Best Animation Movies of 1941

Humorist Robert Benchley attempts to find Walt Disney to ask him to adapt a short story about a gentle dragon who would rather recite poetry than be ferocious. Along the way, he is given a tour of Walt Disney Studios, and learns about the animation process.

Jerry takes a midnight snack from the fridge unaware that Tom is watching him.

It's snowy and cold outside, and warm inside where Jerry squeezes past a mousetrap to cavort under a present-laden Christmas tree. Mistaking the sleeping Tom for a plush toy, Jerry wakes him and a mad chase ensues.

An upset Bugs challenges the slick Cecil Turtle to a race.

Elmer Fudd expects to find "west and wewaxation" during his visit to Jellostone National Park, but he sets up camp in Bugs' backyard, and the rabbit (and a neighboring bear) definitely don't have leisure in mind.

Superman battles a criminal mastermind and his robot army.

After The Daily Planet receives a letter from a mad scientist threatening to wreak destruction with his Electrothanasia Ray, Lois Lane heads out in the hopes of getting more information for a news story.

Goofy, staying at the Sugar Bowl resort, demonstrates the basics of downhill skiing, which the titles and announcer insist is pronounced "SHEEing". The equipment is, of course, of the era. As you can imagine, Goofy has much trouble keeping his skis parallel and pointing downhill. The final ski jump conveniently lands Goofy right back in bed.

Donald decides to try cooking along with a radio show.

Donald has to get up early, but everything seems to be working to keep him awake. His loudly ticking alarm clock resists several attempts to quiet it. Donald ultimately swallows it; the glow-in-the-dark dial can be seen through his feathers. Then his folding bed folds up on him. Springs start popping out of it; Donald builds an elaborate framework to hold it down. Finally, enough of the clock reassembles itself to sound the alarm and night is over.

Jealous over Mickey's attention to a kitten, Pluto's devil-self argues with his angel-self over whether or not to rescue the kitten when it falls into a well. The angel-self wins, and Pluto is treated like a hero. In the end, he and the kitten become friends.

The happy tranquility of Buggsville is shattered when the populace learns that a colossal skyscraper is to be built over their tiny town.

Gabby is a servant in a castle and is required to do a little housework.

Mickey wants some of the cake Minnie has just baked, so he offers to clean up her yard. As he's working, a tiny tornado (smaller than him) with a mind of its own comes along and causes trouble. After Mickey finally chases the little twister off, it gets its big brother, which makes a grand mess of the yard. Most of the cartoon, except for the opening and closing, has no dialogue.

Gabby teaches a young boy how to fish, even though the boy was doing much better without him.

Gabby goes camping with the Mayor.

A clumsy yokel of a male weed courts a delicate female flower ballerina by trying to dance with her.

Woody Woodpecker is driving through the countryside and is, shall we say, not a stickler for the rules. He's practically asking for trouble when he confronts a traffic cop who explains he is looking for speeders. Woody reveals himself to be a speeder by driving to Alaska and back in less than a minute. The cop tries to arrest him but Woody states, "I bet ya wouldn't be so tough without that uniform." The officer undresses but Woody attacks him with a boxing glove camera. Woody also gets his goat by dressing as a farmer on horse-and-buggy and as a Chinaboy with rickshaw. Finally, the cop flips out and is sent to a mental hospital with Woody as his caretaker.

Bugs is being chased by hunting dog Willoughby, and outsmarts him at every turn, until the end, where they outsmart the audience together.

Woody Woodpecker spends his day singing loudly and pecking holes in trees. He infuriates the other woodland creatures - when he isn't baffling them with his bizarre behavior. Woody overhears a squirrel and a group of birds gossiping about him. Even though he just sang a song proclaiming his craziness, he denies their whispered accusations that he's nuts. But after they trick him into knocking his head on a statue, the poor bird hears voices in his head and decides the animals might be right. He decides to see a doctor. But leave it to Woody to choose Dr. Horace N. Buggy, a Scottish-brogue-burring fox, who is, if it's impossible, even madder than he is.

The villain: Professor I. Stare, hypnotist, frustrated by not having anyone to practice on. He cold-calls Olive at random while Popeye is pitching woo and hypnotizes her over the phone into coming to his office.

An alley cat spies a high-class female cat on her balcony and falls for her. Her butler sends the family bulldog to deal with the alley cat, but the cat's too clever.

A tour of Ciro's Nightclub packed with caricatures of many top stars.

A construction foreman conducts his workers like a symphony orchestra as they build a skyscraper to Franz Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2."

When Gabby tries to make everything well, he comes to fussy baby and attempts to change the baby's diaper. Can Gabby change the baby's diaper? Find out on Gabby's "All's Well"

The audience enters Porky's movie theater, with a collection of quick gags: A firefly acting as usher, a kangaroo taking tickets and putting the stubs in her pouch, a chicken buying child tickets for her eggs. A skunk tries to buy a ticket, costing a nickel, but he only has one scent. He looks for a way to sneak in. Meanwhile, Porky introduces the show: a collection of cartoons, drawn as stick figures. At the end, the audience is all gone because the skunk managed to sneak in. Porky's cartoons include: Circus Parade, Choo-Choo Train, Soldiers (Marchin), Horse Race, and Dances (hula, Mexican hat, and ballet). All accompanied by a self-parody musical score.

Hobo Donald steals dinner off Pegleg Pete's table. Pete gives Donald a stick of dynamite. Then he puts Donald to work chopping trees. To say Donald is an inept lumberjack is understating the case. After several mishaps, Pete/Pierre chases Donald on railroad handcars.

Elmer Fudd gets more than he bargained for from his new pet rabbit.

Donald catches his nephews swimming on a school day. He thinks he's made an easy catch, but the boys are much more resourceful than that. When he tries to smoke them out of their clubhouse, they put three roast turkeys in their bed and dress one boy as an angel.

Gabby is forced to take care of a strange animal called a Kango.

The Big Bad Wolf, villain of children's stories for years, is on trial for crimes committed against Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother. When given a chance to speak in his defense, Mr. Wolf explains the supposed real story behind the fairy tale, in which he is the victim and Red and her grandma are the ones to blame. Will the jury buy his story?

Illustrating the origin of the term 'sour grapes', (post-Aesop, that is), Crow gets Fox to trade him his picnic lunch for some grapes high on a vine. After many difficulties, the fox manages to get to them but discovers they are sour indeed.

Aided by his horse, Percy, Goofy takes horsemanship to a new level.

Newly inducted into the U.S. Navy, Popeye is on a training ship, but his seat-of-the-pants ways don't fit in with modern equipment.

Goofy takes a lighthearted look at self defense through the ages: cavemen, knights, the age of chivalry, and finally boxing.

Mrs. Duck sues Daffy for divorce in Judge Porky Pig's courtroom, charging her husband with losing their egg in an abortive magic trick.

Donald visits a penny arcade where he sees a risque Daisy dancing in one of the nickelodeon shows and later has trouble with the airplane ride.

Mickey's going golfing, and Pluto is his caddy. Besides the usual caddy duties, Pluto runs to the ball and points to it. But when the ball lands in a gopher hole, Pluto's got another task: chase the gopher. They eventually chase each other through a number of holes in a knoll where Mickey is trying to putt out, causing the knoll to collapse.

Inspired by a store display, Donald decides to "hunt" some wildlife with his camera. First, he encounters a too-friendly chipmunk, then a large group of shy animals, then some animals in a dark cave. But his biggest challenge is a woodpecker, who finds a number of ways to torment him, even though Donald does manage to trick him briefly using some toothpaste that pretends to be a worm.

Mickey courts Minnie in the Gay Nineties: they take in a vaudeville show and go for a drive in his horseless carriage, to the strains of "While Strolling Through the Park" and "In the Good Old Summertime". Goofy rides by on a penny-farthing bicycle, and the whole Duck family rides by on a bicycle built for five.

Pluto is playing with a ball on the beach. The ball goes into the water and starts moving in strange ways, because a sea lion is playing with it. Pluto does not want to share the ball, and eventually tries to bury it, but the sea lion is too clever. Pluto goes after the sea lion, but has to tangle with a persistent octopus. The sea lion saves Pluto, and resuscitates him, so Pluto agrees to play.

Olive gets a phone call that she has won first prize in a sweepstakes, but she can't find her ticket. She finds it, only to have it blow out the window into a woman's belt, into the sea, a fish's mouth, the railroad tracks, a flagpole, etc.

A cat (not Sylvester) tries to capture a little canary bird (not Tweety), and not get caught by protective Granny.

Popeye's Pappy takes a flagpole sitting job atop a tall building without telling Popeye. Popeye goes to rescue him, but he doesn't want to go until an electrical storm hits.

Popeye is trying to take a nap, but he's plagued by house flies that keep landing on him. He gets rid of most of them, but one in particular seems bent on making Popeye's life miserable, particularly after Popeye makes the mistake of flicking it into a can of spinach.

Mickey Mouse lies in bed like a lord, getting served breakfast by man's (and mouse's?) best friend Pluto as gentleman's gentleman. Next duty is to fetch the paper, but also pay for it with a coin for the vending machine, and those round things have a nasty habit of escaping a dog's teeth and bouncing over the pavement till they end up in the gutter. After enough attempts to fish and spend the penny, Pluto has a newspaper to carry the same way. The wind has a nasty way to get a better grip on page after page then the dog, so by the time he delivers the daily dose of printed news it's an embarrassingly muddy mess.

Woody's friends warn him that the groundhog has predicted a blizzard. Unconcerned, Woody decides not to go South with his pals. Soon enough, the blizzard sweeps in and destroys the loony woodpecker's stash of food. Facing starvation, a glimmer of hope arrives in the form of a cat. The cat is also starving and it turns into a match of brawn and wits to see who eats who.

Gabby makes good on his pledge to 'be helpful' by assisting the local fire department while they put out a fire. When the chief incapacitates himself by getting Gabby's hat stuck over his head, Gabby takes charge with with disastrous consequences.