While Mickey Mouse is working in his garden Pluto keeps bothering and interrupting him. After a while Pluto swallows a flashlight and gets stuck on a piece of flypaper.[3]
The cartoon is well known for a classic scene where Pluto gets stuck on a sticky piece of flypaper. This scene, animated by Norm Ferguson, has been described as vital in the history of character animation, because for the first time an animated character really seemed to think and have a mind of his own. The segment is also classic because it demonstrated how Disney artists were able to take a simple circumstance and build humor through a character.[3][4]
Clips from the cartoon, including the flypaper scene, were used in the Preston Sturges film Sullivan's Travels (1941), in which the title character (Joel McCrea) has a revelation while viewing Playful Pluto alongside an audience of church-goers and chain-gang prisoners.[3]