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May 3, 1931 – The Mickey Mouse Short The Moose Hunt is Released to Theaters

“Old pal, old pal! What have I done? Oh, what have I done?”

On May 3, 1931, the Mickey Mouse short film The Moose Hunt was released to theaters. It was directed by Burt Gillett, and starred Walt Disney as the voice of Mickey, and Pinto Colvig as the voice of Pluto. This is the first film where Pluto is known by his name.

The short opens with Mickey and Pluto walking in the woods, with Mickey toting a shotgun and whistling “She’ll Be Comin’ ’Round the Mountain.” He trips over a rock, making the shotgun go off, but it doesn’t stop him from dancing down the path. He ends up falling into some tall grass, startling some birds that fly to safety in a tree. When he shoots at the tree, the only thing he’s able to hit are all the leaves. The birds sit safely, singing his song back to him.

Pluto versus the scarecrow

Pluto, meanwhile, wanders away from Mickey, following a flea that he scratched off. When he comes across a scarecrow, the dog is frightened, and begins to bark at it. When he’s hit by one of the pant legs, Pluto takes off in fear, but ends up sneaking back to sniff and study the scarecrow again. One of the scarecrow’s gloves falls off and lands on Pluto’s tail, startling him and sending him scurrying off in a frenzy.

As Mickey is walking along, Pluto runs up behind him and pushes past, causing the shotgun to go off again as Mickey flies into the air. Pluto ends up flying into a river, with all the fleas he had abandoning ship, only to return once Pluto climbed up onto dry land. He ends up groveling back to an angry Mickey, who glares at him, tapping his foot. The mood quickly changes when Mickey asks Pluto to perform tricks. Mickey grabs a stick and begins to play fetch with Pluto, but unfortunately throws the stick into a pile of branches, and Pluto has to guess which one is the right one. The one he picks, however, makes him look like he has antlers.

Mickey mourns over the body of his pal, thinking he’s killed him

As Pluto races back to his master, Mickey sees his shadow through the trees, and gets excited. He aims and fires twice, and a loud whimper is heard. As Mickey runs to see his kill, he stops, shocked, observing that the “moose” he shot was in fact his dog. Mickey cries over the body, but the audience sees that Pluto is just pretending to be dead, and he winks at the audience. As Mickey pleads for his dog to be alive and say something, Pluto “revives” and says, “Kiss me.” He then barks, and Mickey happily hugs his friend.

The mood is broken, however, when Mickey hears the call of a moose, and tells Pluto to be quiet. The two carefully sneak along, and Pluto tries to sniff the moose out. Circling around what he thinks are trees, the camera zooms out to show the audience that Pluto has, indeed, found the moose. Continuing to find the scent, Pluto keeps walking, unaware that the moose is copying him and following closely behind. The strange trio is then seen together, with Pluto following Mickey, and the moose following Pluto.

Mickey and Pluto fly away to safety from the clutches of the angry moose

Pluto finally gets the feeling that something strange is going on, and turns to see the moose, causing him to jump in fear. He taps Mickey to get his attention, but Mickey just rebuffs him. Finally, he turns and tries to shoot, only to have his shotgun break into pieces. Mickey and Pluto begin to run for their lives as the moose pursues them, and the day is saved when Pluto uses his ears to help the duo fly away to safety.