George Rufle

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.

A cat is being driven mad --- a short distance --- by an aching wisdom tooth and discovers in the Remedy Book a remedy that requires only the eating of a crow. The cat captures the first crow that comes along, but the crow is smarter than the cat, and offers other remedies, none of which call for crow-eating.

A large crowd gathers to see the launch of a rocket piloted by Tom and Jerry. As an effeminate announcer tells the public what's going on, the rocket-building crew announce their individual jobs in sing-song fashion. The big event goes fine until an escaped convict — first seen disguised as an old lady — commandeers the rocket for himself and takes Tom and Jerry aboard as hostages!

A cartoon featuring Van Beuren's Tom & Jerry where they enter a baking contest with their doughnuts.

Tom and Jerry decide to spend a quiet day in the park, and are strolling along beneath the trees when a baby that has strayed away from its nurse happens across their path. The baby is crying and the two boys try to soothe it. Tom picks it up and they start looking for its owner. They stop at a hot dog stand and buy wienies, but decide the baby cannot have one. The baby, however, helps himself.

Tom and Jerry are hoboes, but the city is demolishing the hobo camp. They hop a ride on a freight train...

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.

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.

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.

A Van Beuren Studios cartoon....

After crash landing in Africa, Tom and Jerry masquerade as Africans in a futile attempt to adapt to a strange environment.

Tom and Jerry's plan crashes, and they find themselves in a western town.

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.

Tom And Jerry visit the jungle and fights off crocodiles and cannibals.

Van Beuren's Tom & Jerry sail to the south pole.

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.