Best Animation Movies of 1935

The Tortoise and the Hare is an animated short film released on January 5, 1935 by United Artists, produced by Walt Disney and directed by Wilfred Jackson. Based on an Aesop's fable of the same name, The Tortoise and the Hare won the 1934 Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons. This cartoon is also believed to be one of the influences for Bugs Bunny.

Mickey, Donald and Goofy are a fire department. As you might expect, their attempts at fighting a boardinghouse fire are not particularly effective. They hear Clarabelle singing in the bathtub and rescue her, tub and all, against her will (she won't believe there's a fire).

Musical instruments are the stars of a romantic fable set in the Land of Symphony and the Isle of Jazz, two islands separated by the Sea of Discord. The violin princess and the saxophone prince fall in love, but must meet secretly in order to avoid the wrath of their parents, the Symphony queen and the Jazz king. The queen finds the boy saxophone on her island, attempting to woo her daughter. She has him locked in the metronome, but the young lover manages to send a note - in fact, several musical notes on sheet music - that conveys the message that he has been imprisoned. The Isle of Jazz declares war by blasting musical notes across the sea. The only thing that can bring peace and harmony to the Sea of Discord is love.

Mickey shows off his ice-skating skills to Minnie; Goofy does some unconventional ice fishing; Donald straps skates to Pluto and laughs at his attempts to skate. Donald gets strapped to a kite and is about to be swept over a waterfall when Mickey pulls off an heroic rescue.

Pluto chases a kitten through a window and right into Mickey's lap. Mickey scolds him, and goes off to wash the kitten. Pluto falls asleep in front of the fire, and dreams of a hell ruled by cats where he is put on trial for all his crimes against cats and, of course, found guilty.

Three orphan kittens are entering a society house in winter and ruin the furniture. But when they're caught by the maid, the young daughter of the house "rescues" them from the cold out outside.

King Midas is visited by an elf; the elf turns his cat to gold, then claps his hands and it changes back. Midas begs for the golden touch, but the elf warns him it would be a curse to him. Midas insists. He dances about joyfully at first, but discovers the drawbacks when he sits down to dinner. Fearing death by starvation, he summons the elf and agrees to surrender everything he owns to have the curse lifted.

Popeye and Bluto are deep sea divers. Popeye has a treasure map; for some reason he cuts Bluto in on the deal, but of course, Bluto's idea of 50-50 isn't exactly fair...

Synchromy No. 2, synchronized to the "Evening Star" aria from Wagner's Tannhäuser, uses a statue of Venus to represent the star.

Betty Boop and some friends go to Grampy's house for a party.

A Mardi Gras celebration, looking pretty much like any carnival. Bluto is a strongman, claiming to be King of the Mardi Gras, and drawing a large crowd. Popeye, nearby, claims only, "I yam what I yam," and has no crowd, but still draws Bluto's wrath. He manages to spoil a balance trick, then tops it with Wimpy in a chair. Olive then volunteers to be levitated; Bluto pulls her over and saws her in half. Olive escapes to a roller coaster with the boys in pursuit.

To the classic tune of "Barnacle Bill the Sailor", Olive explains that she can't marry Popeye because she's in love with Barnacle Bill (an unusually large Bluto), who then comes by and proceeds to pound Popeye (until he eats his spinach, of course).

Mickey, Goofy & Donald have 10 minutes to fix Pete's car. Or else!

A robin is shot so the woodland community holds a trial to investigate.

Animated cigarette advertisement.

Popeye's failures in the kitchen send him on a quest for a wife. He visits the "matrimonial agency" and picks Olive at the same time Bluto picks her. Of course, the boys settle their problem with their fists. Soon, Bluto and Olive are visiting Justice of the Peace Wimpy, with Popeye temporarily detained.

The insects have completely taken over Mickey's garden. He spritzes them with insecticide, but runs out and they keep feasting. He mixes a new batch. Meanwhile, Pluto stalks a bug and gets his head stick in a pumpkin. He stumbles around and bumps into Mickey and the sprayer, giving Mickey a faceful of bug juice. He awakens to a warped reality, where the bugs and plants are giant sized, and the bugs get drunk on the insecticide and chase our heroes. Mickey recovers from his nightmare, discovering the giant worm he was wrestling was the hose.

As the title implies, in this Oswald the Rabbit short, he goes hunting.

An abstract film in which every motion of coloured shapes is in strict synchronization with music

For Kaleidoscope, which was sponsored by Churchman Cigarettes, Lye animated stenciled cigarette shapes and is said to have experimented by cutting out some of the shapes so that the light of the projector hit the screen directly. As in Colour Box Lye uses music by Don Baretto and his Cuban Orchestra. - Harvard Film Archive

Honeymooning couples of various animal species take a rocket ship excursion to the moon. Spectacular lunar scenery.

Popeye's ensemble is rehearsing the opening of the Poet and Peasant Overture (with interpolations of the Popeye theme and "I've Been Working on the Railroad"). Maestro Bluto drops in from next door to conduct and play violin and show Popeye up. Popeye plays horribly until he unlocks the previously unexplored artistic benefits of spinach.

It's basically a stage slide show/vaudeville revue that features a female singer who gets chased by the villain before the Lucky Rabbit saves her and gets her love. A couple of gags that may have been created by Avery include: Oswald asking a lady to take off her hat as it's blocking his view but getting even more blocked when her hair suddenly grows into a giant afro! Also, as the trapeze artist spins around on his swing, so too do the audiences' heads from top to bottom! That's all the inventive stuff I saw in this cartoon, still Towne Hall Follies is worth a look for any Avery fans out there.

Betty Boop, annoyed by 'public pests' like backslappers, gum parkers, and mud splashers, imagines what she'd do to them if she were a judge.

An early color cartoon about a boy and his dog that go along with the Sandman to "Candyland"

The inhabitants, including the trees and rocks, of Balloon Land are made entirely of balloons. They come under attack from the evil Pincushion Man. With the help of a quickly inflated army, they manage to fend off the attacker.

The boys arrive at Olive's house at the same time, but at different doors. They both come in, and whenever Olive isn't looking, they start fighting. She catches them, and tells them one will have to leave. Bluto tells Popey that whoever does the best trick can stay. As a result, they find ever more creative ways to abuse each other, much to Olive's merriment. Eventually, though, they start destroying her house, and Olive throws them both out, for a little while, anyhow.

Policeman Wimpy loses his handcuffed prisoner when he's distracted by a hamburger shop. The escapee drops into the weapon-filled pawn shop Popeye and Olive are running, and quickly gets in a fight with Popeye.

Centuries ago in the past, the witch, who doesn't like Beauty, puts her to sleep, then flies throughout the castle spreading sleep powder, placing all into slumber. Eventually we flash forward to present time: A young hepcat in a convertible tries awakening Sleeping Beauty, and everyone in the castle, with some Big Band music. Will it work? A Puppetoon animated short film.

Cookies, pastries, and other desserts have a parade.

Popeye takes Olive to a stage show of a hypnotist (Bluto), who also levitates objects. While he's doing this, Popeye makes him lose his concentration, so in retaliation, the hypnotist pulls Olive on stage and turns her into a chicken. Popeye comes down to fight and the hypnotist tries to turn him into a monkey, but Popeye pulls a mirror into place. He recovers, and turns Popeye into a donkey, then smacks him around a bit, but spinach comes to the rescue.

In live action, a big kid is attacking a little kid for his "Adventures of Popeye" comic book, so Popeye gives the little kid pointers, in the form of clips from four of his earlier pictures.

Betty Boop tries to give Pudgy the Pup a bath, with slapstick results.

Betty Boop takes her stage act on the road, and plays in Japan to great acclaim.

A sailor doll, thrown into a toy dump, rallies the demoralized dolls that were already there.

A chicken has hatched seven chicks. She locates six of them, but the other, Eggbert, is missing.

Mr. and Mrs. Oswald Rabbit are preparing their summer home, confident that winter has ended. Professor Groundhog, unable to see his shadow, predicts several more weeks of cold weather. The rabbit-family and their woodland neighbors choose to disbelieve the groundhog's pessimistic forecast, until suddenly it begins to snow and the forest animals are driven back into hibernation.

A cartoonist falls asleep at the drawing board and into the clutches of his own villains, until Beans the Cat comes to the rescue.

A kitten runs off to be a robber with a dog.

Popeye and Olive are attending a football game; Bluto's team takes the field, and Olive is swept off her feet, becoming a cheerleader for him. Popeye signs up and becomes quarterback of the opposing team, which is skinny and pathetic looking, compared to Bluto's team of huge bruisers. Things go badly, of course, until Popeye eats his spinach and becomes a whole football team himself, winning both the game and Olive.

Popeye and Olive can't ignore it when produce vendor Bluto comes by with his terribly overloaded cart, whipping his horse and denying it water. They intervene, and while Bluto fights them off for a while, ultimately prevail.

A boy gets trigger happy with his BB gun, but soon regrets it.

Mrs. Mouse is reading "A Visit from St. Nicholas" to her brood when a cat tries to break in. The cat overhears them arguing about the existence of Santa, so he dresses up accordingly.

Animated shapes dance to Cuban music. This was one of the first animations to be painted directly onto the film.

A strong mouse says that he will become the heavyweight champion of the world. But his grandma (who is just as strong) doesn't want him to fight...

Spring is coming, but Old Man Winter isn't ready to retire for the year.

The courtship of two swans is interrupted by a third swan, who demonstrates his prowess at catching fish. The pen falls for him and leaves her mate, but when the interloper begins treating her cruelly and chases her around the pond, her old flame intercedes and chases the evil swan away.

The Devil comes out of Dante's Inferno, hoping to get the See No Evil, Speak No Evil and Hear No Evil monkeys to his side, but a bunch of literary characters come to the rescue of the monkeys.

A mother and her two rowdy children come into the Parrotville Post Office. The postmaster is annoyed by the children at first. Later, the children come in handy. A notorious mail thief sneaks into the post office, and the kids and postmaster apprehend him. They put the thief in a mail sack and send him to prison via the next mail delivery.