You have to feel sorry for poor old Pluto, the much put-upon protagonist in 1952’s Pluto’s Christmas Tree.
In the 125th Mickey Mouse short to be produced and the second for that year, Pluto (Pinto Colvig) sets off amid festive, “Deck the Halls” soundtracked vibes, to help Mickey (Jimmy MacDonald) find the perfect Christmas tree.
Departing from their bungalow which is a picture perfect postcard evocation of Christmas with a red and green wreath on the door and snow falling demurely outside, Mickey is all enthusiasm and excitement for the task at hand and so is Pluto.
He becomes even more animated however when he spots Chip (Jimmy MacDonald) and Dale (Dessie Miller) out gathering acorns who being the mischievous twosome they are, decide to harass Pluto.
It might’ve been just a bit of silly harmless outdoorsy fun but the tree that Chip and Dale scarper into is the exact tree Mickey picks to chop down, an archetypal pine that ends becoming decorated in glowing retro-lights (obviously not so retro then), plump boughs of tinsel and gorgeously colourful baubles but not before transporting the two chipmunks right into the heart of Mickey’s cosy home.
As Mickey sets out to decorate the tree and surround it with a bountiful pile of richly-wrapped presents, Chip and Dale have some more fun discovering what it’s like to be on the inside of fancifully pretty tree that is every Christmas lover’s dream.
Honestly, if it was possible to live inside the tree, you likely would.
It’s luminously colourful, vibrantly alive and enticingly for the chipmunks, full of red and white striped candy canes, which prove all too irresistible for Dale who decides to try one.
He grabs a bauble instead, one which Chip ends up wearing less than fetchingly and leaving him less than impressed with Dale, who has attracted the attention of Pluto who does what a good dog does and defends his master’s property.
It’s pretty much inevitable what happens next with mayhem and misunderstanding ensuing, with poor Pluto left looking like an idiot chasing after nothing and a trail of devastation in his and Chip and Dale’s wake.
You have to wonder at one point how Mickey, clearly a dog owner of long standing, doesn’t cotton onto the fact the Pluto is being taunted and teased.
It is, after all, pretty obvious, that something is going on in the festively happy home.
But then, (a) it’s narratively convenient that Mickey remain delightfully oblivious and (b), and this is important given the type of cartoon it is, Mickey is completely subsumed into decorating, wrapping and placing presents, all to make sure it is the best possible Christmas ever.
So someone has to be the patsy and it’s poor dear Pluto who was also at Chip and Dale’s mercy in Private Pluto (1943) and Squatter’s Rights (1946), giving Donald Duck, who is usually the one driven amusingly mad by the relentlessly cheeky chipmunks, a well-earned break.
Being a Christmas cartoon, of course, there has to be a point, just like there is in countless festive sitcom episodes, where all the discord, damage and mess is forgotten and festive bliss descends.
This happens when Goofy (Pinto Colvig), Donald Duck (Clarence Nash) and Minnie Mouse (Ruth Clifford) turn up outside singing “Deck the Hall”, a joyfully selfless act which sees the wrecked tree and destroyed presents forgotten, for the moment at least, in the unity of the Christmas spirit.
And yet even then, Chip and Dale can’t help having a little last bit of fun with Pluto, the exact nature of which should be left to the viewing, proving that the inclusive, welcoming spirit of Christmas can only spread so far, especially when there’s frenetically festive fun to be had in a Disney Christmas short.
As Christmas cartoons go, Pluto’s Christmas Tree is a deserved classic, a perfect mix of the silly and the sublime, the festive and the frenetic, an evocation of Christmas so relentlessly warm and cosy and fun that you can understand why Chip and Dale don’t mind being dragged inside a tree into Mickey’s home and why they decide that now is the time to engage in some Christmassy hijinks and entertain us joyfully in the process.