Pluto is an American cartoon character created by Walt Disney and Norm Ferguson. He is a yellow-orange color, medium-sized, short-haired dog with black ears. Unlike most Disney characters, Pluto is not anthropomorphic beyond some characteristics such as facial expression. He is Mickey Mouse's pet. Officially a mixed-breed dog, he made his debut as a bloodhound in the Mickey Mouse cartoon The Chain Gang. Together with Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, and Goofy, Pluto is one of the "Sensational Six"—the biggest stars in the Disney universe. Though all six are non-human animals, Pluto alone is not dressed as a human.

Pluto debuted in animated cartoons and appeared in 24 Mickey Mouse films before receiving his own series in 1937. All together Pluto appeared in 89 short films between 1930 and 1953. Several of these were nominated for an Academy Award, including The Pointer (1939), Squatter's Rights (1946), Pluto's Blue Note (1947), and Mickey and the Seal (1948). One film starring him, Lend a Paw (1941), won the award in 1942. Because Pluto does not speak, his presence relies on physical humor. This made him a pioneering figure in character animation, by expressing personality through animation rather than dialogue.

Like all of Pluto's co-stars, he appears extensively in comics, first in 1931. He returned to theatrical animation in 1990 with The Prince and the Pauper and is in several direct-to-video films. Pluto is in countless television series, video games, and all other Mickey Mouse media.

In 1998, Disney's copyright on Pluto, set to expire at the end of 2005, was extended by the passage of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. Disney, along with other rights holders, lobbied for passage of the act to preserve their copyrights on characters such as Pluto for 20 additional years. Under current American copyright law, Pluto's earliest appearances will become public domain at the start of 2026. However, Pluto, like all widely-merchandised Disney characters, will remain trademarked by Disney, and trademarks do not expire unless the rights holder stops using it.

The character of Pluto originated with animator Norm Ferguson, who came to the Disney Studio in 1929. Ferguson is credited with introducing the animation principle of "follow through and overlapping action": where different parts of the body move at different times and speeds compared to the main action. Ferguson first introduced this technique in the Silly Symphony short Frolicking Fish (released May 8, 1930): where he animated a trio of dancing fish, and offset the movement of their fins, having them "drag" along with the main body's movement. This gave the characters a more flowing and natural movement than in most other animation of that time. Walt Disney was so impressed with Ferguson's work on Frolicking Fish, that he ordered all of his animators study the scene.

Shortly after completing his work on Frolicking Fish, Disney assigned Ferguson to work on the Mickey Mouse cartoon The Chain Gang (released on September 5, 1930); where Mickey is portrayed as a prisoner who escapes from jail, and is pursued by two nameless bloodhounds. Ferguson was tasked with animating a scene where Mickey runs towards the camera and is followed by the two bloodhounds, who sniff Mickey's trail, look up, snort, and bark at the camera. According to Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, when describing this scene to Ferguson, Disney reminisced about different dogs he grew up with as a child, and acted out their mannerisms (much to the staff's amusement), which Ferguson would then translate into his animation.

When animating the scene, Ferguson applied his principle of "follow through and overlapping action" to the jowls of the dogs, which gave them surprisingly lifelike movement for the time. Animation historian Michael Barrier wrote about the scene:

"The dogs were among the very first Disney characters whose design broke with the prevailing formula that put white masks on virtually interchangeable black bodies... their jowls hang loosely, their nostrils wrinkle and flair, their movements echo those of real dogs. When the dogs appear, there is a sense, however faint and fleeting, of solid flesh on a screen otherwise occupied by phantoms."