Very disappointed :(

I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

I first saw this short upon purchasing the DVD I mentioned in the summary and it is very fitting due to its inclusion of Pluto and an abandoned kitten. While it has the cliché of the angel and devil situation, the devil is green rather than red, which makes it somewhat new.The snowy background is lovely and is reminiscent of two other Disney shorts where various characters go ice skating and Donald Duck's nephews cause havoc in the snow, both of which were childhood favourites. The musical score is pleasantly nostalgic and the story is more wholesome in comparison to that in 'Puss Cafe' due to including spoken dialogue. While Pluto appears to be jealous of the kitten at first, I like it when he rescues it from the well and it reminded me of the nursery rhyme 'Ding Dong Bell' in which a naughty boy puts a poor cat down the well but a good boy pulls her out. The animation is on the same level as that in similar Disney shorts such as the ones I have already mentioned. I might have seen a clip from this cartoon before (the part where Mickey pulls a frozen Pluto from the well) during a song on one of the Disney Sing-A-Long Songs videos (possibly 'Friendship' on 'Friend Like Me').Overall this is a lovely if somewhat distressing cartoon that is definitely the best bonus cartoon on my 'Oliver and Company' DVD. 8/10.

LEND A PAW was the Oscar winner for Best Animated Short for 1942 and while I was not bowled over by its brilliance, this year a particularly distinguished one for animation. Looney Tunes was still a few years away from greatness as they still hadn't switched to the sillier and edgier films of Bugs Bunny. MGM had only made one or two Tom and Jerry cartoons and Tex Avery's best with this studio was still a few years away. So, for the 1941-42 era, LEND A PAW was probably as good as any cartoon. The quality of the nominees would skyrocket in just the next year or two.The film begins with Pluto finding a sack with a baby kitten in it that had been thrown in the river! When Pluto realizes it's a kitten, he's rather sad to have done this good deed by rescuing the little kitten! Talk about a dark cartoon premise!! Well, the nice kitten follows Pluto home and Mickey decides to keep it. However, Pluto isn't happy about this and wants to get rid of the thing! The old cliché of an angel and a devil that appear and tell him what to do--and at least for a while the devil has his sway. Eventually, however, by the end, Pluto has done the right thing and everyone lives happily ever after--which is exactly what you'd expect from a Disney short.No major surprises but an exceptionally well animated and enjoyable short film.

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.Pluto must LEND A PAW to save the life of a drowning kitten - but is disgusted when Mickey welcomes the tiny feline into their home.There's much to enjoy in this Oscar-winning little film, with pathos, suspense & good humor all wrapped-up into one tidy package. The use of the Angel-Pluto & Devil-Pluto to express the Pup's thoughts is an amusing conceit. This was the second of only two appearances in a Disney cartoon made by Bianca the Goldfish, the other being MICKEY'S PARROT (1938).Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by pictures & drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew comic figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a storm of naysayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that childlike simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.

This Oscar winner is a rather sweet, gentle, charming cartoon that, from another studio, probably would not have won the Oscar. While it's a good cartoon, it certainly isn't my choice (of those I've seen, I prefer Rhapsody in Rivets myself). This is the best one that prominently features Pluto and it cetainly does not make you scratch your head and wonder what they were thinking. A good, but by no means great, cartoon. Like most of the shorts (with some lamentable exceptions), this shows periodically on The Ink and Paint Club. Recommended.