A Mutt in a Rut (1949) Poster

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8/10
Be Careful What You Wish For
ccthemovieman-17 August 2007
This was a pleasant surprise, funnier than I anticipated.

By the way, I wonder how many times a cartoon back in these days (1930s-1950s) began with the song "There's No Place Like Home," playing in the background? That's the setup here as dog is enjoying the fireplace and life of ease until his owner, an Irish lady, discovers a little stray cat outside the front door. She brings him in the gives the cat milk from the dog's dish, puts him to bed, in the dog's bed and then doesn't understand why the pooch is teed off.

The reaction of the dog with his exaggerated snarling teeth at these occurrence is funny. Finally, after being threatened to be tossed out of house if he harms the kitten, the dog walks away, and moans, "Aw, shucks, I'll live a dog's life around here as long as that cat's here. I wish I was dead."

Moments later, he accidentally gets clobbered in the head with a big vase and we see his spiritual body come out of his human body. He takes a winged elevator upstairs to "Dog Heaven.

However, without ruining the ending, let's just say things don't turn out to "heavenly" for our mutt.

The studio, "National Telefilm Associates, Inc." that produced this, and the last cartoon I just saw, must have been short on funds because because the whole cartoon is done is different shades of brown. Usually all the colors, this colorful story could have been better to watch with different and bright hues.
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7/10
Interesting cartoon with some nice scenes, but other studios have done similar shorts and did them better
llltdesq19 October 2006
Warning: Spoilers
This short has some interesting plot ideas that more or less work here, but the ideas have been used by other cartoon studios in different combinations and used more effectively. I want to talk about the short a bit, so this is a spoiler warning:

This short has a dog who is quite content with his life, until a stray kitten is taken in by the household (it's not clear whether the human character is the owner or a servant).

The dog sees the kitten usurping his bowl and his bed and reacts angrily, attacking the kitten and drawing a warning for his actions. He grumbles that he would be better off dead and then gets hit by a vase after lunging for the kitten.

You then see his spirit depart his body (in a rather creative way) and get in an elevator headed up, to "Dog Heaven". There are some very nice visual gags showing what dogs might find to be heaven. The dog gets arrested by a heavenly cop (a bulldog with an Irish brogue) for not having wings and he's taken before St. Bernard, who sends him "down" because he tormented the kitten. We now get to see "Dog Hades", which is definitely not someplace you want to go! The backgrounds are nice and there are some good gags.

The dog then wakes up and realizes he's back home and he starts spoiling the kitten! This is a nice short, but there isn't anything special about it-it's cute and nothing more. Good for kids, though. Worth watching.
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8/10
Well-animated and fun
TheLittleSongbird10 March 2013
A Mutt in a Rutt could have been a little longer and the story has been done before and and more originally. Regardless, it is still very entertaining. The animation is very well done, especially with the soul leaving the body, the ascending elevator to heaven and the dog's facial expressions. It is also very vibrant and fluid to look at. The music is characterful with each musical note and line fitting with the actions and the characters' expressions. The story is not much special, but told in a cute and colourful way complete with crisp pacing. The humour is fresh and funny, while the dog is a memorable and identifiable character. The voice acting is done with lots of gusto as well.

In conclusion, fun and well-animated though there's better around. 8/10 Bethany Cox
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10/10
Clarification/Response
Hank_Harrison7 November 2022
I want to use this to respond to another review.

I agree with a lot of what the person said so I'm not going to delve into that but I give it a higher score because I realize that the print commonly seen today isn't how it looked back in 1949. Intact some more vibrant prints have surfaced since 2007 when said person wrote their review.

The reviewer said that National Telefilm Associates produced the short which is not true. Paramount Pictures actually produced it and the reason NTA's logo is used is because Paramount didn't want to distribute their shorts to television. They would sell the rights to NTA for television distribution. Overtime these prints would become very faded which is why the prints we commonly see today has many shades of brown. In reality, the short was produced using the Technicolor process.
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8/10
By now anyone with a brain in their head knows the meaning of the expression . . .
pixrox13 July 2020
Warning: Spoilers
. . . "Bringing coal to Newcastle," but A MUTT IN A RUT offers the lesser known variant of this aphorism: Stoking the furnace in Hades. "Dog Face," the cur referred to in the title of this brief cartoon, is the unfortunate canine ordered to produce clinkers Down Below. It turns out that not ALL dogs go to Heaven, but only the Fat Cat One Per Center Corgi-type yapping lap lackeys. True Blue Loyal Union Label Progressive Service Breeds are discarded way under, lest they contaminate the Corgi Cloud Nine with dog breath!
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