| Lend a Paw | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Clyde Geronimi Assisted by: Don A. Duckwall (uncredited) |
| Produced by | Walt Disney |
| Starring | Teddy Barr Walt Disney John Dehner John McLeish Marcellite Garner |
| Music by | Leigh Harline |
| Animation by | Uncredited character animation: George Nicholas Kenneth Muse Nick Nichols William Sturm Eric Gurney Norman Tate Chick Otterstrom Morey Reden Emery Hawkins |
| Layouts by | Uncredited: Bruce Bushman |
| Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 8:12 |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Lend a Paw is ananimatedshort film produced inTechnicolor byWalt Disney Productions, distributed by RKO Radio Pictures and released to theaters on October 3, 1941.Lend a Paw was directed byClyde Geronimi and features original music byLeigh Harline. George Nicholas,Kenneth Muse,Nick Nichols, William Sturm,Eric Gurney, Norman Tate, Chick Otterstrom, Morey Reden, andEmery Hawkins animated the film. The voice cast includesWalt Disney as Mickey and Teddy Barr as Pluto.[2] It was the 115th short in theMickey Mouse film series to be released, and the sixth for that year.[3]
In the cartoon, which was largely a remake of the 1933 shortMickey's Pal Pluto,Pluto saves the life of akitten, and later feels jealous towards the kitten afterMickey Mouse takes the kitten in. The film won theAcademy Award forBest Animated Short Film at the14th Academy Awards in 1942, the only Mickey Mouse short to win the award.
While out in the snow, Pluto hears meowing from a bag floating on a drifting ice floe. He saves it, only to lose interest when he finds a kitten inside. The kitten follows him home and Mickey adopts it. Pluto becomes jealous of all the attention the kitten gets and is urged by hisshoulder devil to get it in trouble. His shoulder angel attempts to talk him out of it. The devil gets rid of the angel by jabbing him with his trident. Pluto lifts the kitten within reach of Mickey's goldfish Bianca, only for it to drag the fishbowl off the edge of the table. This gets Mickey's attention and he demands answers from Bianca. She identifies Pluto as the culprit. Mickey kicks Pluto out of the house as punishment. Pluto blames his shoulder devil for getting him in trouble.
The kitten chases a ball outside and accidentally falls into a well. The angel tells Pluto to save it, but the devil tells him to let it drown as revenge for getting him kicked out and silences the angel by trapping him in hishalo and punching him out, to Pluto's delight. Roused by the kitten's cries, the angel steps on the devil's tail and punches him into oblivion, convincing Pluto to extract the kitten using the well's bucket. In the process Pluto slips and falls in the well. Hearing Pluto's howl, Mickey pulls him out, but finds him frozen in a block of ice. He rams him into the well's top to break the ice. After receiving a hot bath from Mickey and a thank you lick from the kitten, Pluto pants contentedly and is told by the angel "Kindness to animals, my friend, will be rewarded in the end."
Pluto's angel and devil reappeared, played byEric Idle andPenn Jillette respectively, in two episodes ofMickey Mouse Works - "Pluto's Kittens" (1999) and "Minnie Takes Care of Pluto" (2000) - as well as a 2002 episode ofHouse of Mouse, "Pluto vsFigaro",[4] and in theMickey Mouse episode, "Easy Street"; in the latter, the angel actually agrees with the devil's plan remarking "Amen".
The short was released on December 7, 2004, onWalt Disney Treasures: The Complete Pluto: 1930-1947.[5]
Additional releases include:
It is also available onDisney+.[6]
