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Mickey and the Seal

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Mickey and The Seal
Directed byCharles Nichols
Story byNick George
Milt Schaffer
Produced byWalt Disney
StarringFord Banes
James MacDonald
Pinto Colvig (both uncredited)
Music byOliver Wallace
Animation byPhil Duncan
Hugh Fraser
George Nicholas
Dan MacManus
Nick George
Layouts byKarl Karpé
Backgrounds byRalph Hulett
Color processTechnicolor
Production
company
Distributed byRKO Radio Pictures
Release date
  • December 3, 1948 (1948-12-03)[1]
Running time
6:38 (one reel)
LanguageEnglish

Mickey and the Seal is a cartoon short created by Walt Disney in 1948. It was nominated for Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, but lost to MGM's Tom and Jerry cartoon The Little Orphan,[2] which shared one of seven Oscars for the Tom and Jerry series. It was the 122nd short in the Mickey Mouse film series to be released, and the second produced that year.[3]

Plot

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Mickey Mouse visits the seal exhibit at a zoo. He makes the seals perform tricks by feeding them fish. One young seal escapes from the exhibit to get more fish and ends up inside Mickey's basket. Mickey takes the basket home, where Pluto is begging for food. When Mickey puts the basket down, Pluto goes to investigate, but is hit on the nose by the seal's flippers. Pluto tries to tell Mickey what happened, but Mickey can't understand him. While this is happening, the seal escapes from the basket and Pluto chases it, only to get his head stuck inside the basket. He blunders around and, in the process, makes a mess of the kitchen, getting Mickey’s attention. He angrily orders Pluto out of the house, despite Pluto's attempts to tell him what he was chasing.

When Mickey goes to the bathroom to take a bath, he doesn't notice the seal hop into the tank just before him. Completely unaware of what's around him, Mickey ends up scrubbing the seal's head with his brush instead of his back, which he intended to clean. Mickey eventually realizes that he's not scrubbing himself, but still can't see the seal behind him. The seal then begins scrubbing Mickey's head, which makes Mickey puzzled. Pluto later comes to the window and tries to tell Mickey again, but Mickey shuts the shade. When the seal takes his scrubbing brush, Mickey tries to get it back, only to grab the seal by mistake; he yells with fright upon seeing it. After jumping out of the tub, Mickey grabs a stool to nab the intruder, drains the water, and only then does he realize there is a seal in the tub.

Despite Mickey's orders to stay outside, an angry Pluto storms in and crashes into the tub, and then tries to attack the seal after Mickey introduces him to it. After Pluto becomes alarmed and angry when Mickey says he decides to keep it as a pet, Mickey changes his mind, understanding that Pluto won't like it and that having a wild animal for a pet is a bad idea, and eventually decides to take the seal back to the zoo, and Pluto smiles in reply (taking a liking to that idea) before bringing over Mickey's basket. After Mickey and Pluto drop it off, the seal shows the other seals the things it learned about bathtime from Mickey and Pluto. When Mickey comes home, he and Pluto find that all the seals have moved into their house and are using the bathroom and bathtub as their personal exhibit and pool, respectively, and using an ironing board as a diving board.

The young seal then waves goodbye from the shower, which concludes the cartoon.

Cast

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Releases

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Home media

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The short was released on May 18, 2004 on Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Living Color, Volume Two: 1939-Today.[5]

Additional releases include:

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Kaufman, J.B.; Gerstein, David (2018). Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History. Cologne: Taschen. ISBN 978-3-8365-5284-4.
  2. ^ "The 21st Academy Awards (1949) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved June 22, 2019.
  3. ^ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 107-109. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  4. ^ Gelder, Lawrence Van (1989-08-18). "REVIEW/FILM; A CHEETAH, TWO TEEN-AGERS AND MICKEY". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-11-29.
  5. ^ "Mickey Mouse in Living Color Volume 2 DVD Review". DVD Dizzy. Retrieved 19 February 2021.
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