while Daisy's appearances have declined, but she still has 14, one more than Pluto. This list below shows the exact amount that Pluto has appeared in, counting cameos:
- Dog Show
- Space Walkies
- Doggone Biscuits
- Coned
- No
- Couple's Sweaters
- Shipped Out
- The Birthday Song
- The Perfect Dream
- Year of the Dog
- New Shoes (in a picture)
- Dumb Luck
- Flushed
It should be noted that "Dog Show" was Pluto's only appearance in the first season of the series, while "Space Walkies" and "Doggone Biscuits" were his only two appearances in the second season.
In any case, here are some other shorts where I feel Pluto could have been used:
- Gasp! (Pluto is friends with Gubbles and tries to help Mickey stop the cat)
- Ghoul Friend (Pluto accompanies Mickey on the trip, tries to protect Mickey from the Goofy zombie on the cliff, and then tries to make off with the zombie's arm bone)
- Goofy's Grandma (Pluto lives with Mickey and is as annoyed with Goofy's "grandma" as Mickey is)
- The Boiler Room (Pluto is among the crowd of apartment dwellers)
- Mickey Monkey (Pluto is on the boat with Mickey's other friends and is the only one to know that the monkey is not Mickey)
All told, those five appearances would equal 18, which is still low, but Pluto would at least be used a little more frequently. Mind you, these are all just my opinions on how I would have done things. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, isn't it?
