“Down where the mighty Amazon winds its way through the heart of Brazil, we meet the playful armadillo… ” as the narrator explains in the Mickey Mouse cartoon short Pluto and the Armadillo, which rolled into theaters on this day in 1943. “Another strange creature often found in this region is the turista Americana, or American tourist,” he continues, referring in this case to Mickey Mouse and Pluto. Throughout most of the film, Pluto plays with the local armadillo. At the end of their vacation, Mickey grabs Pluto and his toy ball, discovering on the plane ride home that the ball is actually the playful armadillo that Pluto had befriended.
