Best Animation Movies of 1929

Mickey seeks shelter from a storm in a house that turns out to be haunted. The skeletons command him to play the organ; they dance and play along.

Inspired by Lindbergh's flight from New York to Paris, Mickey builds a plane to take Minnie for a trip.

For his initial Lantz entry, Oswald enters his horse in the race as he tries to get him in shape doing exercises with the accompaniment of a pianist.

Drawn with steaming ink, Koko and Fitz try to cool off.

Pete is a organ grinder, until Oswald spits out his gum and Pete's monkey gets tangled in the gum. Pete then uses Oswald as the monkey..

Eveready Horton and his behemoth penis venture through the country in search of the penetrable.

The demons of hell play music for Satan, whose delight turns to wrath when an insubordinate refuses to become food for Cerberus.

A puppy is forced into a barber shop run by Oswald the Rabbit. Oswald can't shave the dog's back at first, as the hair keeps growing back. He eventually realizes the mutt's drinking hair tonic and so he takes the bottle away and finishes the job. A hippo's next in line, then an elephant, then a truculent and lascivious bear, all with equally humorous results.

With the screen split asymmetrically, one part in positive, the other negative, the film documents the evolution of simple celled organic forms into chains of cells then more complex images from tribal cultures and contemporary modernist concepts. The images react, interpenetrate, perhaps attack, absorb and separate, until a final symbiosis (or redemption?) is achieved.

Another Van Beuren's mouse cartoon variation of Aladdin's lamp, with a soundtrack added in the late 1940s.

Mickey is a railroad engineer with an anthropomorphic locomotive. He feeds the train (coal), then feeds his dog, then makes lunch for himself. Minnie drops by and plays a tune on her fiddle while Mickey dances. After lunch, the train has trouble climbing a hill, and the last car with Minnie aboard detaches and runs away.

Mickey and Putrid Pete vie to take Minnie Mouse to a barn dance. Mickey gets the upper hand when Pete's car falls apart and continues to hold his own by using a balloon to give his dancing feet some lift. Unfortunately Pete punctures the balloon and wins out over our sobbing

Mickey Mouse joins a mouse army to battle evil cats.

Mickey runs a small theatre. The orchestra plays, rather badly, excerpts from Carmen. Mickey appears as a snake charmer, but the snake is revealed to be a cat with a snake's head painted on its tail. Mickey does a belly dance, to the audience's delight. Mickey then plays the piano, but the piano and stool, apparently annoyed at the violence and complexity of the piece, kick him off stage.

Mickey Mouse is working as a hot dog vendor at a carnival when he meets and quickly falls for Minnie the "Shimmy Dancer". That night, Mickey and a pair of alley cats serenade her by performing the song "Sweet Adeline", much to the dismay of Kat Nipp, who is trying to sleep. The short marks Mickey's first speaking appearance.

While Tom Cat goes away hunting, Mickey, Minnie, and their mouse friends break into his house and perform music. They play various tunes on the piano while the other mice hit household objects in tune to the music.

Mickey's on African safari, riding on an elephant, but his shotgun disintegrates the first time he tries to use it. To sooth the vicious beasts, he plays tunes, sings, and dances, using the various animals and objects around him as instruments.

Flowers, insects, and a crow family all dance to a jaunty tune celebrating spring. After a brief storm, grasshoppers, frogs, and spiders cavort to the Dance of the Hours.

Oswald and his dog go up the mountains to rescue a pussycat dangling from a ridge.

Mickey Mouse is a singing lifeguard. Minnie Mouse is the damsel he must rescue before she is swept out to sea.

Original short that introduced Bosko, never released. Producer-directors Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising showed it to various studio executives as a pilot for the Bosko character.

Mickey flirts with Minnie on the farm, but she spurns him - making him look bad in the eyes of his helper, Horace Horsecollar.

Horace pulls a wagon with a a small pipe organ, with Mickey at the keys; a sign on the side reads "Mickey's Big Road Show." They arrive, and Mickey's suitcase labeled "Jazz Fool" unfolds to a piano, which he plays (and sings about 8 notes). At the end, the piano attacks him. There is no dialogue, aside from the nonsense syllables sung.

Mickey puts on a show in his barnyard. A short dramatic scene by a chicken and rooster; an operatic ode by Patricia Pig, and then the main attraction: Mickey sings and plays his theme song, then dances to it.

The short starts with a mouse playing some bell-like tulips like musical bells....

Friz Freleng's second directorial effort -- under his legal name of 'Isadore' and credited as co-director with Rudolf Ising -- is a silent Oswald the Lucky Rabbit effort, made soon after Charles Mintz grabbed the rights to the character and almost all his crew from Walt Disney. Oswald takes in Homer, a small kitten, and attempts to teach him table manners and to give him a bath, but Homer retaliates using a clothesline and a player piano.

A village of dwarfs dance and play through their day. A blacksmith shoes a centipede, a street-cleaner sweeps, a marching-band strikes up and the townsmen roll out beer barrels.

Animated figure Talkie gets a visit from his friend Mutie in search for a job. Talkie takes him to the Western Electric sound lab...

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.

A barmaid, a Mexican officer and a terrible toreador form a love triangle, as they dance, skip, kiss, punch and slap to the tune of Bizet's "Carmen." Later, the barmaid cheers her lover, and the officer razzes him, during the big bullfight. The toreador and the bull are not above clowning, but never doubt they are two fearsome opponents striving toward a gruesome climax.

In this one, there are two Chinese men on screen. One is eating and the one to the right of him is ironing. The one eating seems to be so dumb as to accidentally swallow a shirt that was just ironed in front of him.

It's summertime and the animals are having fun in the sun while farmer Alfalfa needs refreshments.

Noah seems to have major problems with his animals when they all get restless and leave the ship to go to Coney Island and Luna Park to get away from him.

A series of animated short subjects created by Paul Terry and actor-turned-writer Howard Estabrook.

A series of animated short subjects created by Paul Terry and actor-turned-writer Howard Estabrook. Estabrook suggested making a series of cartoons based on Aesop's Fables.

Thanks to Magic Ink, a live-action girl joins Koko in a haunted house.

Felix is in love with a fair maiden. When serenading her, his rival spots him and tries anything he can come up with to get his girl back.

After singing all night, Felix decides to save a fox from hunters.

A live-action amateur hypnotist mesmerizes Ko-Ko the clown and Fitz the dog; but a witch teaches them how to take their revenge…

Koko the Clown and his dog try to become salesmen.

In this one, a cat is cleaning a store carpet when he gets interrupted by a mouse. After they do a brief tap dance, a lady cat comes in which has the male cat already smitten.

Ko-Ko and Fitz emerge from an inkwell into the sultan's harem.

Koko the Clown tries a mad scientist's formula on various animals.

A band of cartoon animal musicians-- including their long-haired lion conductor -- warm up before going into the title song.

This one covers the 19th century ballad in a very respectful manner: although the written reprise is gagged up, the song is introduced very respectfully by an unshown Irish tenor and then offered for the audience's singing without any voice-over to lead them.

Mice sold into slavery and driven to pick cotton by whip-cracking cats plot their escape to freedom.

A cat and mouse nonchalantly dance on roller skates and comically harass Farmer Gray.

In this one, a traffic cop is up in the sky on a platform guiding various planes and birds on their way.

A Van Beuren cartoon set in a night club with cabaret musical numbers and a drunken brawl.