The Pointer

The Pointer is a 1939 American animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures on July 21, 1939. The short was directed by Clyde Geronimi and animated by Fred Moore, Frank Thomas, Lynn Karp, Seamus Culhane, Ollie Johnston, Preston Blair, Lester Norvi, John Lounsbery, Claude Smitha, Art Palmer, and Josh Meador. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoon) in 1940. The cartoon follows Mickey Mouse as he tries to teach his dog Pluto to be a pointer dog during a quail hunt. It was directed by Clyde Geronimi and features the voices of Walt Disney as Mickey and Lee Millar as Pluto. Although often cited as the animated debut of Mickey's modern character design, this actually occurred five months earlier in Mickey's Surprise Party. Nevertheless, The Pointer is still considered a milestone Mickey Mouse film for its background art and Mickey's acting which was personally staged by Walt Disney. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 12th Academy Awards in 1940, but untimely lost to Disney's own The Ugly Duckling, the final installment of the Silly Symphony series.