20 Days of Summer, Day 2: The Picnic

Day 2: The Picnic (1930)
Starring: Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and Pluto (as “Rover”)
Setting: The countryside
Plot: Mickey takes Minnie and her dog on a date to the countryside to have a picnic.

​Tan Lines
While undeniably Pluto, here, he belongs to Minnie and goes by the name of “Rover.”

This was Pluto’s second appearance after a nameless bloodhound version of the mutt appeared in The Chain Gang (1930).
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Either Mickey’s car is going pretty slow or Pluto’s gait is deceptively fast.  Either way, don’t let PETA see what’s happening here.

The old “Portable Hole” the rabbit uses to trick Pluto is one of my favorite cartoon staples and was also famously used in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988).

Among the items on their picnic blanket is a big wheel of cheese.  Yum!

Mickey brought enough food to feed the whole country side and… it did!

The song Mickey and Minnie are dancing to is the aptly titled “In the Good Old Summertime.”
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Where else did we hear this tune?  In The Nifty Nineties (1941) of course!

Sitting by the Campfire
With the afternoon showers, I’d think this more of a springtime short but the tune of “In the Good Old Summertime” convinced me otherwise.  Unlike the last cartoon, Mickey and Minnie are clearly courting as this was a nice day date Mickey planned for the two.  And, although Mickey seemed a bit annoyed at first with the inclusion of Minnie’s dog Pluto/Rover, he proved to be more than a third wheel as the mutt came up clutch during the rainy drive home by sitting atop the windshield and using his tail as a wiper.