Best Animation Movies of 1926

In 'Spirals' Oskar Fischinger designed visual patterns of extreme complexity which often develop in overlapping cycles, yet he interrupts these patterns with radical editing of single frames of contrasting imagery. 'Spirals' exists as a fragmentary unfinished experimental film.

Charley invents a machine that turns ordinary, breakable eggs into rubbery, unbreakable ones for transport. He builds a Rube Goldberg contraption of parts stolen from his neighbors. Rival egg companies want his invention, one of them stooping to sabotage to get it.

“Out of the Inkwell” cartoon by Fleischer Studios.

Pete schemes to kidnap Alice while she and Julius are working as lumberjacks along the river.

When Charley asks a young woman whom he is in love with to marry him, she tells him that he needs to get her father's consent. But when Charley then goes to see her father, who owns a restaurant, he ends up getting hired as a dishwasher instead. The rest of the kitchen staff soon find out that Charley is not a member of their union, and they go on strike. Charley is left by himself, leading to a series of upheavals in the restaurant, and a great invention.

Alice and Julius go fishing where Alice charms the fish ashore with a tune from her flute.

Julius tries to elope with Alice's maid. Alice gets ahold of a policeman and they give pursuit.

Another horse race with Julius riding a mechanical horse and Pete unsuccessfully trying to cheat to win.

Alice and Julius, while out hunting big game, find themselves brought before the court of the Lion King.

This 1926 Fleischer Song Car-Tune encouraged movie going audiences to follow the bouncing ball, or racist caricature, and join in on a minstrel classic. In this way, the short joined sentimentality, a sense of the collective, and community to an already nostalgic minstrel performance.

The cartoon stars a couple of monkeys. One is kidnapped and the other gives chase while a dog and his pirate buddies try to stop the hero monkey.

Putrid Pete becomes infatuated with Alice's guitar playing, so he kidnaps her and imprisons her in his castle.

Julius the Cat tries to woo Alice but fails, so he gets the help of Alice in this long standing series of Alice movies.

Julius is out for a ride on his horse; he does some rope tricks. Some bad guys rob a stagecoach; one of the passengers is Alice, who finds herself stuck between the head bad guy and a cactus. Julius rides in and saves most of the passengers, but the bad guy rides off with Alice. After a short chase, he ends up battling Julius on top of a tall rock outcropping. A piece eventually breaks off, sending both of them into a boulder field. They play hide-and-seek a while. Julius then takes off his fur and sends it out as a decoy while he sneaks up behind the bad guy with a club and beats him into the ground. Alice comes up to thank him; ashamed by his nakedness, he hides behind a rock and puts his fur back on, then accepts her thanks.

A mouse and his boss pose as dogcatchers and grab a schoolhouse full of dogs; they use several other ruses to round up dogs for, as we discover, a sausage factory. Alice and Julius are on the trail soon after the first caper, but it takes them a while to catch up with the bad guys. They do, and Julius tricks the big boss into getting clobbered by the sausage guy, then turns the dogs loose on him.

Cowboys Mutt and Jeff tangle with a bull on the ranch where they work.

After an organ grinder's monkey grabs a little girl's lollipop with his tail, the musician explains why monkeys are so clever with their tails.

When the local hotel is found to be on fire, the firemen (all of them Julius the cat lookalikes), led by Fire Chief Alice, are called in. The residents are busy escaping the blaze while the cats get to work helping them out of the building and putting out the flames. When a feline tenant gets caught on the top floor, one of the firemen bravely saves her by riding a smoke cloud up to reach her, but when they get back to the ground, he finds her expiring from smoke inhalation. He saves the day by rolling the smoke out of her with a rolling pin, and when she revives the two fall instantly in love.

Julius is riding through the town declaring war and the villagers promptly arm and ready themselves. While Alice inspects the troops, the opposing army (made up of mice) fires its cannons. Julius is hit and knocked completely apart; he's picked up and brought to the hospital where they put him back together with a healthy helping of spare parts. The stalwart cat returns to the field and, using a fan and a piece of strong-smelling cheese, lures the mice out of their trench, clubbing them on the head as they arrive with his multifunctional tail.

Julius the cat is skating on a pond when he espies a young lady break through the ice. He saves her, only to realize she's not particularly attractive, and so throws her back. Meanwhile, a kitten orphan is left in a basket by the side of the pond; Julius discovers it and takes it skating with him, afterward taking it home to Alice. They name him Oscar, and Julius tries to give the brat a bath. He then feeds Oscar and teaches him some table manners.

Alice and Julius, as a team, are one of four entrants in a $10,000 balloon race. The bad guy takes out one balloon quickly. It's not clear what kind of balloons these are, since they are sealed like hydrogen/helium balloons, but a good thwack on the top by the bad guy sends Alice and Julius plummeting to the ground, balloon still intact. Julius makes some attempts to re-launch, but they fail. He spots a hippo, smoking nearby, and has an idea: using some pepper, he creates a massive sneeze that re-launches them. But he wasn't onboard. Alice throws down a rope ladder, but it isn't anchored; Julius eventually pulls himself up with a rope. They are then immediately under attack by a lightning storm, which deflates the balloon. Julius makes substitutes from, first, a weiner dog and a couple of empty thought balloons, then, an elephant with extra air pumped in. He grabs a passing bird and catches up to the bad guy, then finds himself in another battle with lightning.

An animated commercial for Stomatol toothpaste.

While Julius is milking his cow, Pete kidnaps Alice. Julius gives chase, and winds up in a duel with Pete.

Mutt has been appointed the judge at a dog show. He persuades Jeff to dress in a dog costume and they will split the prize money.

"Out of the Inkwell" cartoon by Fleischer Studios.

Directed by Dave Fleischer.

Ko-Ko Song Car-Tunes is a series of short three-minute animation films produced by Max Fleischer and Dave Fleischer between May 1924 and September 1927, pioneering the use of the "Follow the Bouncing Ball" device used to lead audiences in theater sing-alongs.

Neighborhood cats come to the tiny Ko-Ko Theatre to watch Ko-Ko and Fitz stage a variety of entertaining acts, from acrobatics to high-diving to statuelike tableaux vivants.

An Out of the Inkwell cartoon produced by Max Fleischer.

Felix lands a job as a mascot for an umbrella salesman, and travels to the Arabian desert. They have a hard time selling umbrellas in the desert, until Felix makes a deal with a bird concerning a cloud above a convention of desert sheiks.

Felix's owner, a hunter, gets lost in the jungle and the animals capture him and his supplies. A nosy ostrich swallows the hunter's rifle. Complications ensue.

Private eyes Mutt and Jeff are on the trail of the ghostly shape-shifting criminal, the Phantom.

This is the cartoon version of Comin' thro' The Rye by fleischer Studios.

“Tramp, Tramp, Tramp the Boys Are Marching” features a song that dates back to the Civil War, one which was still familiar to audiences of the 1920s. The cartoon begins as Koko the Clown emerges from an inkwell-- an iconic image for animation buffs --and then steps over to a chalkboard to draw an orchestra. The band, “Koko's Glee Club,” marches to a nearby cinema (accompanied by a dog who beats cymbals with his tail) where they lead the audience in the title song. (IMDb)

Follow the bouncing ball sing-along

Felix's girlfriend decides to stop taking care of him and go to Hollywood to be a movie star. Felix follows her there in order to sabotage her screen tests and make her go back home with him.

Director Charley Bowers has the unlikely pair of Mutt and Jeff go mountain climbing, dealing with the cartoon laws of physics and various wild animals, including a mountain goat with more personality than their exhibit in their movies.

A cat and a mouse are fishing in a truck until the driver gets rid of them. They next turn to fishing in a lake, using a pair of bellows. That accomplished and the fish being eaten, they turn their attentions to playing pranks.

The Fleischer Studio's ever popular Follow-the-Bouncing-Ball series began in the early 1920s when studio boss Max Fleischer was approached by songwriter Charles K. Harris (best known for "After the Ball") who wondered whether audiences could be inspired to sing along with an animated cartoon.

Here's an interesting bypath in animation, as we get a view of a mountain waterfall, a Martian building a bungalow, and various other brief bits.

Walter Lantz as himself Baldy Belmont as the old man and Pete the pup as himself.

Two pigs steal the snobby Mrs. Hippo's new Ford and, while being pursued by the police, they hit a stone wall, fly into the air and land in a laundry. They get involved with a clothes-wringer, their tails are caught in the rollers, and they come out with corkscrew tails. In the live action, animator Walter Lantz, as he finishes the story, is being led away by the keeper of the local insane asylum.

Bonzo the pup has adventures at the zoo with a zebra, tiger, elephant, and pelican. The pup is mistaken by the keeper for a "striped bonzosaurus."

A cop gives Felix directions to Wonderland. Felix follows Alice, but misses the exit and instead winds up in Blunderland, where he manages to irritate Old King Cole and fails to find Little Bo Peep's sheep.

Dave Fleischer short.

A young man must fight a bull to win the heart of his beloved. This is the oldest surviving claymation film, directed by pioneering Chinese-American animator Joseph Sunn.

Dinky Doodle and his dog are supposed to look after a foundling, which is more trouble than they expected.

In order to deliver Western Union mail on time, our cowboy protagonist will have to be brave, clever and resourceful

A young boy steals jam from his mother and his mother tells him the story of the pelican and the monkey who stole everything in sight. The monkey was punished by having to make little rock out of big one on the chain gang, and the pelican has his bill padlocked.