Best Animation Movies of 1936

I Love to Singa depicts the story of a young owl who wants to sing jazz, instead of the classical music that his German parents wish him to perform. The plot is a lighthearted tribute to Al Jolson's film The Jazz Singer.

Two sailors Sindbad and Popeye decide to test themselves in order to prove their supremacy. Popeye is then presented with a series of daunting tasks by Sindbad.

Two little pigs cry wolf on their brother and then an actual wolf comes.

Donald, Mickey, and Pluto climb the Alps. While up top, Donald has a run-in with a mountain goat over some edelweiss, Mickey has a row with an eagle over its eggs; one of them hatches, and gives Pluto some trouble (as does the grog a Saint Bernard gives him when he falls into a snowbank).

Monty Citymouse invites his cousin Abner Countrymouse for a visit and shows him the ways of the big city, including traps, eating quietly, and busy traffic.

Minnie's old friend, Mortimer Mouse, drops in on Mickey and Minnie's picnic. His practical jokes and coming on to Minnie soon have Mickey stewing, and their car isn't happy either. When Mortimer gets a nearby bull enraged and takes off, the car comes to the rescue after Mickey gets tangled up in a red blanket.

Toby Tortoise is back, and this time he and Max Hare box instead of racing.

Little Elmer Elephant has a crush on Tillie Tiger and his affection is reciprocated. Trouble is, the pint-sized pachyderm is beset by bullies who ridicule his trunk and make his life miserable. Then a conflagration breaks out at Tillie's tree house.

As the title implies, the three blind mice are musketeers. The cat sets a number of traps for them, which they all evade (apparently without realizing it) while he sleeps. The cat eventually wakes up and begins chasing them unsuccessfully, thanks to their teamwork.

A dark and stormy night in a drugstore. The druggist mixes a potion and falls asleep. The skull-and-crossbones on the bottle comes to life and drips the potion on the druggist.

A poor boy and girl in rags gather wood in the snow. They pass by a tailor, a butcher and a baker, all of whom pity the children. Later, they arrive home. Their poor mother sets before them the only food she can: Stale bread. The children get ready for bed; In their dreams, visions of ice cream and donuts, candies and cakes fill their sleeping minds-- Will they awake to the same sorry situation?

A stray kitten wanders into Betty Boop's house, gets sick on candy, and is cured with catnip by Betty and Pudgy the pup.

Mickey leads his polo team Donald (on a mule), Goofy, The Big Bad Wolf against an all-star team: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Harpo Marx (on an ostrich), Charles Chaplin, in a game refereed by Jack Holt. Featured spectators include the Three Little Pigs with Shirley Temple, W.C. Fields, and Clarabelle Cow with Clark Gable. Game action proceeds pretty much as you might expect from this bunch of comedians.

At an orphanage, the children are sad because they received used defective toys as gifts. Professor Grampy sees the children while passing by in his sled and has an idea on how to give them a merry Christmas.

Popeye applies for a lifeguard job when he sees Olive in the pool, but Bluto also wants the job (and Olive). The manager, Wimpy, asks them to demonstrate their skills in a contest. Popeye does well, until Bluto demonstrates lifesaving and first aid on him.

A spider runs a hotel for flies where he keeps his guests captive. A pair of fly newlyweds arrive and check in. Fortunately, the husband is "flyweight champion". After a pitched battle featuring arrows (fountain pen nibs) and a machine-gun (aspirins shot from a perfume atomizer), the spider winds up in a bottle of library paste.

Plumber Donald is using a large magnet in his work. When he drops it, it causes trouble for Pluto, especially after Pluto swallows it. Things begin clinging to him, especially his metal dog dish.

Popeye takes Olive mountain climbing. Bluto sets various traps for them along the way, which Popeye manages to overcome. They get to the top, and Bluto pushes Popeye off a cliff and starts skiing down with Olive. Popeye eats his spinach and gives chase.

Popeye and Olive are taking a ferry run by Bluto. When they find out the fare, they decide, with Wimpy, to build a bridge. Bluto does what he can to sabotage this plan - until spinach time, of course.

Porky runs a game refuge. Despite the abundant signs to the contrary, Jean-Baptiste the trapper sets numerous traps. Porky rescues the animals from the traps. Jean-Baptiste tracks him down and beats him up. The animals come to Porky's rescue.

Popeye is running a women's gymnasium next door to Bluto's cabaret. Seeing Popeye's greater success with women, Bluto dresses in drag and challenges Popeye to various feats of strength.

A young worm is chased by the Early Bird, but then a snake and two crows join the chase.

That's what Olive wants. To even the score, the boys visit Wimpy's barber shop. Wimpy is out, so they shave each other; you'd think Popeye would know better than to let Bluto at him with a razor.

This experiment was a “prestige advertisement” for Shell Motor Oil. As conventional animation became dominated by Walt Disney, many European filmmakers turned to puppets as an alternative, and Lye enlisted the help of avant-garde friends such as Humphrey Jennings and John Banting to make the amusing puppets. Exploring the still-complex color process, which involved the combination of three separate images, Lye creates such a vivid storm scene that reviewers hailed it as “proof that the color film has entered a new stage.” The music is Holst’s The Planets. - Harvard Film Archive

Olive is moving out of her apartment; she's hired Bluto to move her, but Popeye comes over to visit and won't be shown up - at least, not after he's had his spinach. But would you really want these two handling your belongings?

Betty Boop and Little Jimmy are prevented by a thunderstorm from going to the carnival. Inventive Grampy devises a substitute.

Popeye drives up to take Olive for a ride, but Bluto in his much fancier car does what he can to spoil their jaunt.

Greedy Humpty Dumpty's wall of gold is not enough. He wants all the gold in the sun, too.

The farm is suffering through a terrible drought. Porky's father sends him to the store to buy some feed with their last dollar...

Donald and Mickey are overdue on their rent, so the sheriff is preparing to evict them and sell their belongings. Goofy the ice-man comes by and helps them move out before the sale, but their piano doesn't want to stay on his truck. Meanwhile, Donald has a fight with a plunger and a fishbowl after removing a heater from the gas line.

Comic strip character The Little King, bored at the opera, sneaks over to the vaudeville house to see (and join) Betty's Wild West Show. But the Queen tracks him down...

Porky's father is going to lose his farm. Porky goes to town with his horse and works a milk route, with a warning that if he breaks a bottle he's fired. As he's delivering, cats follow along behind draining the bottles. Meanwhile, Hank Horsefly follows them into town. He stings Dobbin, who crashes and breaks many bottles. They happen upon a horse race and accidentally enter; the horse is merely plodding along until it gets stung again.

Popeye is wooing Olive on the phone when Bluto comes over. He overhears, taps into the line, and impersonates Popeye. They proceed to have a high-wire fight on the telephone lines outside Olive's house.

A crazed bomber is terrorizing the city. Meanwhile, a young Porky is a few cents shy of buying an ice cream soda; he starts earning it by picking up items people drop and handing them back to them.

Popeye teaches Olive the art of self-defense, which comes in handy when a woman boxer flirts with him.

Pudgy the pup takes Betty Boop's advice ('Go Out and Make Friends With the World') to heart and befriends various wild animals.

Gnomes greet the coming of spring by manufacturing various bright colours.

In the 1936 short Allegretto, diamond and oval shapes in primary colors perform a sensual, upbeat ballet to the music of composer Ralph Rainger. The geometric dance is set against a background of expanding circles that suggest radio waves.

Wimpy is working for Bluto in his diner and trying to filch all the food he can eat. Popeye comes in and orders roast duck, but Wimpy grabs the drumsticks, then coats it with pepper sauce. Popeye walks out in anger and Bluto comes after him. Wimpy takes advantage of the resulting battle to load up on hamburgers.

Porky is raising chickens, ducks, and geese. Many birds have fallen victim to the hawk, Porky's going to do everything he can to fight back. He takes to the air, but the buzzard calls in reinforcements; first they pull Porky's tail, then they bombard him with eggs, and finally they steal his machine gun. The birds toss the chick back and forth football style, but drop it; Porky recovers, and manages to take out the flock of buzzards.

Cupid and a Devil are having fun on St. Valentine's Day with arranging and destroying love affairs. Cupid wins: he knows what to do with a lonely skunk...

Mickey is preparing to conduct an opera when he chases Pluto away. Pluto crashes into a magician's props backstage and spars with the hat, its rabbits, and its doves. The opera begins: Clarabelle plays flute, Clara and Donald are the leads in Romeo and Juliet. Pluto follows the magic hat onstage, to Mickey's growing annoyance. The hat falls into a tuba, and soon the animals are filling the stage.

Porky's in the foreign legion. But he's not allowed to fight; all he can do is scrub camels, and he's not particularly good at that. The other soldiers ride off to find the evil Ali Mode, leaving Porky behind. Ali Mode notices, and tries to gain entrance to the fort, first by tricking Porky, then by tunnelling, then by military assaults, but Porky rebuffs all attempts, ultimately landing Ali Mode in a big vat of "Cairo Syrup" and collecting a chestful of medals.

A young boy obsessed with trains sneaks out to play with the real trains that run just a few feet from the fence around his house. When he falls off of one and is knocked unconscious, he has a dream.

Pluto accidentally hatches a bunch of chickens and looks after them until the hen returns.

Popeye takes Swee'pea to the zoo and spends most of his time rescuing the tot from the various animals.

A (barely) two minute short is that it was made specially for a Paramount newsreel segment on Bute and Nemeth making films in their teensy New York apartment. Paramount apparently never got round to including the filmmakers in any newsreel, but their own film survived in the Bute-Nemeth Archive. (weirdwildrealm.com) To the rhythm of music that sounds a bit like a Busby Berkeley tune, lines and circles appear against a black background. Then triangles, in groups. Black and white squares move in tandem. Sparkling forms turn in kaleidoscopic patterns. Then cubes appear, white against the background, bouncing; a yin and yang rotate a few times before the film ends with an quick burst of scattering light.

The narrator sets the scene for a warped version of the classic poem, and the hijinks when assistant Porky gives the blacksmith a rubber horseshoe, then a hot horseshoe on the horse's backside by accident.

In a return to the Out of the Inkwell format, Betty Boop invents a pep formula to speed up lazy Pudgy, but it escapes into the real world with rapid results.