February 19, 1943 – The Mickey Mouse Short Film Pluto and the Armadillo is Released to Theaters
“Down where the mighty Amazon winds its way through the heart of Brazil, we find many strange and exotic species of flora and fauna.”
On February 19, 1943, audiences were presented with a new Mickey Mouse short entitled Pluto and the Armadillo. Directed by Clyde Geronimi, the short starred Walt Disney as Mickey Mouse, Pinto Colvig as Pluto, and Fred Shields as the Narrator. Interestingly enough, although listed as a Mickey Mouse short, its main actor is Pluto, and Mickey appears only in two small sections.
Our narrator opens the story by explaining that there are “many strange and exotic species of flora and fauna” near Brazil, and then introduces a hanging armadillo, affectionately nicknamed Tatou. Tatou, the narrator informs the audience, “is a very timid creature, and at the slightest noise, even at the drop of a pin, he snaps into a solid ball, becoming, so to speak, a hard nut to crack.”
Turista Americana and his canine play a game
The narrator then moves to the next unusual creature: the turista Americana, or the American Tourist. Mickey and Pluto hop off the Pam Am plane for a fifteen-minute stopover, and Pluto begins to play with a ball that has a strikingly similar design to Tatou’s shell. Mickey throws the ball into some nearby woods, and hits Tatou, who curls up inside his shell. Pluto, thinking Tatou is the ball, goes to retrieve it, but Tatou begins to jump away from Pluto’s mouth. When Pluto gingerly puts out a paw to touch it, Tatou buries himself under ground, then digs a trail away from Pluto, before coming up again and bouncing away from the curious dog and pushing the real ball out from some ferns.
Pluto is confused at the fact that there are now two balls in front of him, and he doesn’t know which one is the one that has been tricking him. Tatou, with a smile on his face, opens his shell slightly to see if Pluto’s still there, and when he gives Pluto a playful wink, Pluto tries to hide while Tatou shuts himself inside again. Although Tatou is being friendly, Pluto’s anger only grows. He tries to capture both of the balls, but the real one is squeezed out of his grasp. Pluto grabs it with his back legs, and both the ball and Tatou begin bouncing as Pluto tries to hold on.
Pluto trying to have a grasp on the situation
Tatou begins to walk away once he slips from Pluto’s grasp, but Pluto rushes around to stop him, determined to find out what exactly this strange creature is. After the two sniff each other out, Pluto determines that he likes Tatou, and the two begin to play a game of underground tag with each other. Tatou hides within a hole, and Pluto, a bit peeved that he ran into some plants and ended up looking like Carmen Miranda, grabs the nearby ball, thinking it’s Tatou, and plays with it rather roughly, causing it to pop. Thinking he’s killed the poor thing, Pluto begins to panic and cry. Tatou, observing from his hiding spot, sees Pluto and starts feeling guilty for making the dog cry. He appears in front of the weeping dog, gives him a lick across the nose, and Pluto instantly cheers at seeing his friend is alive.
The bell is ringing for everyone to get back on the plane, and Mickey is frantically looking for Pluto, who appears to have vanished. He finally spies Pluto and what he thinks is the ball, gathers them up, and drags them onto the plane in the nick of time. As Mickey holds the “ball,” Tatou sticks his head out, startling Mickey, who is very, very confused by the situation as the plane flies away.
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