THE AURA OF UPSTATE

In the form of a filmed epistolary conversation, two young, experienced filmmakers discuss film, present and past family, heritage and maternity. The personal and profound reflections—which are embodied in the graceful images taken day-to-day—are suddenly echoed by the political emergency of a country.

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.

Pluto is on the run after stealing a bone from Butch the bulldog and finds refuge in a carnival Hall of Mirrors.

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.

Pluto spots Dinah the dachshund and is smitten, but she ignores him. He uses a giant bone to steal a kiss, and hides behind a mirror, but still no luck. Then Dinah is nabbed by the dogcatcher, and Pluto goes in to free her. Their thrilling escape finally gets Pluto another kiss.

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.

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.

Minnie's learning first aid; she asks Pluto and Figaro for help. Pluto keeps throwing Figaro into buckets and otherwise getting him into trouble. Then, when Minnie has Pluto all trussed up in splints, Figaro taunts him.

In Holland, Pluto acts as a milkman (dog?) leaving canisters of milk on the town's doorsteps. While going about his job, he falls head over heels in love with Dinah the dachshund. In his enthusiasm, he accidentally rings the dike bell causing the town to think the dike is leaking. When the fraud is exposed, Pluto and Dinah are kicked out of the town. Upon leaving, they both notice the dike actually has sprung a leak. While Dinah plugs the leak, Pluto must return to the town and find a way to get the residents to follow him to the dike leak.

Pluto is tied up in the backyard and has been ordered by the maid to stay outside while she prepares a roast. Of course, once Pluto smells the scent of the roast, he makes a beeline for the kitchen. Unfortuantely, staying undiscovered proves difficult for Pluto once he gets inside particularly after he inhales a bucket of soapy water and starts sneezing. Bubbles fill the kitchen and cups are broken at which point the maid comes downstairs. Luckily, Pluto returns to his doghouse leaving the impression that he never left. The maid just shrugs and says, "I could swear it was that dog."

Mickey and Pluto make a short stopover on a South American flight. Mickey throws Pluto's ball into the jungle, and he chases it but it looks exactly the same as an armadillo that's rolled up into a ball. This, of course, greatly confuses Pluto for a while. But he eventually makes friends with the armadillo. He chases the critter into a cave right behind his ball, and rips the ball apart thinking it's the armadillo, which makes him very sad until the armadillo shows up again.

Pluto walks past the zoo and sees the huge bone the sleeping lion has but getting it out is easier said than done. He gets it out of the lion's cage, but then has to face the kangaroo and its playful joey. Next is the gorilla, then the crocodiles.

Pluto and Pluto Junior are enjoying a lazy afternoon snooze when the playful pup tangles with a ball, a balloon, a worm, a bird, and a clothesline. Pluto rescues his son from a precarious situation, gets hung up in the process, but manages to land with a splash.

Pluto has just finished moving his bones into a spiffy new doghouse when a turtle comes along and starts moving them out. While Pluto is dealing with the turtle, Butch takes up residence. Butch chases Pluto back to his grungy old doghouse, and now it's his turn to deal with the tenacious little turtle. The turtle wins, and he and Pluto become friends.

Pluto's kid brother, K.B., keeps getting into trouble. When Butch the bulldog passes by, K.B. latches onto him. Butch gets K.B. to crawl into a meat market through a small slot. Pluto comes along, they tussle and set off the burglar alarm, which brings the dogcatcher, who grabs Butch.

Pluto is playing with a ball on the beach. The ball goes into the water and starts moving in strange ways, because a sea lion is playing with it. Pluto does not want to share the ball, and eventually tries to bury it, but the sea lion is too clever. Pluto goes after the sea lion, but has to tangle with a persistent octopus. The sea lion saves Pluto, and resuscitates him, so Pluto agrees to play.

"The Frog Prince" was one of several adaptations of Brothers Grimm fairytales that Lotte Reiniger made in London between 1953 and 1955: others include "The Gallant Little Tailor", "Hänsel and Gretel", "Sleeping Beauty", "Snow White and Rose Red" and "The Three Wishes".

A team sent by the government is here to protect humanity from tornadoes. Bruce, Walter and Barrett are part of the Anti Tornado Squad and are ready to deal with that one-of-a-kind mission.

Paris, in the roaring 20's. Louise accompany her mother Denise to a Froufrou cabaret, where she dances. Backstage, the dancers oppress Louise, who doesn’t feel at ease. But Louise is going to see the show and discover a whole new aspect of her mother’s work.

A Cossack once stood on the shore and looked at the water, trying to catch a mermaid. But she took his reflection and went away with the man’s the soul. The mermaid fell in love with the reflection and did not want to let him go back to the land. What should the Cossack do? And how will mermaid fight the evil and harmful monster that inhabits the sea bottom and tries to lure her?