Norman Tate
Birth : 1915-02-14,
Death : 2006-08-13
History
Norm worked for Disney as an animator in the 1940's. He worked on many projects including Springtime for Pluto, Fantasia, and Pinocchio. Above is one of Norm's sketches of J. Worthington Foulfellow, aka Honest John, from Pinocchio. - ANGELA CANDELA
Animation
Pluto is patrolling a beach for the Coast Guard when a baby turtle hatches. The turtle keeps trying to sneak into the restricted zone to swim, and Pluto keeps trying to stop him. But when Pluto stumbles into some quicksand, he suddenly needs help from his foe.
Animation
Pluto is guarding a flock of sheep in the West; a coyote is sneaking up on that flock. The coyote fakes a bad leg; Pluto chases it away, only to have it run back ahead of him and go after the sheep. Pluto gets back and finds the coyote chasing the lone black sheep of the flock, after trapping the rest. The chase ends with the coyote buried under a toppling spire of rock, which forms a coyote of rock on the top.
Animation
As a ship's crew is on shore leave, seadog Pluto is left to stand watch. He sees a threatening shape, but it turns out to be a cache of bones. He grabs one and settles in contentedly. A rat sneaks on, and Pluto springs into action. The rat toys with him, until it finds the officer's mess. He bribes Pluto, until he hears an officer approaching. The rat hides, and Pluto gets thrown in the brig, while the rat sneaks off with his sandwich. But Pluto gets even.
Animation
Seduced by a satyr, Pluto celebrates spring. He goes around enjoying the scents, then imitating various animals. But when he imitates the butterfly (that transformed from a caterpillar before our eyes), he gets in trouble. The butterfly had done a little dance with a water droplet; Pluto picks a beehive as his "ball". The bees, of course, attack, and Pluto escapes by diving into some bushes of poison ivy. Then the "gentle" rains of spring come, along with the hail ("hail, hail the rains"), making a mess of Pluto's house. When the rains end and the satyr returns, Pluto gives him the greeting he deserves.
Animation
It's a peaceful day at the local poultry farm until Foxy Loxy happens along intent on a chicken dinner. He takes the advice of a book on psychology by striking "the least intelligent" first and convinces dim witted Chicken Little the sky is falling. Chicken Little spreads the word but when head man Cocky Locky proves the story to be false, Foxy Loxy spreads rumors that Cocky Locky isn't the smart chicken he appears to be, which leads to the ultimate undoing of the chickens at the hands of Foxy Loxy.
Animation
Jealous over Mickey's attention to a kitten, Pluto's devil-self argues with his angel-self over whether or not to rescue the kitten when it falls into a well. The angel-self wins, and Pluto is treated like a hero. In the end, he and the kitten become friends.
Animation
Mickey's going golfing, and Pluto is his caddy. Besides the usual caddy duties, Pluto runs to the ball and points to it. But when the ball lands in a gopher hole, Pluto's got another task: chase the gopher. They eventually chase each other through a number of holes in a knoll where Mickey is trying to putt out, causing the knoll to collapse.
Animation
Mickey Mouse lies in bed like a lord, getting served breakfast by man's (and mouse's?) best friend Pluto as gentleman's gentleman. Next duty is to fetch the paper, but also pay for it with a coin for the vending machine, and those round things have a nasty habit of escaping a dog's teeth and bouncing over the pavement till they end up in the gutter. After enough attempts to fish and spend the penny, Pluto has a newspaper to carry the same way. The wind has a nasty way to get a better grip on page after page then the dog, so by the time he delivers the daily dose of printed news it's an embarrassingly muddy mess.
Animation
With a rubber bone as a lure, Donald Duck tries to entice Pluto to try his mechanical dog washer. When the bone gives Pluto trouble, Donald tries a toy cat as a lure only to unexpectedly fall into the washer himself, get scrubbed and then hung out on the line to dry.
Animation
Lonely toymaker Geppetto has his wishes answered when the Blue Fairy arrives to bring his wooden puppet Pinocchio to life. Before becoming a real boy, however, Pinocchio must prove he's worthy as he sets off on an adventure with his whistling sidekick and conscience, Jiminy Cricket.