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.

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.

Jerry crashes a vase onto Tom's head, which gets Mammy to throw Tom out. Jerry revels in his freedom, among other things turning Tom's picture into a Hitler caricature then spitting on it. But he soon tires of this, and under a flag of truce, hatches a plan with Tom. The abnormally talkative duo stage a grand chase, but whenever they're out of sight of Mammy, they fake it, pausing for patty-cake, a turkey leg, and a drum jam session. Eventually, Tom chases Jerry under a rug, then swaps in a tomato, which Mammy crushes. With Jerry apparently vanquished, Tom is rewarded with a pie, but when Jerry tries to claim his share, Tom shuts him out.

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

Tom fights with another cat over Jerry.

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.

Relaxing with a carrot at an army air field, Bugs is reading "Victory Through Hare Power," and scoffs at the notion of "gremlins," little creatures who wreak havoc on planes with their "dia-bo-lickal sabo-tay-gee." His reading is interrupted by a clanging sound, and it turns out to be a little wing-headed being pounding on a bockbuster bomb with a mallet.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. The two then spend the rest of the picture framing each other and summoning their master.

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.

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.

Dressed in a tuxedo, the Big Bad Wolf 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: we watch each pig build his house, the first two pigs dance and play, the wolf arrives and, wearing a gypsy woman's disguise, almost catches them. They run to hide in the brick house, where the wolf tries various ruses to gain entry, including dressing as a poverty-stricken old woman reduced to playing a violin for donations. He fools the two simple pigs and gets inside. Will he dine on pork? The house has an elevator, the wolf gets the shaft.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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...

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

Goofy demonstrates a number of crazy vehicles.

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.

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.

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

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.

A German sub destroys a rowboat, a buoy, and another German sub. Meanwhile, Popeye, with a boat full of "spinach fer Britain", rams into the sub by accident. The sub cuts Popeye's ship in half with machine-gun fire, separating him from the spinach; it then sends a torpedo into the remains, which Popeye collects in a rowboat. Popeye spins the sub upside down, then ends up in a mine field.

"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.

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 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.

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.

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

Pedro, a small airplane from Chile, engaging in his very first flight to pick up air mail from Mendoza, with near disastrous results.