Pluto - Bubble Bee

The pup first appeared in Walt Disney's short "The Chain Gang". , released in the USA on 18 August 1930. However, it had no name. The next appearance was on 23 October 1930, in "The Picnic". . Here the dog is named, but it is Rover, not Pluto. It was in "The Moose Hunt". , released on 8 May 1931, that the dog is called Pluto the Pup, the studio's original name. A September 1931 model sheet for the character with that name is illustrated in Barrier's Hollywood Cartoons.[2]

Obviously, several months had passed between the naming of what was believed to have been the ninth planet, Pluto, on 24 March 1930, and the attachment of that name to the dog character. Venetia Burney (later Venetia Phair), who as an eleven-year-old schoolgirl had suggested the name Pluto for the planet, remarked in 2006: “The name had nothing to do with the Disney cartoon. Mickey Mouse's dog was named after the planet, not the other way around.”[3]

Although it has been claimed that the Disney studio named the dog after the planet (rather than after the mythical god of the underworld), this needs further verification. Disney animator Ben Sharpsteen has said that, "We thought the name [Rover] was too common, so we had to look for something else. [...] We changed it to Pluto the Pup, [...] but I don't honestly remember why."[4]