It seems at this point in 1950, Disney was passing release
slots back and forth between Jack Hannah’s team working on the Donald Duck
shorts and Charles Nichols’ team creating the Pluto shorts. That’s not a bad thing when the shorts are
good, but it does lead to lots of repetition when you are watching them in
succession the way I am. As such, Puss
Café, which is a good cartoon, comes off as a little worse than I think it
actually is.
Pluto is not really the main character in this short. That honor goes to the two cats that are
trying to invade his suburban paradise.
The cats are not named in the short, but Disney history names them
Milton and Lucifer. I’m not entirely
sure which is which and I’m also not entirely sure it matters. What does matter is that they take the lead
here, as they see the milk on the back porch, the fish in the pond and the
birds in their nest as an all you can eat buffet in Pluto’s yard.
This leads to some very funny moments, as the cats devise
various ways to consume this bevy of treats.
The very first scene shows them improvising a waiter pouring a fine
wine, but instead of aged grapes it is a bottle of milk being poured down the
gullet of the other cat. It continues
later when one of the cats is sent under the water of the fish pond with a
picnic basket, and “picks” the fish out to go in the basket, like picking
apples off a tree. Each of these gags is
new and different than we have seen in past shorts.
What’s not different is the chase scenes and interactions
with Pluto. There’s no new ground
covered in how Pluto is used in this short, and that’s okay. It mainly just makes the parts with Pluto
seem much less amusing than the two cats by themselves. Based on watching this short, I’d rather see
a new Milton and Lucifer short than more Pluto, at least based on what is in
Puss Café. Pluto’s character is limited
to that of antagonist, which is not a familiar role for him, and not
necessarily one he is suited for.
I did especially like the twist ending of Pluto running into
a cat that’s just as big and mean as he is.
That’s not a bad thing to add to the mix of Pluto’s repertoire, that
there could be someone besides another dog that is a menace to him. I left this short thinking that the comedic
potential of Milton and Lucifer was much greater than that of Pluto. It’s interesting to see Disney trying out new
characters even in 1950, when the shorts program was less and less of the
business.
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