Best Animation Movies of 1943

Tired of always playing the same roles, Little Red Riding Hood, her grandmother and the Wolf demand a new version of the tale. The story then plays out in a more contemperary urban environment, with Little Red Riding Hood working as a pin-up girl in a night club.

As Tom and Jerry stage their typical fight sequences, the patriotic soldier theme of the title is evidenced by such things as a carton of eggs labeled "Hen Grenades"; Jerry dropping light bulbs from an airplane like bombs; and Jerry sending a telegram with the message "Sighted Cat - Sank Same." Musical phrasings from various patriotic war songs are heard throughout.

Jerry crashes a vase onto Tom's head, which gets Mammy to throw Tom out. Jerry at first revels in his freedom, but soon tires of this, and, under a flag of truce, hatches a plan with Tom.

Bugs challenges Cecil Turtle to race, only this time he's wearing an aerodynamic suit like Cecil's. Unfortunately, the gambling ring has bet everything on the rabbit, and Bugs now looks like a tortoise.

The wolf escapes from prison but can't get away from police dog Droopy no matter how hard he tries. This is the first cartoon starring Droopy.

Tom fights with another cat over Jerry.

On a tropical island a pair of castaways look to Bugs as a source of food.

A Corny Concerto is an American animated cartoon short produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions and distributed by Warner Bros. It was directed by Bob Clampett, written by Frank Tashlin, animated by Robert McKimson and released as part of the Merrie Melodies series on September 25, 1943. A parody of Disney's 1940 feature Fantasia, the film uses two of Johann Strauss' best known waltzes, Tales from the Vienna Woods and The Blue Danube, adapted by the cartoon unit's music director, Carl Stalling and orchestrated by its arranger and later, Stalling's successor, Milt Franklyn. Long considered a classic for its sly humor and impeccable timing with the music, it was voted #47 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field in 1994

Relaxing with a carrot at a U.S. Army air field, Bugs is reading "Victory Through Hare Power" and scoffs at the notion of mentioned gremlins, little creatures who wreak havoc on planes with their diabolical sabotage.

A propaganda film during World War II about a boy who grows up to become a Nazi soldier.

Tom is dressed up and treated like a baby by the little girl of the house, and he hates it aside from the bottle of milk, that is. Jerry brings in some alley cats, who tease Tom.

Daffy is an agent representing Sleepy LaGoof, trying to sell him to talent scout Porky. Daffy spends a great deal of time and energy explaining and demonstrating what the kid can do, while the kid sits on a couch licking a giant sucker.

This is a unique film in Disney Production's history. This film is essentially a propaganda film selling Major Alexander de Seversky's theories about the practical uses of long range strategic bombing. Using a combination of animation humorously telling about the development of air warfare, the film switches to the Major illustrating his ideas could win the war for the allies.

Popeye's planting a victory garden while his nephews are collecting worms for fishing. He berates them for wasting time, and tells them the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, which inspires them to plant beans. Popeye falls asleep, and dreams up a giant beanstalk. His nephews talk him into climbing to the top. Inside the giant's castle, Popee hides in the cuckoo clock and spots the giant hoarding sugar instead of gold; his hen lays tires, and his storehouses are full of other goods that were rationed in World War II. Popeye tries to walk out with a stack of tires, but the giant stops him, ultimately swatting him with a fly swatter and making him into a sandwich; the giant sprinkles Popeye with pepper, delaying the inevitable spinach briefly. Popeye defeats the giant, and gets him to sneeze all his tires into a carpet.

Porky Pig and Daffy Duck owe an outrageous sum to the Broken Arms Hotel. The manager thwarts their efforts to escape without paying their bill.

Spoof of 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)' with an all-black cartoon cast. Many WWII references, including rationing (the evil Queen is a hoarder of sugar and rubber tires) and Jeep vehicles (the Sebben Dwarfs come to the rescue in three of them).

An exceedingly mild-mannered man is sent out to kill a duck for dinner by his wife. Unfortunately for him, he picks Daffy Duck as his victim. The two face off and do battle for the remainder of the cartoon.

Elmer threatens to give his dog a bath if he doesn't stop scratching, but the poor pooch is the victim of a hungry flea whose tools of the trade include pickaxes and dynamite.

A murder has occurred at Gruesome Gables, and the dog detective trying to find the killer has to deal with some suspicious suspects and a haunted house.

An old woman has a cat, a dog, and a canary. The cat and dog fight even worse than normally. Fed up, she tells them both off, then threatens to throw them both out if there's any more trouble.

It's a peaceful day at the local poultry farm until Foxy Loxy happens along intent on a chicken dinner. He takes the advice of a book on psychology by striking "the least intelligent" first and convinces dim witted Chicken Little the sky is falling. Chicken Little spreads the word but when head man Cocky Locky proves the story to be false, Foxy Loxy spreads rumors that Cocky Locky isn't the smart chicken he appears to be, which leads to the ultimate undoing of the chickens at the hands of Foxy Loxy.

Private Gandy Goose and Sergeant Sourpuss go in hot pursuit of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, depicted respectively as a hog and an oversized monkey.

Bugs fights the legendary giant. In the historical context of World War II much fun is made of the giant's claimed superiority over the more clever and fun-loving rabbit.

Bugs Bunny becomes a superhero who does battle with a rabbit hating cowboy and horse.

Two buzzards suffer from acute food shortage and make up for it by cooking each other, or at least trying to.

A tuxedo-clad wolf Master of Ceremonies announces the evening's program: the tale of the Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs, set to the music of Johannes Brahms's Hungarian Dances. Queue the fairy tale.

Woman wonders why her little pet birds keep disappearing. Rudolph the cat knows, but other than burping feathers, he's not saying. But it looks like he's met his match when the woman orders another bird from the pet shop: a little yellow canary named "Petey".

Daffy challenges duckhunter Elmer to a boxing match, rigged in his favor with the collusion of the duck referee. In the stands, Elmer's dog Larrimore suspects that something funny is going on, but he's drowned out by Daffy's all-duck cheering section.

Meadows the butler quits after being tormented by the spoiled family cat, who finds he is unable to survive on his own, especially after meeting the mice Hubie and Bertie.

Fox has a furnished apartment which he desires to rent to a nice, quiet, respectable citizen like himself, and he especially wants no riff-raff tenant. What he wants and what he gets are two different things as along comes Crow with his own furnishings and decides to move in. Crow proceeds to make himself at home by tossing out Fox's fine furniture and fixings' and brings in his own junk, including a player piano, a juke box and a set of drums, all of which the jitter-bugging Crow plays all night. The Fox tries to evict him the next morning, but the crow simulates a raging snowstorm outside his window and the soft-hearted landlord allows him to stay. And then, although it is mid-July and hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk, Fox hustles down to the basement and starts shoveling coal into the furnace.

Commando Daffy Duck goes behind enemy lines and causes havoc for a Nazi German officer and his troops.

During World War Two, Daffy Duck owns a junkyard which collects scrap metal to use in building weapons to continue the Allied fight against the Axis powers. Hitler reads about Daffy's scrap pile and about Daffy's stated intent to win the war with junk and, after throwing a fit and chewing a carpet like a mad dog, orders Daffy's scrap pile destroyed...

Superman has to save Lois Lane from a cult of hawk-people in an homage to Edgar Rice Burroughs's "At the Earth's Core".

A double agent trying to deliver information to Washington, D.C. is chased by Nazi operatives.

Private Donald Duck is on a long, long training march, growing steadily more exhausted. Finally, they reach their camp location, and despite Donald's desire for dinner, he follows orders to pitch his tent first. He finally gives up on the tent as night falls. But as he tries to get to sleep, the loud shoring of the other soldiers forces him to bury his head. Finally, he gets to sleep, just as reveille sounds and the march continues.

Egyptologists are attacked by mummies, drawing the attention of Superman.

The doltish but self-confident and self-congratulatory Private Snafu is in possession of a military secret during World War II. Over the course of the day, spouting rhymed couplets, he divulges the secret a little at a time to listening Axis spies. He tells his mom some of the secret when he calls her from a phone booth; the rest he spills to a dolly dolly spy who plies him with liquor. Snafu's loose lips put himself at risk.

Goofy demonstrates a number of crazy vehicles.

A World War II propaganda film about the need to remain calm and logical during wartime.

Donald, driving in the country, is frustrated in his attempts to fix a flat tire. The jack breaks, the radiator explodes, then the remaining three tires go flat. Donald gives up in disgust and drives on with the flats. The film features references to the rubber shortage during World War II.

A fairy encourages Snafu to duck out of his training regime for his own reasons.

Pluto is in the infantry guarding a pillbox from saboteurs.

Snafu inadvertantly starts a panic on his base when he begins a mistaken rumour that the base is about to be bombed.

The cartoon chronicles Hitler's birth, brief childhood and eventual rise to power.

"Is this trip really necessary?" asks a road sign. "Sure, it's necessary," replies Woody Woodpecker. "I'm a necessary evil." Patriotic gestures are evidently not Woody's strong suit. When he goes to the gas station for a refill, he doesn't even know what a ration book is. The attendant thinks Woody is a wise guy and takes a large mallet and knocks him and his car into a junkyard several miles away. What luck! The old cars still have a bit of gas in them. Woody takes a rubber hose and siphons the gasoline from some of them. Unluckily, one of the cars he picks is brand new. And it's a cop car. Woody is soon at odds with a bulldog police officer.

Sniffles the mouse's non-stop talking foils both the burglar and a tipsy Officer Bear, who's trying to sneak past his rolling pin-toting, sleepwalking wife.

A hungry wolf with ham in the shape of a pig kid stands in for Santa Claus.

Popeye sits down to make a cartoon. He shows the results to Olive and his nephews: it's a damsel-in-distress scenario, starring him and Olive, with live music and sound effects by Popeye.

Private Snafu learns the hard way about the need for military dicipline and procedures to maintain an effective army.