My Favourite Cartoons

Here’s a list of the 100 cartoons that I enjoy the most. These are NOT the greatest cartoons ever made, just the ones that I enjoy watching over and over. Other than the top 10 these cartoons aren’t really in a strict order. Hopefully I will later go through each cartoon and describe why I like it so much… or maybe I’ll just be really lazy again and not do that. I must also specify that I have not seen every cartoon ever made and there are some that I am not that familiar with such as Terrytoons. Perhaps if these were somehow released onto DVD or were more readily available to be viewed then I would have a higher opinion of them.

I also realise that there are no Road Runner, Pepe Le Pew or Foghorn Leghorn cartoons and very few Tweety and Sylvester or Tom and Jerry ones. There is a reason for this. I am not saying that this is correct, just my opinion, but I do find these cartoons to be a bit formulaic and repetitive. Maybe it’s a case of familiarity breeding contempt (whatever that means) as these cartoons were screened endlessly on TV when I was a kid and they are now perhaps a bit too familiar. I still enjoy them, but maybe just in small doses.

I also have to clarify, so it seems, that these are all theatrically released cartoons, not those that were made for TV. This is why there are no Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Rock & Bullwinkle etc cartoons listed. I think that a lot of people don’t realise that cartoons were shown in cinemas before the main feature which means that a Porky Pig cartoon would have been shown prior to one of Warner Bros. gangster films or Woody Woodpecker would have been on the same bill as a Universal horror film. Heck, I’ve even had someone tell me that in 1970 in NYC they played Looney Tunes cartoons before showing Fritz the Cat.

Made for TV cartoons are different to the theatricals  in other ways. From the 1960s or so, most TV cartoons were made exclusively for children and are quite childish as a result. It wasn’t until the arrival of The Simpsons (or just slightly earlier) that TV cartoons became a little bit more mature.

#	Film	Director	Character	Studio	Year
1	One Froggy Evening	Chuck Jones	Michigan J Frog	Warner Bros.	1955
2	Duck Amuck	Chuck Jones	Daffy Duck	Warner Bros.	1953
3	The Band Concert	Wilfred Jackson	Mickey Mouse	Disney	1935
4	Gerald McBoing-Boing	Robert Cannon	Gerald McBoing-Boing	UPA	1951
5	Little Rural Riding Hood	Tex Avery	The Country Wolf/ The City Wolf	MGM	1949
6	The Great Piggy Bank Robbery	Bob Clampett	Daffy Duck	Warner Bros.	1946
7	Puss n’ Booty	Frank Tashlin	Rudolph	Warner Bros.	1943
8	Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor	Dave Fleischer	Popeye	Fleischer	1936
9	You Ought to Be in Pictures	Friz Freleng	Daffy Duck & Porky Pig	Warner Bros.	1940
10	Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century	Chuck Jones	Daffy Duck	Warner Bros.	1953
11	Red Hot Riding Hood	Tex Avery	Red Hot Riding Hood/The Wolf	MGM	1943
12	The Fox and the Grapes	Frank Tashlin	The Fox and The Crow	Columbia Screen Gems	1941
13	What’s Opera, Doc?	Chuck Jones	Bugs Bunny	Warner Bros.	1957
14	The Ugly Duckling	Jack Cutting	The Ugly Duckling	Disney	1939
15	Rooty Toot Toot	John Hubley	Frankie & Johnny	UPA	1952
16	Tortoise Beats Hare Cecil	Tex Avery	Bugs Bunny	Warner Bros.	1941
17	Ragtime Bear	John Hubley	Mr Magoo	UPA	1949
18	Goonland	Dave Fleischer	Popeye	Fleischer	1937
19	Peace on Earth	Hugh Harmon		MGM	1939
20	Feed the Kitty	Chuck Jones	Marc Anthont/Pussyfoot	Warner Bros.	1952
21	The Big Snooze	Bob Clampett	Bugs Bunny/Elmer Fudd	Warner Bros.	1946
22	Puss Gets the Boot	Bill Hanna & Joe Barbera	Tom & Jerry	MGM	1940
23	Bimbo’s Initiation	Dave Fleischer	Bimbo	Fleischer	1931
24	Hockey Homicide	Jack Kinney	Goofy	Disney	1945
25	Sh-h-h-h-h-h	Tex Avery		Walt Lantz	1955
26	Lost and Foundry	Dave Fleischer	Popeye	Fleischer
27	Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs	Bob Clampett	Coal Black	Warner Bros.	1943
28	Ferdinand the Bull	Dick Rickard	Ferdinand the Bull	Disney	1938
29	Minnie the Moocher	Dave Fleischer	Betty Boop	Fleischer	1932
30	Der Fuehrer’s Face	Jack Kinney	Donald Duck	Disney	1941
31	Bad Luck Blackie	Tex Avery	Bad Luck Blackie	MGM	1949
32	The Old Mill	Wilfred Jackson		Disney	1937
33	A Clean Shaven Man	Dave Fleischer	Popeye	Fleischer	1936
34	The Three Little Pigs	Burt Gillett	The Three Little Pigs	Disney	1933
35	Brave Little Tailor	Burt Gillett	Mickey Mouse	Diseny	1939
36	Snow White	Dave Fleischer	Betty Boop	Fleischer	1933
37	Lonesome Ghosts	Burt Gillett	Mickey Mouse/Donald Duck/Goofy	Disney	1937
38	A Wild Hare	Tex Avery	Bugs Bunny/Elmer Fudd	Warner Bros.	1940
39	Rabbit of Seville	Chuck Jones	Bugs Bunny/Elmer Fudd	Warner Bros.	1950
40	Porky Pig’s Feat	Frank Tashlin	Daffy Duck & Porky Pig	Warner Bros.	1943
41	Symphony in Slang	Tex Avery		MGM	1951
42	Chow Hound	Chuck Jones		Warner Bros.	1951
43	Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves	Dave Fleischer	Popeye	Fleischer	1936
44	Thugs with Dirty Mugs	Tex Avery		Warner Bros.	1939
45	Clock Cleaners	Ben Sharpsteen	Mickey Mouse/Donald Duck/Goofy	Disney	1937
46	Who Killed Who?	Tex Avery		MGM	1943
47	Brotherly Love	Dave Fleischer	Popeye	Fleischer	1936
48	Donald’s Cousin Gus	Jack King	Donald Duck	Disney	1939
49	Northwest Hounded Police	Tex Avery	Droopy	MGM	1946
50	Giantland	Burt Gillett	Mickey Mouse	Disney	1933
51	Goofy and Wilbur	Dick Huemer	Goofy	Disney	1939
52	Three Little Bops	Friz Freleng	The Three Little Pigs	Warner Bros.	1957
53	Fresh Airedale	Chuck Jones	Shep, Cat	Warner Bros.	1945
54	Daffy Doodles	Robert McKimson	Daffy Duck/Porky Pig	Warner Bros.	1946
55	Tubby the Tuba	George Pal	Tubby The Tuba	Paramount (Puppetoon)	1947
56	Donald’s Crime	Jack King	Donald Duck	Disney	1945
57	Horton Hatches the Egg	Bob Clampett	Horton The Elephant	Warner Bros.	1942
58	From A to Z-Z-Z-Z	Chuck Jones	Ralph Phillips	Warner Bros.	1953
59	King-Size Canary	Tex Avery		MGM	1947
60	A Bear For Punishment	Chuck Jones	The Three Bears	Warner Bros.	1951
61	Farmyard Symphony	Wilfred Jackson		Disney	1938
62	Daffy Duck Slept Here	Robert McKimson	Daffy Duck/Porky Pig	Warner Bros.	1948
63	Modern Inventions	Jack King	Donald Duck	Disney	1937
64	Porky in Wackyland	Bob Clampett	Porky Pig	Warner Bros.	1938
65	The Dover Boys	Chuck Jones	The Dover Boys	Warner Bros.	1942
66	I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead You Rascal You	Dave Fleischer	Betty Boop	Fleischer	1932
67	A Gruesome Twosome	Bob Clampett	Tweety	Warner Bros.	1945
68	The Hypo-Chondri-Cat	Chuck Jones	Claude Cat, Hubie, Bertie	Warner Bros.	1950
69	Mickey’s Service Station	Ben Sharpsteen	Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Pete	Disney	1935
70	Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid	Bob Clampett	Bugs Bunny	Warner Bros.	1942
71	Me Musical Nephews	Tom Johnson	Popeye	Famous Studios
72	John Henry and the Inky Poo	George Pal	John Henry	Paramount (Puppetoon)	1946
73	Magoo’s Puddle Jumper	Pete Burness	Mr Magoo	UPA	1956
74	The Barber of Seville	James Culhane	Woody Woodpecker	Walter Lantz	1944
75	Tulips Shall Grow	George Pal	Jan, Janette, Screwball Army	Paramount (Puppetoon)	1942
76	Duck! Rabbit! Duck!	Chuck Jones	Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck/Elmer Fudd	Warner Bros.	1953
77	Cartoons Ain’t Human	Seymour Kneitel	Popeye	Famous Studios	1943
78	The Blue Danube	Hugh Harmon		MGM	1939
79	The Pink Phink	Friz Freleng	The Pink Panther	DePatie Freleng	1964
80	Wynken, Blynken, and Nod	Graham Heid	Wynken, Blynken, and Nod	Disney	1938
81	Baby Bottleneck	Bob Clampett	Daffy Duck/Porky Pig	Warner Bros.	1946
82	The Tell-Tale Heart	Ted Parmelee		UPA	1953
83	Thru the Mirror	David Hand	Mickey Mouse	Disney	1936
84	The Magic Fluke	John Hubley	The Fox and The Crow	UPA	1949
85	Mickey’s Mechanical Man	Wilfred Jackson	Mickey Mouse	Disney	1933
86	A Dream Walking	Dave Fleischer	Popeye	Fleischer	1934
87	Mickey’s Trailer	Ben Sharpsteen	Mickey Mouse	Disney	1938
88	Little Hiawatha	David Hand	Little Hiawatha	Disney	1937
89	The Old Man of the Mountain	Dave Fleischer	Betty Boop	Fleischer	1933
90	The Paneless Window Washer	Dave Fleischer	Popeye	Fleischer	1937
91	The Little House	Wilfred Jackson	The Little House	Disney	1952
92	A Language All My Own	Dave Fleischer	Betty Boop	Fleischer	1935
93	Pigs Is Pigs	Jack Kinney		Disney	1954
94	Madeline	Robert Cannon		UPA	1952
95	Lambert the Sheepish Lion	Jack Hannah	Lambert the Sheepish Lion	Disney	1952
96	The Hungry Goat	Dan Gordon	Popeye	Famous Studios	1943
97	Clash and Carry	Jack Hannah	Chilly Willy/Wally Walrus	Walter Lantz	1961
98	Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B	Walter Lantz		Walter Lantz	1941
99	Munro	Gene Deitch	Munro	Rembrandt Films	1960
100	Betty Boop M.D.	Dave Fleischer	Betty Boop, Bimbo, Koko	Fleischer	1932

Gulliver’s Travels

Here are a few posters for Fleischer’s Gulliver’s Travels, the second ever feature length animated film after Disney’s Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs. 

The posters are very attractive but the film itself has been criticised quite a bit. I don’t mind the film but would have liked to have seen the Fleischer’s original idea where Popeye would have played Gulliver, in the tradition of the earlier Popeye 2 reelers. 

I suppose the problem with Gulliver is that most people have only seen it via the cheap and nasty public domain DVDs that you can pick up from those $2 shops. These all seem to have been made from a pretty rotten quality print and can make the film almost unwatchable.

Anyway, the posters are all very nice and show just how much effort went into advertising a film back in the 1930s. Compare these to one of today’s animated films like Shrek.

Popeye The Sailor Meets Sindbad The Sailor

Here’s the poster from my favourite Popeye cartoon, the 2 reel special Popeye The Sailor Meets Sindbad The Sailor. This film and the other two reelers, were used to prepare the Paramount to the idea of making a feature length animated film.

Rotoscope

The other day Australia’s free newspaper MX (and with MX you don’t get value for money) ran a brief expose on how Disney artists in the 1970s used a rotoscope device to trace scenes for the ‘classic’ (MX’s word, not mine) animated film Robin Hood. This would be a huge scandal if most people hadn’t known of this for at least the last thirty years.

The 1970s weren’t exactly a great time for animation. Disney were tracing scenes from Snow White to make Robin Hood, while the last few animated short series that played in cinemas came to an end. Hanna Barbera and Filmation made thousands of horrible animated TV shows that people of my generation grew up with and sadly now get all nostalgic about. Perhaps because things were so terrible at this time it is the reason why I gravitated towards watching true classic cartoons like Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, Tex Avery’s MGM cartoons, classic Disney films of the mid-late 30s, etc, instead of Scooby Doo, Superfriends or The Smurfs. Things really didn’t improve until the late 1980s.

As for what the rotoscope is, this is something that MX helpfully did not explain. It was a device invented in the 1910s by Max Fleischer that enabled him to trace live action footage of his brother Dave, in order to get more realistic movement for his Koko the Clown character. By the 1930s the rotoscope use wasn’t as common as it was, but the Fleischer’s still used it on occasion with Betty Boop, particularly when she had to do an elaborate dance routine like in Minnie the Moocher.

As for Disney ‘cheating’ by using the rotoscope to do some scenes in Robin Hood, so what! Every studio has in some way cheated on some cartoons for budgetary or other reasons. I don’t see this as any worse than a ‘so called’ newspaper like MX cutting and pasting articles from Perez Hilton’s website or celebrity Twitter and presenting them as real news.

To see a list of films where the rotoscope has been used go to Wikipedia.

Popeye The Sailor Meets Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves

I really like lookin’ at these old cartoon posters. They are a great piece of animation art and replicas can be bought quite easily form e-stores such as Moviegoods. Here are two different posters that were used for Popeye The Sailor Meets Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves.

Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer

This is the original 1948 Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer cartoon that was made by the Jam Handy studio. It was directed by Max Fleischer.

The Jam Handy studio is not as well known as the other animation studios of the golden age but the information I have read about it is quite interesting. They were primarily producing industrial films, not theatrical cartoons.

Popeye – Lost And Foundry

I love the black and white Fleischer Popeye cartoons. I especially love the ones that they made before they moved to Florida in the late 1930s. There are a miriad of reasons why I love these cartoons and most of them can be seen in Lost And Foundry.

Firstly, the backgrounds that the Flesichers used were just beautiful, whether they were using the 3D table top backgrounds or the more traditional cel painted backgrounds.

The voice work and chemistry of the actors was terrific. You can tell that Jack Mercer and Mae Questel and Gus Wickie (Bluto, who is not featured in this cartoon) are enjoying themselves and the under the breath mutterings that they do are so hilarious. The later Fleischer cartoons and early Famous Popeyes don’t have the same chemistry, probably because Questel did not move to Florida with the Fleischer studio, and Wickie’s untimely death. However once they got back to New York and Questel rejoined Mercer, and Jackson Beck took over as Bluto, that chemistry returned (too bad the quality of the cartoons had gone down at that stage!).

The cartoons weren’t just about Popeye and Bluto beating the crap out of each other. Even the most formulaic of Fleischer cartoons were really interesting and the Fleischer always tried to be innovative.