Director
Before the animation industry became dominated by the major studios and their familiar stable of characters, there were other companies who entertained theater audiences with wild excursions into cartoon fantasies. Experimentation was the rule as the boundries of cinematic animation were being pushed to the limit and many of these early productions have the raw look of a work in progress. These classic animated shorts from the early days of sound were created by nearly forgotten production pioneers like Van Beuren Studios and Max and Dave Fleischer. Hilarious, inventive, sometimes risque and often surreal, these films are the fabulous forerunners of every cartoon we've ever watched in the theater or on TV. Laugh again at the cartoons your grandparents enjoyed in the 1930s.
Story
A Terrytoons cartoon released March 1950. With Victor the Volunteer.
Story
When a big bulldog is on the driving range, Heckle and Jeckle's treehouse is riddled with golf balls.
Story
Classic satire on the Western genre, with the sheriff fighting the bad guy. Then a mysterious stranger enters. It's Mighty Mouse!
Animation
In Arabia, a feline bandit kidnaps Aladdin's beautiful daughter. Mighty Mouse saves the day in this operetta parody.
Story
In Arabia, a feline bandit kidnaps Aladdin's beautiful daughter. Mighty Mouse saves the day in this operetta parody.
Story
A Terrytoons cartoon released 20 July 1945. Mice live in an abandoned shack and have a friend in a Goofy-like dog named Rover, who protects them from the cats. The Country Cats hatch a plan to bump the dog off and gain access to the Mice Morsels. The cats trick Rover and seal him in a box and drop it onto a railroad track. The Silver Streak bears down on the crate as Mighty Mouse flies to the rescue! Mighty makes quick work of the cats.
Writer
A Terrytoons cartoon released 17 March 1944. An elderly couple (human, not animal) dies, leaving their substantial estate to their mice, who had befriended them. A distant nephew, Willy the Spender, is outraged, and he takes the mice to court in an effort to destroy them! The judge decides in favor of the mice. This really whizzes off Willy the Spender, and he goes after the mice! Can Mighty Mouse save them in time?
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A Gandy Goose cartoon.
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A Terrytoons cartoon released 4 September 1942.
Story
Gandy Goose, dreaming, is taken across the Atlantic ocean to a fairy-tale Erie, where flowers dance and then turn into geese; elves warble Irish lullabies, and a giant terrorizes the countryside. Just as the giant chase Gandy into the ocean, he awakens safe at home back in the USA.
Writer
Terrytoons theatrical short originally Released on April 10, 1941.
Story
A haunted house with ghosts dancing up a storm and having the time of their undead lives has been sold.
Story
A monkey in a jungle orchestra only has one note to play, but this seemingly easy task will be more complicated than it seems.
Story
Dinky Duck wants to belong to someone, but no one wants him until a chicken falls into the water and heads for the waterfall.
Writer
A singing, Jitterbuging Goldilocks goes through her paces with the grizzly trio, but when a bear hunter gets into the house, she joins with them to fight and eventually tie him up.
Story
A blacksmith refuses to get with the times and fix cars instead. Instead, he winds up building a mechanical horse to race a supercar.
Story
The Mysterious Cowboy and his sidekick Pronto ride after the outlaw Bad Bill Bunion.
Director
Final Terrytoon directed by John Foster.
Director
A variation on the "Jack and the Beanstalk" story.
Story
As the White man takes more and more land from the American Indian, they diminish in number to one, who is pushed to madness. He steals a car and a wild live-action ride ends in a crash.
Director
Deep Sea fisherman is called to help land a big one.
Director
A Terrytoons cartoon released 15 April 1938.
Director
In Gandy's debut film, he leaves home to make is way in the world. Unfortunately, he's an idiot with an Ed Wynn voice, and a wolf with a George Givot voice tries to lure him into his lair to eat him. Incredible coincidences save him from the stew pot.
Director
A goat annoys Farmer Al Falfa and Puddy the Pup. He's always butting in. They fix the billy goat by putting roller skates on him.
Director
A fly and his girl go to an insect nightclub, but a spider crashes the scene to kidnap the girl.
Director
Three Kittens enjoy their day at play in the kitchen. This is known for the final two minutes involving one of the most infamous moments in early animation when they encounter a rat in the wall
Director
Cubby the Bear is in move and sings about it....
Director
Barnyard dog gets spooked by his imagination.
Director
Tom and Jerry are police officers, driving around in their car and enjoying listening to some music on their police radio, when they hear a bulletin announcing another theft of a mummy from the local museum. They stumble upon the culprit, a mysterious and ghoulish man who is carrying a coffin through a secret door in a cemetery. They sneak in after him and watch him command the mummy to life; it is a beautiful woman, who he then commands to sing for his audience of skeletal theatre-goers.
Director
Dancing animals in a depression-era shanty town.
Director
As two feline sweethearts sail along Moonlight Bay, the moon invites them up for a visit. They discover the moon is not made of green cheese, as is rumored, but is actually a land of candy, ice cream and cake.
Director
Tom and Jerry have fun at the circus and then show their acrobatic talents on a tightrope. They get into trouble with an ornery lion and are chased from the Big Top by the feline's friends. When the defend themselves by spraying the lions away with an elephant's trunk, they accidentally flood the circus but are able to float away unscathed.
Director
A Van Beuren Studios cartoon...
Director
This Tom and Jerry cartoon (the human versions, not the cat and mouse) is an opportunity for the animators to have fun with the medium. There is no specific plot. One of the boys uses a pencil to create a myriad number of animated illusions that could only work in a cartoon. For example, a short vertical line is drawn, which when held by both ends suddenly becomes a saxophone. When played, the notes pop out of the bell of the instrument to suddenly grow legs and transform into ducks. After the song, the saxophone itself quickly follows suit and becomes a goose. The entire short consists of these disjointed, though often creative and humorously unlikely events.
Director
The story fines a black cat transported to Egypt. There, there is a a LOT of singing and shenannigans involving mummies, the Spinx and crypts. One thing it doesn't seem to have much of are jokes....and the emphasis is more on cuteness and music.
Director
The old woman who lives in the shoe is a cat. Her son Jack climbs the beanstalk and gets the golden goose.
Director
All of the animal from all the continents, it appears, are gathered around a frozen lake and ice skating, playing hockey and, in general showing off and usually end up crashing through the ice. A romantic, crooning monkey serenades the lady of his dreams...a blushing hippo...while three of the most-badly animated mice in all cartoon-land take on a rhino in ice hockey. Written by Les Adams
Director
Tom and Jerry (the human versions, not the cat and mouse) work as piano tuners. After seeing them at work and several creative ways of tuning a piano (such as removing the offending key and cutting the key itself to a shorter length), the two attend an opera singers performance. The singer passes out when the piano plays a wrong note, and Tom and Jerry are pressed into service to re-tune the piano. After pulling the offending key from the keyboard like a bad tooth, the two give the opera audience a jazz piano performance, with the now recovered opera singer joining in.
Director
The Van Beuren Studios animals have their Venice moments of song and romance.
Director
Tom and Jerry (the human versions, not the cat and mouse) are on a raft in the ocean. After being attacked by an octopus and losing their raft, they wash up on the shores of Spain. After harassing the waitresses at a local sidewalk café, they insult the owner and wind up in a bull ring as punishment. In the midst of fighting dozens of bulls, they receive a telegram that Prohibition has been repealed back in the U.S. They immediately leave Spain headed back to the U.S. for a drink.
Director
A catfish living in a submarine in a lake, lures a cat to pursue her. Their playful antics are interrupted by an octopus, and a fight ensues.
Director
An old farmer has let his entire farm go and it is falling down around him, with mice taking over. Tom and Jerry (the human versions, not the cat and mouse) show up with magical saxophones, and the music has amazing effects on the farm. A chicken lays dozens of eggs, a cow gives gallons and gallons and gallons of milk, and two woodpeckers don't just peck a tree, they cut it down and split it into firewood. Even the farmer's well changes, filling with beer (by the mug of course) instead of water. The farmer trades Tom and Jerry a huge bag of money for the saxophones, but he gets the better deal - the bag is full of the mice from the start of the cartoon, and they carry Tom and Jerry off to throw them into the pond.
Director
Mother Goose and a scarecrow are having a secret romance.
Director
Tom and Jerry go fishing, where they encounter an affectionate but annoying fish who won't leave them alone. They hear a piano-playing octopus (with twelve arms!) and have a run-in with a sword fish who cuts their boat in half. Other hijinks ensue, and the two eventually catch a tiny fish, which is in turn swallowed by a larger fish, and this process continues until they've caught a veritable whale. They row ashore triumphant, but when one of them puts their reel (still holding the fish) over their shoulder, the larger fish slip off, unbeknownst to them, leaving them with the runt they started with.
Director
A Van Beuren Studios cartoon...
Director
In this Van Beuren cartoon, various animals are singing "Let a Smile Be Your Umbrella" before we go to a couple of cats-one male, one female-looking for the gold pot at the end of the rainbow.
Director
A Van Beuren Studios cartoon....
Director
Tom and Jerry find their wagon west attacked by Indians, but escape only after being rescued by all the branches of the military, including the Army's tanks.
Director
A "Aesop's Fable" cartoon from the Van Beuren Studios.
Director
A wedding in the Aesop's Fables jungle.
Director
At a circus, the ring master and a clown both love Kitty the high-wire artist.
Director
After crash landing in Africa, Tom and Jerry masquerade as Africans in a futile attempt to adapt to a strange environment.
Director
RKO cartoon about a feline flapper who helps a farmer get his place up and running.
Director
A German "ohm-pah" trio is incomplete until their tuba player arrives on a boat from overseas. The resulting quartet brings the whole town out for a German dance party, until the police arrive to take the "tuba tooter" to jail.
Director
A Van Beuren Studios cartoon....
Director
A cartoon from Van Beuren's plumbers Tom & Jerry.
Director
What we got here is a re-telling of Uncle Tom's Cabin (as if no one could guess) with a lot of music and dancing.
Director
A Van Beuren cartoon illustrating spring coming as wild life and nature wakes up from the winter sleep.
Director
Tom and Jerry's plan crashes, and they find themselves in a western town.
Director
This pre-code entry in Van-Buren's "Aesop's Sound Fables" series finds a Brooklyn-cat in a bowler hat, hanging out in the New Jersey meadow-lands (or somewhere in the wild),who traps a canary and then eats it. Actually, he swallows it and it is flying around in his ribcage. Now, instead of meowing, visual musical notes emerge every time he opens his mouth.
Director
An evil spider kidnaps a housefly from a cabaret and takes her to his secret lab.
Director
Van Beuren's Tom & Jerry's go hunting.
Director
Arguably the most consistently inventive of all the Tom and Jerry cartoons, Rocketeers doesn't let up for a second, from a telescope that wants to rebel and an octopus band next to fishing skeletons.
Director
A mouse and his girlfriend (also a mouse) fool around in a toy store. The mouse impresses his girl with charming, toy-involved tricks. When a scrawny black cat enters the scene, the mice are transported to safety by a climbing monkey toy. Together, they inflate a "dummy cat," which comes as a real surprise for the villain cat. Having outwitted the cat, the mouse wins his girl's heart with a song on the piano. She is flattered, and he is happy. The male mouse sings "Good Night, Sweetheart, Good Night" at the end.
Director
Oscar the mouse invites his girl friend to the toy store where they have to outwit a cat.
Director
Tom and Jerry are aboard a train making its way up a mountain in the Swiss Alps. When their train breaks down, they're spotted by a very thin St. Bernard, who brings the engine some liquor. The engine zips through the Alps, but leaves the pair behind.
Director
Tom And Jerry visit the jungle and fights off crocodiles and cannibals.
Director
All the Dutch Van Beuren animals wearing clogs and making.... swiss cheese?!
Director
A menagerie of animals in Western gear converges at the Red Gulch Cafe for an old-fashioned hoedown. The performers include a goofy barbershop quartet and sexy chorus line, a shimmying cowgirl and a Hoagy Carmichael-like piano player.
Director
Cops on horses trying to keep order in town.
Director
Tom and Jerry are accident lawyers who have not had a case in a month. "Cheer up, Tom," Jerry assures his distressed friend, "accidents are bound to happen." With this Jerry pulls out a banjo and the two begin a duet to promote their business.
Director
In the country of the Mother Goose tales, the students in the classes are very unruly, but always finish their lessons with music.
Director
This is about the little old lady who lived in a shoe and had so many kids she's didn't know what to do....or something like that. One day, one of her kids - Jack - says "I know what to do," and takes off with a sack of beans. Well, to make a long story short, we wind up seeing "Jack And The Beanstalk" and mom winds up a rich woman in the end. The show goes from a beat-old boot to a glittery high heel shoe!
Director
Van Beuren's Tom & Jerry sail to the south pole.
Director
The party life in a pond.
Director
Cab drivers Tom and Jerry, waiting at a trains train station for customers on a stormy night, eagerly solicit two arriving gentlemen in top hats until they give in and ask for a ride to their castle.
Director
Shows a stylized representation of how cartoons are made from the artists drawings, to the photography of those drawings with a movie camera, to the sounds and music added to the film with dogs, pigs and living cameras being the actors.
Director
A sassy cat visits a cartoon studio and learns the mysteries of animation.
Director
An Aesop's Fables cartoon about a musical fly.
Director
We see a lion at a piano, apparently trying to compose a melody. He gets frustrated, starts speaking vehemently in what sounds like German and begins pacing the floor-and his piano does likewise! After they settle back to work, a monkey comes in, words are exchanged and the monkey goes to the back of the piano with a brush and a dustpan. Musical notes flow out of the piano onto the floor and the monkey brushes most of them into the dustpan and drops them back into the piano.
Director
A feline organ grinder wanders by Farmer Al Falfa's house making some very bad music. Farmer Al Falfa chases him away. Later, the old man chases two roosters up a tree. One of the roosters, improbably, lays an egg and throws it at Al Falfa. The old man climbs up the tree with a handsaw. He sits on the same branch as the roosters, and begins sawing it off. The roosters jump from the branch into a hole in the tree. Al Falfa doesn't realize what he's doing until he saws the branch clean through. Cartoon magic is on his side: the tree falls, but the branch stays in place. Later, a delivery man drops off a large package. Al Falfa is surprised to see that it's a robot. The robot performs a dance, and Al Falfa feels compelled to mimic him. The robot kicks Farmer Al Falfa in the behind. Al Falfa does the same to the robot, which causes it to grow so tall it reaches outer space.
Director
The Cinderella story as told by the Van Beuren Studios.
Director
A slow farm life is turned upside-down thanks to some magic pills....
Director
The Van Beuren animals singing their way through college and then there is hippos vs mice for a college football match.
Director
The Aesop Sound Fables, while almost forgotten today, produced some of the strangest cartoons during the Depression with dream-like backgrounds, surreal imagery and some of the best cartoon scores.
Director
An ordinary fair, but run by animals.
Director
Some "jazz tonic" restores Grandma's youth. When the Big Bad Wolf pays a visit, he and Grandma decide to marry on the spot; but Little Red Riding Hood finds a way to stop the wedding.
Director
Late night in the toy shop. The toymaker goes up to bed, leaving his wind-up policeman to guard the shop, and the other toys come to life. First order of business: throw that pesky cop into the glue pot. The wind-up soldiers march around. They pass a doll, and the lead soldier stops them so he can go woo her. He has some success, until they are threatened by an elephant; he sucks up the other soldiers, and our hero cowers in fear. Then a monkey attacks, and our soldier continues not to be brave.
Director
Early sound cartoon with an all-insect cast. An eager-to-please young bugler inadvertently annoys the king during a parade and tournament, but redeems himself by rescuing the king's daughter, who's been abducted by a really horrid-looking spider.
Director
A cave man gets up in the morning to walk around hitting things with his club. After knocking a huge dinosaur out cold, he uses the stiff dino's body as a saw, using the spiny back bones as the saw's teeth. He battles another Neanderthal for the prize of a pretty cave girl, but she uses a club on him after he wins.
Director
A romance between two office workers--knockoffs of Mickey and Minnie Mouse--is threatened by their lecherous boss. This blatant rip-off of Disney's Mickey Mouse is indeed a fascinating effort. Not only is it most agreeably quaint, but it's remarkably fast-paced. And even better still, it's visually well-stocked with a host of neat gags. The superbly integrated music score rates as an outstandingly entertaining bonus.
Director
Waffles the Cat and Don Dog find themselves at the mercy of animate skeletons inside an Egyptian tomb.
Director
Comical character piece climaxing in a boxing match. Set in the rough, tough city; apparently the Bowery, if we let the music tell us. With one of those Mickey Mice that bugged the big "D".
Director
It's a straight musical involving a barbershop quartet of alley cats and some dogs summoned from the pound to quiet them to little success. The animation and visual gags are simple and old fashioned, but the aural gags are nicely done and even if there's little coordination between the animation and the music.
Director
The animated short starts with the circus parade, then goes to the circus master, who blows his whistle and points to a horse rider who looks a lot like Minnie Mouse.
Director
The farm animals sing, dance and flirt in this Van Beuren cartoon.
Director
Waffles the Cat and Don Dog set out on an adventure to find the North Pole.
Director
Strange doings in a Chinese laundry with outrageous Oriental and Yiddish stereotypes.
Director
In that "cute" beginning, we see some funny sight gags with our hero serenading his girl down south in Mexico, strumming his guitar in a unique matter and then literally getting "cold feet." However, his fantasies give him the nerve to go inside and play for her where we see more tricks with his guitar and some humorous dancing by the girl, who dances like Pee Wee Herman in a few spots. This goes on and on and finally he laves and another suitor comes by, but the girl obviously doesn't like this guy....
Director
A Van Beuren cartoon where the animals go skiing, ice skating, eat hot dogs and get drunk....
Director
In this early synchronized sound cartoon from the Van Beuren cartoon factory, a dog and cat encounter huge, strange and terrifying creatures in the jungle. They seek refuge in a missionary hits, where they play an organ, which causes the animals to dance. They are captured by cannibals, but escape and lead the jungle animals in song.
Director
A happy-go-lucky musical where various characters, mostly birds I guess (tough to tell with all dressed up in hats and clothes), play instruments, sing or dance.
Director
Bugs having a good old time that ends up with two getting hitched.
Director
A crazy Aesop's Fables cartoon about Noah's Ark. With a storm and flood coming, Noah takes two of each animal aboard his ark. After the storm, the animals celebrate their safety by dancing.
Director
A New York cartoon made in New York. It's the New Yorkiest! A few of the animators: Vet Anderson, Harry Bailey, Eddie Donnelly, Jim Tyer (at his early wildest). Finale song: "San".
Director
Waffles and Don explore a sunken ship where they meet drunk turtles singing "Sweet Adeline" and a skeletal Davy Jones.
Director
The film begins with Milton riding his horse comically around the West until he hears a wanted criminal roaming the West. Upon hearing this, Milton's mouse agrees to comically change to be the width of a twig, as a way of disguise. The criminal, who remains nameless throughout the entire short film, rides in front of a tree; and sees a Wanted sign with himself on it.
Director
In this spoof of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," featuring cartoon animals, a slave auction becomes a musical audition, and the chase over the ice floes is an opportunity for some fancy footwork.
Director
A Aesop's Fables cartoon with the animals going to school and causing mischief.
Director
Aesops Fables characters goes airborne.
Director
In this Van Beuren cartoon a quartet of singers kidnap a girl and the mouse has to try and save the day.
Director
The short starts with a mouse playing some bell-like tulips like musical bells....
Director
A Van Beuren cartoon set in a night club with cabaret musical numbers and a drunken brawl.
Director
A cat and mouse nonchalantly dance on roller skates and comically harass Farmer Gray.
Director
It's summertime and the animals are having fun in the sun while farmer Alfalfa needs refreshments.
Director
The Fly's Bride was produced in 1929, one year following Van Beuren's edict that all cartoons would be produced in sound. The RCA Photophone System is the credited process, and Carl Edouarde is credited with "synchronization." The film continues the long-running silent series of Aesop's Fables ("sugar coated pills of wisdom" as the end titles remarked) that the studio turned out. This entry displays the lively brand of "rubber hose" animation that was common in the early sound era. The story opens as a swarm of white shoe-clad flies cavort in a kitchen (gags include a soft-shoe number danced over spilled salt and a cop fly directing traffic around a piece of flypaper). The story shifts outside as a fly calls his gal on the phone. Here some rare lip-synch is attempted during the dialogue; Van Beuren usually avoided dialogue in the years to come in favor of songs to help the story along.
Director
Farmer Al Falfa flies to Africa with the Royal Society of African Explorers to hunt in the jungle.
Director
A Van Beuren Aesop's Fable cartoon.
Director
The annoying animal antics- combined with the collapse of his porch- finally get to Farmer Al Falfa, so he sells his house to odd-looking twins. But their money bag is filled with mice who chase Al Falfa into the lake. Drawn into a whirlpool, he magically travels through a faucet back into his house. The mice also pour out and chase him- and the loony twins- down the road.
Director
A group of anthropomorphic animals are having fun in the snow, and steal Farmer Al Falfa's door. After fighting with his water pump and later his hand, Al Falfa wakes up from a drunken dream and has trouble getting inside his house. The animals invite the farmer to have fun with them.
Story
The news is on the radio: hunting season is open. Farmer Al Falfa and his dog hear it, and the little rabbits in their tree home hear it, too. All is not lost. As the hunters sneak up on their victims, the rabbits stir up a nest of bees, and the farmer and his hound can't get home fast enough.
Story
The youngest son of poverty-stricken Old Mother Rabbit, who lives in a show in a forest, leaves home to seek his fortune in order to help his family. He soon fins himself in an amazing land where trees dance, sing and play. The baby rabbit saves the frog kind from the clutches of a hungry crane. He is given a pile of gold coins as a reward.
