Best Animation Movies of 1938

This Oscar-winning short tells of a bull who preferred to sit under trees and smell flowers to clashing horns with his fellow animals. As luck would have it, an untimely bee reveals Ferdinand's ferocious side via pained howls and wild stomping. This lands him in the bull-fighting arena amidst characters based on Walt's animators with a matador reportedly modeled after Walt himself.

When a giant threatens the land, the cityfolk mistake Mickey's boast of killing seven flies with one blow to be giants. He is then forced to fight the giant for real.

Porky Pig goes on a hunt to catch the surreal elusive last Do-Do bird.

Mickey buys a boat kit, and enlists Goofy and Donald to help assemble it. The plans say, "so simple a child could do it", so of course, they have their share of troubles. But before long, they're ready to launch the Queen Minnie, with appropriate fanfare, at which time, all the collapsible parts collapse.

Donald's sister Dumbella sends her three sons Huey, Dewey, and Louie to visit their uncle Donald. They prove to be quite a handful for Donald, even with help from his book on child rearing.

Donald is leading a scout troop consisting of his nephews on a hike in the woods. Donald isn't nearly the expert on the woods that he thinks he is, much to the amusement of the boys. In a bid for sympathy, he douses himself in catsup and fakes injury; the boys bandage him so thoroughly he can't see, and he stumbles into a pot of honey, and is soon getting all too much attention from a bear.

Donald Duck tries to exhibit his golfing ability to his nephews only to have them tease him with sneezes, noises and "trick" clubs. Finally, they put a grasshopper in a ball and it "jumps" all over.

Black-and-white abstract animated short of light, shadows, and reflections by The Dodals (Karel Dodal (1900-1986) in collaboration with his wife, Irena Dodalová).

Popeye sails to Goon Island in search of his Pappy. He finds the place populated by the imposing, but ugly, goons, and a "no humans" sign. His imprisoned pappy at first ignores him, but when Popeye is caught by the goons and carried off, his can of spinach lands near Pappy and it works just as well on him as it does on Popeye.

Olive has a small leak in a pipe; she makes the mistake of calling Wimpy to fix it, and the even bigger mistake of asking Popeye to help her do something until Wimpy can arrive. Meanwhile, Wimpy keeps realizing he's forgotten his tools, his gloves, etc. and going back. Popeye finally eats his spinach and manages some fixes to the system.

Popeye visits the bullfight only because of lovely Senorita Olive. He finds himself accidentally in the toreador box, even though he doesn't want to fight because it's cruelty to animals. Popeye rides the bull like a bronco, then gets tossed around a bit. The bull plants Popeye in the ground and attacks; the crowd turns on Popeye. Olive comes down to help and the bull chases her. The crowd throws vegetables at Popeye, including (fortunately) spinach.

Betty Boop is a poor-but-honest-actress in the Gay 90s who, hungry and cold, gets a job as a singer in a dance-hall saloon.

The ducks and chickens next door eye the Captain's garden covetously through a poorly mended fence. The Captain, armed with a board, is standing guard (but not fixing the fence). He falls asleep, and the poultry attack, stripping the garden methodically. When the Captain comes after them, they lock him into a shed. He gets out, and fetches his shotgun. That stops them, and they drop their booty, until the Captain sets his gun down to collect the veggies; the birds all rush in, snatch them back.

Popeye is leaving on his sailing ship, much to Olive's chagrin. She ends up accidentally stowing away in a trunk. Popeye discovers her, but she can't stay, because the crew will think she's a jinx. She tries to hide, but this only scares the crew more, because they think the ship's haunted. When she is revealed, the crew comes after her to throw her off, and then turns on captain Popeye.

Daffy taunts a hunter in Tex Avery's classic, meta short.

A dance of shapes. A title card tells us this is an experiment in conveying the mental images of music in a visual form. Liszt's "Second Hungarian Rhapsody" is the music. The shapes, all two-dimensional, are circles primarily, with some squares and rectangles, and a few triangles. The shapes move rhythmically to the music: receding from view or moving across the screen. Red circles on a blue background; light blue squares; white rectangles. Then, a red background of many circles with a few in the foreground. Red gives way to blue then to white. Shapes reappear as Liszt's themes re-occur. Then, with a few staccato notes and images, it's over.

Porky leads a wagon train into "Injun Joe Territory," and finally comes up against the fearsome Superchief. But Sloppy Moe, a survivor of a previous Injun Joe attack, knows something about him he won't tell... until the very end.

Popeye and Bluto pick up Olive to celebrate New Year's Eve with them. Popeye brings along her granny out of sympathy.

When Olive Oyl's house burns down, firefighters Popeye and Wimpy decide to build a new house - with disastrous results.

Puppet animation of Bert Ambrose and His Orchestra performing. A Puppetoon animated short film.

Popeye is heading over to see Olive when he hits a traffic island where a cop is directing traffic; when he gets there, he manages to get more tickets for blowing his horn and parking illegally. The cop rings the bell, and Popeye manages to wreck Olive's apartment by dropping what he's doing, each time he writes a ticket.

Olive takes Popeye to Professor Bluteau to learn some manners.

Porky tries to feed his chickens, but some ducks steal the corn he puts out, then declare war. The battle rages, with the ducks against the chickens, sometimes in wing-to-wing combat, but also aerial attacks, and Porky finally turning the tide with his machine gun improvised from a wringer washer and a bag of corn. But the ducks still get the last laugh.

A couple goes to the World's Fair.

A neighborhood bully convinces Porky to take a puff from his cigar, causing Porky to hallucinate a smoke-man named Nick O. Teen, along with a musical number done by cigars, cigarettes and pipes in the likeness of the 3 Stooges, etc.

Porky's birthday. His uncle sends him a silkworm that churns out articles of clothing when it hears the word "sew." After a sock and a bra, Porky stuffs it in a pocket to prepare for his party. He uses some hair tonic, then his dog Black Fury has some for himself it's 99% alcohol. The guests arrive: a penguin and a goose. The penguin, shoveling in the food, accidentally swallows the worm, which starts churning out top hats, which pop open inside the penguin's head. The goose tries increasingly violent ways of remedying this. Meanwhile, Porky's dog, lathered with shaving cream, runs in and is branded a mad dog.

Porky goes after a rogue rabbit who manages to frustrate him at each turn. He is unsuccessful and the rabbit comes to visit him just to make recovery tougher for him.

Popeye brings his magical dog, The Jeep, over to see Olive and Swee'pea, just as the tyke has escaped from his crib. The Jeep leads Popeye on a merry chase looking for Swee'pea.

After being thrown out of the operating room as Dr. Quack's assistant, Dr. Daffy Duck makes Porky Pig his own - unwilling - patient.

Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are crewing a whaling ship. Their mishaps include Donald fighting off some hungry birds, Mickey and a bucket of water that keeps doing a boomerang impression, and Goofy firing the cannon and getting stuck high in the air, and ultimately inside a whale. And when he lands the whale well, let's just say they're gonna need a bigger boat.

Another entry in the "books come alive" subgenre, with possibly more books coming alive than any other. We begin with some musical numbers, notably the various pages of Green Pastures all joining in on a song, The Thin Man entering The White House Cookbook and exiting much fatter, and The House of Seven (Clark) Gables singing backup to Old King Cole. The Three Musketeers break loose, become Three Men on a Horse, grab the Seven Keys to Baldpate, and set the Prisoner of Zenda free. They are soon chased by horsemen from The Charge of the Light Brigade and Under Two Flags and beset by the cannons of All Quiet on the Western Front. All this disturbs the sleep of Rip Van Winkle, who opens Hurricane so that everyone is (all together now) Gone with the Wind.

Egghead decides his road to riches is through a boxing correspondence course. When he graduates, he takes on champion Biff Stew. Biff pummels him mercilessly (the correspondence course record continues to coach him during the match), but by accident, he knocks Biff out until we see it was all in Egghead's head, after being knocked out by the practice equipment.

An elaborate dream fantasy based on the popular children's poem of three children playing and floating among the stars. The three sleepy children sail in their shoe-boat; they stall briefly on a cloud, then have various troubles with their fishing lines (one lands a fish-like star that ends up squirming in his pants).

Daffy causes trouble on a Hollywood set.

Fireman Porky and friends try to save a theatrical boarding house and its inhabitants from an inferno.

Porky is Daffy's fight manager who gets Daffy a fight with "The Champion", but things get looney.

We take a tour of Porky's Poppa's farm, to the tune of Old MacDonald. After meeting several animals, "on this farm, he has a mortgage" which he frets over, particularly since Bessie has stopped producing milk. Poppa orders an Acme milk producing robot, and the beast vs. machine battle is on.

Donald and Goofy are trappers in the frozen south (Antarctica) with different approaches. Donald sees a penguin and dresses as one to lure her to the chopping block; Goofy baits a trap with fish (then acts like a walrus to capture one that steals his bait bucket).

A parrot belonging to an escaped killer washes up in Mickey's basement. Mickey hears it talking and thinks the parrot is the killer he's just heard about on the radio. While Mickey is skulking about the basement, Pluto runs into the parrot, first hidden under the fish, and then inside a leftover turkey.

A lucid dream turned nightmarish reality. A ship sinking into a world of fear. A short film that’s mostly puppetry by one of America's most prolific twentieth century artists.

Donald controls the hounds , and Goofy is riding on Horace Horsecollar, as the fox outwits both of them.

Olive is reading a romance novel and munching on a gift box of candy from Bluto when Popeye drops by. She's too absorbed to notice him, so he feigns illness. The doctors are at a loss for a cure.

The McCoys and the Weavers are two feuding hillbilly clans. Elmer Fudd, Peacemaker, attempts to end the fighting; but violence and zaniness win out.

Schoolboy Donald is torn between his angel and devil sides, though in Donald's case, the devil side isn't hard to resist. But the smoking he's encouraged to do turns him green and gives him regrets, and when the good side shows up and kicks evil's butt, Donald cheers.

The farm comes to life, to various classical tunes. The high point is a rooster serenading a chicken, with all the animals joining in. But then comes the sound that's even more welcome to the animals: the farmer and his wife with food (the only actual words spoken).

When Mama hen takes her chicks out to get breakfast, little Wilbur is soaked in a sudden rainstorm and comes down with a head cold. Mama puts him to bed, then goes back out to get the doctor. A conniving weasel, seeing Mama leave, disguises himself as a doctor and comes calling on the unattended chicks.

Big Chief Ugh-Amugh-Ugh is looking for a squaw. Meanwhile, Popeye and Olive are wrestling with their recalcitrant mule and Olive accidentally lands in the Indian camp. Popeye catches up to her. There's an unfair fight, and Popeye is about to be burned at the stake. He drops his spinach, but it cooks and pops into his mouth.

Porky sets sail for the Boola-Boola islands in the South Seas with a ship full of general merchandise and plans to open a 5 & 10 cent store. But a swordfish cuts a hole in the ship and Porky's goods fall into the ocean, where the fish make creative uses of them, ultimately opening a Hollywood nightclub, complete with fish impersonating various stars.

Johnny Smith enters an America where the Indians behave like 1930s average Americans. When he is arrested, the girl Poker Huntas rescues and elopes with him.