Best Animation Movies of 1930

The farm animals sing, dance and flirt in this Van Beuren cartoon.

Mickey and others are firemen; they slide down an ostrich's neck when the alarm sounds. A squealing cat whose tail Mickey pulls acts as the siren. The nearest hydrant isn't working too well, so Horace Horsecollar takes drinks from a pond and uses that water to put out the fire. Minnie is trapped on an upper floor; Mickey climbs the neighboring building fire escape and uses a clothesline to cross to Minnie's building.

Betty Boop (with dog's ears) can't sleep on a scary night, so she sings the title song and meets the gentleman in question...a surreal version of Bimbo.

Made during the early years of the movie musical, this exuberant revue was one of the most extravagant, eclectic, and technically ambitious Hollywood productions of its day. Starring the bandleader Paul Whiteman, then widely celebrated as the King of Jazz, the film drew from Broadway variety shows to present a spectacular array of sketches, performances by such acts as the Rhythm Boys (featuring a young Bing Crosby), and orchestral numbers—all lavishly staged by veteran theater director John Murray Anderson.

The season series of Silly Symphonies continues, with squirrels storing nuts and corn, crows stealing it, beavers building a dam, ducks migrating, and the like, as the first snows fall.

Three desperadoes come to Heela City to rob a bank. One of them is the tough-acting, but ultimately cowardly, Oswald the Rabbit. His two fellow bad men - a dog with an eye patch and another with a peg-leg - force him to blow up the town bank with dynamite. Oswald ends up surviving the explosion that turns the other two villains into animate skeletons. The bank is destroyed, but the safe remains. Oswald tries to open it, but turning the dial only gives him a radio broadcast. And then out of the safe pops the bulldog sheriff. The sheriff runs him out of town. Unluckily for the supposedly lucky rabbit, he comes across a wailing baby out in the desert. The baby, in a gruff voice, reveals that his father is the sheriff Oswald just escaped. Oswald is forced to return to town, not so much by his conscience as by the baby's force of will.

Late in the evening, just as a skeleton puts out its cat for the night, the masked Phantom stalks the graveyard, pausing only to insult an overly inquisitive owl. The Phantom enters the local opera house and falls in love with Kitty, a feline singer who is terribly jealous of the star of the show, a husky-voiced hippo. The Phantom falls in love with Kitty at first sight. For her sake, he sabotages the hippo (by popping and deflating her). Then he puts a phonograph player down Kitty's skirt. She walks out and pretends the recording is her own voice. Even though the record skips and, moments later, slows down to a stop (forcing the Phantom to crank the machine for her), Kitty is a hit. But does she appreciate the Phantom? No. Backstage, she jumps into the arms of Oswald the Rabbit. Enraged, the Phantom grabs Kitty and takes her down with him to the catacombs underneath the stage. Oswald goes on a rescue mission.

A gorilla has escaped; Mickey, panicked, calls Minnie, but she plays a song to show she is not afraid. That is, until the gorilla comes up behind her and grabs her. Mickey rushes right over to save her.

A spider seeks shelter inside an old toy store, where he soon discovers that the merchandise comes to life after dark.