13 Nights of Happy Haunts: Pluto's Judgement Day

Night 4: Pluto’s Judgement Day (1935)
Starring: Pluto
Co-starring: Mickey Mouse
Setting: The Mad Doctor’s Castle
Plot: After being scolded by Mickey for chasing a cat, Pluto dreams of being sentenced to Doggy Hell via Kitty Cat Court.

Tricks and/or Treats:
I’m glad they chose to spell “judgement” with an “e.”  I never understood why the more common spelling drops the “e.”

This is the first appearance of Mickey Mouse with his new shape and design.

In Pluto’s nightmare, even the trees are shaped like cats.

That cat cave looks an awful lot like Aladdin’s (1992) Cave of Wonders.

Why not cast Pete as the lawyer?  He is a big, fat anthropomorphized cat after all. 

The three girl kitty cat witnesses are dragging a headstone that reads “Here Lies Uncle Tom” for their uncle who Pluto drowned in a river.  I imagine his name refers to a “tomcat” rather than the derogatory slur.  Although, some surmise that since the three cats are black that it’s the latter.

Wait… Pluto killed a cat??? 

I love how the jury just goes through a revolving door and never actually convenes since Pluto’s sentence is a foregone conclusion for the cats.

After Pluto receives his “guilty” verdict, you can see various cats holding signs.  One reads “Sic Semper Tyrannis” which translates to “Thus always to Tyrants.”  This phrase is thought to have been conceived when Brutus uttered it during the assassination of Caesar.  John Wilkes Booth also said it as he killed Lincoln.  But, most famously, “Crazy” Joe Davola shouted it when he leapt onto the stage, interrupting Jerry’s Pilot in Seinfeld (1989 – 1998).
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RIP:
By all accounts, Pluto was a bad dog.  But, he did seem genuinely guilty and reformed despite the fact he drowned a cat (!), was responsible for another being flattened by a steamroller and rendered one insane with fear.  But did he really do these awful things or were they all constructs by virtue of Pluto’s guilty subconscious materializing by way of a nightmare?  I guess we will never know…