Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The 50 Greatest Cartoons As Selected by 1000 Professionals by The 50 Greatest Cartoons. Each cartoon is under 30 minutes long and cel-animated (with the exception of Gertie the Dinosaur ). Of the 50 cartoons that made it onto the list, however, only nine were produced by Walt Disney Productions. The cover art, by Greg Martin, depicts characters from all 50 of the shorts listed in the book at a dinner club. Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, and Pluto (who, ironically, does not actually appear in any of the shorts listed) can be seen on the back cover. Top 50 Greatest Cartoons. # Title Studio Year Director 1 What's Opera, Doc? Warner Bros. 1957 Chuck Jones 2 Duck Amuck Warner Bros. 1953 Chuck Jones 3 The Band Concert Disney 1935 Wilfred Jackson 4 Duck Dodgers in the 24½ th Century Warner Bros. 1953 Chuck Jones 5 One Froggy Evening Warner Bros. 1955 Chuck Jones 6 Gertie the Dinosaur Winsor McCay 1914 Winsor McCay 7 Red Hot Riding Hood MGM 1943 Tex Avery 8 Porky in Wackyland Warner Bros. 1938 9 Gerald McBoing-Boing UPA 1950 Robert Cannon 10 King-Size Canary MGM 1947 Tex Avery 11 Three Little Pigs Disney 1933 Burt Gillett 12 Rabbit of Seville Warner Bros. 1950 Chuck Jones 13 Steamboat Willie Disney 1928 Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks 14 The Old Mill Disney 1937 Wilfred Jackson 15 Bad Luck Blackie MGM 1949 Tex Avery 16 The Great Piggy Bank Robbery Warner Bros. 1946 Bob Clampett 17 Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor Fleischer 1936 Dave Fleischer 18 The Skeleton Dance Disney 1929 Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks 19 Snow White Fleischer 1933 Dave Fleischer 20 Minnie the Moocher Fleischer 1932 Dave Fleischer 21 Coal Black and the Sebben Dwarfs Warner Bros. 1943 Bob Clampett 22 Der Fuehrer's Face Disney 1941 Jack Kinney 23 Little Rural Riding Hood MGM 1949 Tex Avery 24 The Tell-Tale Heart UPA 1953 Ted Parmelee 25 The Big Snit NFB 1985 Richard Condie 26 Brave Little Tailor Disney 1938 Bill Roberts 27 Clock Cleaners Disney 1937 Ben Sharpsteen 28 Northwest Hounded Police MGM 1946 Tex Avery 29 Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom Disney 1953 Ward Kimball and Charles A. Nichols 30 Rabbit Seasoning Warner Bros. 1952 Chuck Jones 31 The Scarlet Pumpernickel Warner Bros. 1950 Chuck Jones 32 The Cat Came Back NFB 1988 Cordell Barker 33 Superman Fleischer 1941 Dave Fleischer 34 You Ought to Be in Pictures Warner Bros. 1940 Friz Freleng 35 Ali Baba Bunny Warner Bros. 1957 Chuck Jones 36 Feed the Kitty Warner Bros. 1952 Chuck Jones 37 Bimbo's Initiation Fleischer 1931 Dave Fleischer 38 Bambi Meets Godzilla Independent 1969 Marv Newland 39 Little Red Riding Rabbit Warner Bros. 1944 Friz Freleng 40 Peace on Earth MGM 1939 Hugh Harman 41 Rooty Toot Toot UPA 1951 John Hubley 42 The Cat Concerto MGM 1946 William Hanna and Joseph Barbera 43 The Barber of Seville Walter Lantz 1944 James Culhane 44 The Man Who Planted Trees Frédéric Back 1987 Frédéric Back 45 Book Revue Warner Bros. 1946 Bob Clampett 46 Quasi at the Quackadero Independent 1975 Sally Cruikshank 47 A Corny Concerto Warner Bros. 1943 Bob Clampett 48 The Unicorn in the Garden UPA 1953 William T. Hurtz 49 The Dover Boys Warner Bros. 1942 Chuck Jones 50 Felix in Hollywood Pat Sullivan 1923 Otto Messmer. Other Great Cartoons. In addition to the main list, the book also recommends other cartoons that were nominated for the main list. The Disney cartoon shorts listed here are: The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1000 Animation Professionals by Jerry Beck. A book written by Jerry Beck in 1994 called The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals does indeed contain a list of the 50 greatest cartoons as chosen by industry professionals. The list is filthy with Warner Bros cartoons, particularly by the recently aforementioned Chuck Jones (four of the top five are by Jones). I don’t know how many are available on YouTube, but I tracked down a couple to show my 4-year-old son, Ollie: Duck Amuck and Rabbit of Seville. By the time we were finished with Rabbit of Seville, Ollie had literally peed his pants from laughing so hard. I think I’m gonna get the Looney Tunes collection on Blu-ray so we can watch more but I’m a bit afraid of what the hijinks of Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner might do to my boy’s pants. The 50 Greatest Cartoons. The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals is a 1994 book by animation historian Jerry Beck. It consists of articles about 50 highly regarded animated short films made in North America and other notable cartoons, which are ranked according to a poll of 1,000 people working in the animation industry. Each cartoon is under 30 minutes long and cel animated (with the exception of Gertie the Dinosaur ). Seventeen of the selected films were produced for Warner Bros.'s Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series, ten of which were directed by Chuck Jones. All of the selected cartoons were created and released prior to 1960, except for the 1985 short The Big Snit (#25), the 1988 short The Cat Came Back (#32), the 1969 short Bambi Meets Godzilla (#38), the 1987 short The Man Who Planted Trees (#44), and the 1975 short Quasi at the Quackadero (#46). Top 50 Best Cartoons. Order Title Studio Year Director 1 What's Opera, Doc? Warner Bros. 1957 Chuck Jones 2 Duck Amuck Warner Bros. 1953 Chuck Jones 3 The Band Concert Disney 1935 Wilfred Jackson 4 Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century Warner Bros. 1953 Chuck Jones 5 One Froggy Evening Warner Bros. 1955 Chuck Jones 6 Gertie the Dinosaur Winsor McCay 1914 Windsor McCay 7 Red Hot Riding Hood MGM 1943 Tex Avery 8 Porky in Wackyland Warner Bros. 1938 Bob Clampett 9 Gerald McBoing-Boing UPA 1950 Robert Cannon 10 King-Size Canary MGM 1947 Tex Avery 11 Three Little Pigs Disney 1933 Burt Gillett 12 Rabbit of Seville Warner Bros. 1950 Chuck Jones 13 Steamboat Willie Disney 1928 Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks 14 The Old Mill Disney 1937 Wilfred Jackson 15 Bad Luck Blackie MGM 1949 Tex Avery 16 The Great Piggy Bank Robbery Warner Bros. 1946 Bob Clampett 17 Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor Fleischer 1936 Dave Fleischer 18 The Skeleton Dance Disney 1929 Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks 19 Snow White Fleischer 1933 Dave Fleischer 20 Minnie the Moocher Fleischer 1932 Dave Fleischer 21 Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs Warner Bros. 1943 Bob Clampett 22 Der Fuehrer's Face Disney 1943 Jack Kinney 23 Little Rural Riding Hood MGM 1949 Tex Avery 24 The Tell-Tale Heart UPA 1953 Ted Parmelee 25 The Big Snit NFB 1985 Richard Condie 26 Brave Little Tailor Disney 1938 Bill Roberts 27 Clock Cleaners Disney 1937 Ben Sharpsteen 28 Northwest Hounded Police MGM 1946 Tex Avery 29 Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom Disney 1953 Ward Kimball and Charles A. Nichols 30 Rabbit Seasoning Warner Bros. 1952 Chuck Jones 31 The Scarlet Pumpernickel Warner Bros. 1950 Chuck Jones 32 The Cat Came Back NFB 1988 Cordell Barker 33 Superman Fleischer 1941 Dave Fleischer 34 You Ought to Be in Pictures Warner Bros. 1940 Friz Freleng 35 Ali Baba Bunny Warner Bros. 1957 Chuck Jones 36 Feed the Kitty Warner Bros. 1952 Chuck Jones 37 Bimbo's Initiation Fleischer 1931 Dave Fleischer 38 Bambi Meets Godzilla Independent 1969 Marv Newland 39 Little Red Riding Rabbit Warner Bros. 1944 Friz Freleng 40 Peace on Earth MGM 1939 Hugh Harman 41 Rooty Toot Toot UPA 1951 John Hubley 42 The Cat Concerto MGM 1946 William Hanna and Joseph Barbera 43 The Barber of Seville Lantz 1944 James Culhane 44 The Man Who Planted Trees Frédéric Back 1987 Frédéric Back 45 Book Revue Warner Bros. 1946 Bob Clampett 46 Quasi at the Quackadero Independent 1975 Sally Cruikshank 47 A Corny Concerto Warner Bros. 1943 Bob Clampett 48 The Unicorn in the Garden UPA 1953 William T. Hurtz 49 The Dover Boys Warner Bros. 1942 Chuck Jones 50 Felix in Hollywood Pat Sullivan 1923 Otto Messmer. Other Great Cartoons. In addition to the main list, the book also recommends other cartoons that were nominated for the main list. They are placed in alphabetical order. 10 of the Greatest Cartoons of All Time. Animation historian Jerry Beck penned a 1994 book titled The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected By 1,000 Animation Professionals . We probably don’t need to tell you what the tome entails, but we can tell you that thanks to Mubi, we’ve uncovered the list of animated shorts in Beck’s book online. Almost all of the films are under 30 minutes long, were made in North America, and were released before 1960 (minus a handful). We’ve combed through Beck’s best-of list and highlighted a few gems past the break. A jazz icon, Edgar Allan Poe, and a famous Japanese monster all make an appearance. Grab your cereal bowl, fake like it’s Saturday morning, and tell us what cartoon greats win you over in the comments below. What’s Opera, Doc? (1957) #1. Many of the films on Beck’s list were produced for Warner Bros.’s Looney Tunes and directed by animation legend Chuck Jones — including the number one pick of the bunch, What’s Opera, Doc? . The six-minute short (give or take a few) is part of Warner’s Merrie Melodies series, which started in 1931 and became a musical, cartoon extravaganza featuring the hits of the day. Opera was probably Jones’ greatest work and many consider it to be the best thing Warner Bros. ever released. It’s easy to see why when you witness how Jones skillfully parodied the ponderous, epic stylings of Richard Wagner — featuring Bugs Bunny in drag (Valkyrie Brünnhilde!) and all the forlorn Elmer Fudd you can stand. In case you’re still not sure which cartoon we’re talking about, one thing may ring a bell: “Kill the Wabbit!” Red Hot Riding Hood (1943) #7. Iconic animator Tex Avery made cartoons adults could appreciate and children adored. If he were alive today, he might have lent a hand to productions like DreamWorks’ Shrek , but probably would have been thrilled to work on something like Who Framed Roger Rabbit . Red Hot Riding Hood is one of his most beloved , featuring a pin up-style Red (who performs a memorable, sexy musical number), a zoot suit- wearing wolf, and a horny grandma looking for love. The short faced censorship attacks early on due to its lusty overtones. The original ending apparently featured grandma getting hitched to the wolf (they even have children) — which implied some kind of weird bestiality storyline according to censors. We’re not sure if the final version is any less iffy, though, as it features the wolf shooting himself in the head during the nightclub scene. Bambi Meets Godzilla (1969) #38. If there were a hall of fame for student films, animator Marv Newland’s 1969 film would definitely be near the top of the list. The two-minute long animation stars Disney’s Bambi — or at least Newland’s hand-drawn version of the young deer — grazing quietly. Eventually the monstrous Godzilla comes along and puts an end to the serene scenario. The scene only takes moments to play out, as most of Newland’s film features an extra long, humorous credits sequence. Apparently, the animator drew the work in a room he rented from Adriana Caselotti (the voice of Disney’s Snow White). Perhaps some of Snow’s darkness rubbed off on him. Minnie the Moocher (1932) #20. Lovable flapper-esque cutie lives at home with her overbearing, German parents. She doesn’t want to eat daddy’s Hasenpfeffer, feels like nobody understands her, and eventually runs away with her dog Bimbo to a dark cave. There, dead things come to life and sing Cab Calloway’s “Minnie the Moocher.” What more do you need? Cab Calloway — who would probably laugh in the face of song “Moves Like Jagger” (you’ll see what we mean once you watch his smooth moves in the video’s intro) — made his first film appearance ever in the animation. The Tell-Tale Heart (1953) #24. One of our favorite animations on Beck’s list is Ted Parmelee’s adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart . English actor James Mason ( Lolita , North by Northwest ) narrates the dark tale about a murderer who slowly goes mad believing he can hear his victim through the floorboards. The innovative, stunning, and surreal animation won the first cartoon X-rating and was reportedly intended as a . (Yes, the 1950s also went through a dreaded 3D phase.) Felix in Hollywood (1923) #50. Felix the Cat co-creator Otto Messmer created the first cartoon featuring caricatures of Hollywood stars with his 1923 film — except the celebs Messmer poked fun at weren’t Kim Kardashian types. Instead, the animator parodied classic, much-loved actors like Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks in his short, silent Felix film that finds the cat heading to Tinseltown. The Cat Concerto (1946) #42. Another famous cat made Blank’s list. Tom — the surly, unlucky feline — famous for his comically violent charades with mouse Jerry stars in Hanna Barbera cartoon The Cat Concerto . The Academy Award-winning short features Tom at a fancypants piano recital coping with troublemaking mouse Jerry who eventually upstages the kitty. If you love watching these two try to beat the hell out of each other, then the classy Cat Concerto will surely win you over. Gerald McBoing-Boing (1951) #9. United Productions of America and director Robert Cannon dug into the library of Dr. Seuss for a story about a boy who could only speak in cartoon-riffic sound effects. The studio felt that the animation genre had seen enough Disney knockoffs and wanted to explore other artistic styles. The project ended up being their first big success. The Skeleton Dance (1929) #18. Part playful, part creepy, Disney’s Skeleton Dance was a “gag” idea that almost never was. Composer Carl Stalling shared his story about the famous animation’s evolution in a 1971 interview: “[Stalling]: The Skeleton Dance goes way back to my kid days. When I was eight or ten years old, I saw an ad in The American Boy magazine of a dancing skeleton, and I got my dad to give me a quarter so I could send for it. It turned out to be a pasteboard cut-out of a loose-jointed skeleton, slung over a six-foot cord under the arm pits. It would ‘dance’ when kids pulled and jerked at each end of the string. [Interviewer]: So the idea for The Skeleton Dance was really yours. And the story, too? [Stalling]: If you call it a story. We’d all get together on gags, in what they called a gag meeting. [Interviewer]: What did Walt say when you brought up the idea for The Skeleton Dance ? Did he like it right away? [Stalling]: He was interested right away. After two or three of the Mickeys had been completed and were being run in theaters, Walt talked with me on getting started on the musical series that I had in mind. He thought I meant illustrated songs, but I didn’t have that in mind at all. When I told him that I was thinking of inanimate figures, like skeletons, trees, flowers, etc., coming to life and dancing and doing other animated actions fitted to music more or less in a humorous and rhythmic mood, he became very much interested. I gave him the idea of using the four seasons, and he made a cartoon on each one of those. I scored one of them [Springtime (1930)] before I left. For a name or title for the series, I suggested not using the word ‘music’ or ‘musical,’ as it sounded too commonplace, but to use the word ‘Symphony’ together with a humorous word. At the next gag meeting, I don’t know who suggested it, but Walt asked me: ‘Carl, how would Silly Symphony sound to you?’ I said, ‘Perfect!’ Then I suggested the first subject, The Skeleton Dance , because ever since I was a kid I had wanted to see real skeletons dancing and had always enjoyed seeing skeleton-dancing acts in vaudeville. As kids, we all like spooky pictures and stories, I think. That’s how the Silly Symphonies got started. Of course, everyone knows that if it had not been for Walt Disney then in all probability there would never have been a Mickey Mouse. This makes me wonder sometimes, would there ever have been a Silly Symphony or who would have suggested The Skeleton Dance —if?” The Unicorn in the Garden (1953) #48. One man’s soul-crushing wife tries to have him committed after he tells her that he saw a unicorn in their garden. Once the men in white coats arrive, things take a turn in his favor in William Hurtz’s amusing 1953 fable. The short is based on a story by cartoonist and New Yorker regular James Thurber — originally intended as a feature based on the writer’s work, to be titled Men, Women and Dogs . (Thurber loved his pet poodles.) The 50 Greatest Cartoons — As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals. The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals is a 1994 book by animation historian Jerry Beck, consisting of articles about, and rankings of fifty highly-regarded animated short films made in North America, as well as many other notable cartoons. It generated a significant amount of notice and discussion at the time, and is still commonly cited. The list itself aimed to be authoritative by taking votes from 1000 people working in the animation industry. Each cartoon on this list had to be under thirty minutes long and cel animated (with Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) being an exception noted in the book). The results leaned heavily toward the output of Warner Bros.’s Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series, and the work of director Chuck Jones (four of the top five, below). All the works cited fell within a narrow space of time between 1923 and 1957, with the exceptions of Gertie the Dinosaur, the 1985 short The Big Snit (at #25), the 1988 short The Cat Came Back (at #32), and the 1975 short Quasi at the Quackadero (at #46). —Wikipedia.