Mickey and Pluto are decorating the tree but some unexpected guests (Chip and Dale) have made their home in the tree and are dazzled by all the lights and decorations. Pluto sniffs them out and ends up destroying everything trying to catch them.

This classic Mickey Mouse is a must see every year. At this point in Mickey's career, most of his cartoons starred him but the spotlight was always stolen by his co-stars to the point where he would get very little screen time. In this case it's Pluto, whose career was at the height of it popularity, and Chip n Dale, who had just reached the height of their own popularity.

While the animation was really good on the chipmunks and Pluto, I am not a fan of Mickey's animation in this era of his career. The artists thought to change him up a bit. They made his ears not as round and his nose a bit longer. He never wore his trademark red shorts anymore and he moved like he had no neck. This cartoon is a good example of how even the best animators can make Mickey look "wrong".

I remember I had a book based on this cartoon when I was little. This is a great short, the story is entertaining and the animation is good. Although I found it kind of funny how it was snowing really hard in the first minute or so then abruptly stopped at the next shot. The expressions on the characters are great and carry most of the emotion. Pluto for instance, when the chipmunks harass him and he sits there grumbling, and near the end with his "I told you so" expression. This is a great short, check it out sometime!

I had some friends over for a holiday party this evening and we somehow got into this discussion of whether or not Dale's nose was red in just "Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers" or if it was red in the early shorts as well. Being the animation geek that I am, I dug out one of my Disney Treasures collections and put in this short for the group to resolve the question.

And there we were, a group of 20-somethings all completely absorbed and utterly tickled by a short film made decades before any of us were born. The gags are still funny. The animation is still great. I still laughed out loud when Pluto has his silent, frustrated "That's what I've been trying to tell you!!" moment at the end of the film.

What can I say? Pure classic.