Best Animation Movies of 1947

A mysterious thief has stolen the prosperous Happy Valley's most prized possession: the musical Singing Harp. Can Mickey, Donald, and Goofy find the answer in the irritable Willie the Giant's magnificent castle up in the blue sky?

Jiminy Cricket hosts two Disney animated shorts: “Bongo,” about a circus bear escaping to the wild, and “Mickey and the Beanstalk,” a take on the famous fairy tale.

Tom, sick of Jerry stealing the milk out of his bowl, poisons it. Instead of killing the mouse, the potion transforms him into a muscular beast.

Spike is guarding a private fishing hole - in his sleep. Tom sneaks in to do some fishing - with Jerry as bait. But one particularly vicious fish turns out to be more than Tom or Jerry bargained for, particularly when he wakes up Spike.

Tom's day at the beach doesn't start out well. First he gets his swimsuit caught in the door of the beach house, and doesn't realize it until his intended dive in the ocean sends him snapping back and crashing through the door. He runs out and tries again. This time he is so determined to jump in the water that when he does so, he doesn't notice the tide is out and that he is swimming in the sand, which is filled with broken bottles, tin cans and other debris. Later, he tries to win over a beautiful girl on the beach, but, being the boor he is, he annoys her by drinking her soda pop, eating her hot dog and munching loudly as he lays his head in her lap. Suddenly, a tomato flies through the air and lands on his head. So does a banana peel. Tom looks for the culprit and finds him in the girl's picnic basket. Jerry is inside, eating what he wants and tossing out the rest...

Tom chases Jerry into a bottle of invisible ink, and Jerry then proceeds to have fun torturing Tom.

Mammy Two-Shoes tells Tom and Butch that the cat who gets rid of the icebox-raiding, breadbox-invading mouse (Jerry) is the one who can stay.

Humphrey Bogart visits the Mocrumbo Restaurant. He orders fried rabbit and Elmer Fudd has twenty minutes to serve it.

A hungry cat has the idea of giving "Jumbo Gro" fertilizer to a scrawny canary to make him a bigger meal, which leads to a race between the cat, the canary, a dog, and a mouse to see who can grow the biggest.

This time Bugs' race with Cecil Turtle features a rocket-powered tortoise shell.

Tom is given the task of guarding the fridge during the night by Mammy-Two-Shoes, but as soon as he has started he is tricked by Jerry into falling into the basement, where he lands in a barrel of cider. Now drunk, Tom staggers around in the house getting up to no good with Jerry.

Donald needs a log for his fire. Unfortunately, the one he picks is occupied by a couple of chipmunks and their stash of acorns. When he cuts it down, Chip and Dale fall out, but their acorns stay behind, so they work at putting out Donald's fire and retrieving their stash. Donald, of course, takes this as calmly and cheerfully as you would expect.

Thomas the cat finds Tweetie in the snow, warming himself by a cigar butt. Thomas's mistress rescues the little yellow bird before her cat can devour him, but Thomas doesn't give up.

Daffy Duck, hoping to avoid flying south by finding a sucker who will let him stay, ends up at the house of a mad scientist and his dog, Leopold.

Wellington the dog is given a package to deliver to Uncle Louie, with strict instructions not to let go of it. Sylvester and another cat that Wellington has been tormenting see this as their chance to get even. Besides repeatedly filching the package, at one point they drop a duplicate off a bridge. Wellington still manages to retrieve the package a few times, but never for long.

Snowbound in a remote cabin, two starving men begin visualizing each other as food. When salesman Daffy Duck calls at their door, it doesn't take long before the men set their minds on having Daffy as their dinner.

Daffy Duck drives to Mexico for a vacation, and after a harrowing experience with the local cuisine that literally sets his mouth afire, Daffy goes to a bullfight ring to observe the spectacle. When Daffy jeers at the bull, the horned beast removes the clothes from the human matador and puts them on Daffy as a challenge to the duck to fight the bull in the ring. Daffy foils the bull with a proposed wager on a hat trick, betting the bull to guess which of three sombreros Daffy is hiding under. Daffy sees to it that the bull guesses wrong and supplies a machine gun for the impoverished bull to commit suicide. The bull realizes that he is being fooled and, firing the machine gun, chases Daffy out of the bullfight ring. Daffy scrambles to his car to leave Mexico, thinking he has escaped the belligerent bull. But the bull is riding in the back seat of Daffy's vehicle.

Mice Hubie and Bertie wander into an automated house of tomorrow.

Police Officer Flanagan gives a little blind girl, Billie, a Raggety-Ann doll, and she is told she can see it if she uses her imagination; she does so and the slum neighborhood is transformed into an enchanted fairyland, alive with beautiful colors and music.

While travelling along a woodland highway, Woody's car runs out of gas. He intends to get some more by siphoning some from a nearby car, not realizing the car belongs to policeman Wally Walrus who immediately chases the bird. Woody temporarily eludes Wally by disguising himself as a gas station attendant who fills Wally's car to the brim with water! When Woody's disguise is uncovered, the two duel with grease guns.

Woody is shooting pool at a farm house when one of his pool balls rolls into a nearby henhouse. He takes the ball back but must battle with the hen who thinks the woodpecker is taking one of her eggs. Woody makes several attempts to get the ball back from the protective poultry finally disguising himself as a macho continental rooster whom the hen falls for causing Woody to retrieve his ball. But it doesn't last long.

Wally Walrus is a day sleeper and requires daily rest while his neighbor in the adjacent apartment, Woody Woodpecker, is a night sleeper who does his chores during the day. Needless to say, Woody's noisy chores tend to keep the hapless Wally from getting any slumber particularly when he burns his leaves in the backyard, the smoke from the burning pile travelling into Wally's room eventually turning the pipes in his bed into a musical organ! But Wally gets the last laugh...

Pluto wants to sing along with the birds, bee and cricket, but he is tone deaf.

In this Lantz Color Cartune (production number 2326), Wally Walrus, masquerading as famed orchestra leader, Sir Wally Walrus, mounts the podium to conduct the orchestra, and his troubles only end when the cartoon does, with the orchestra completely destroyed.

Woody reads in his newspaper that quail hunting season begins the next morning at 5 a.m. Not wanting to pass up quail hunting, he determines to get a good night's sleep but, of course, his attempts are ruined by all manner of distractions such as a flashing neon sign, an obnoxious cuckoo clock (the cuckoo itself is just as obnoxious), and the destruction of Woody's bed causing him to sleep on an "automatic table" which he has many a tussle with.

Motion Painting No. 1 is a 1947 experimental short animated film in which film artist Oskar Fischinger put images in motion to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto no. 3, BWV 1048. It is a film of a painting (oil on acrylic glass); Fischinger filmed each brushstroke over the course of 9 months. In 1997, this film was selected for inclusion in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

An emaciated canary, singing like Frank Sinatra, is getting on the nerves of a pipe-puffing parrot, who speaks like Bing Crosby. The parrot spots Sylvester, foraging through the trash. Telling the cat he needs more vitamins (which the canary has been swallowing in bulk), he lures the cat inside to snare the canary. The straightforward approach fails (the canary bops him in the nose). He carves a female canary from soap, lures Frankie there; the birds slide down a greased counter, into the sink, and down the drain, but only the soap bird goes through the pipe and down Sylvester's throat. A trail of birdseed into the garage seems to work, but Frankie jacks Sylvester's mouth open. Sylvester laces the vitamins with buckshot; like all cartoon magnets, his attracts everything metal in sight except his prey.

In this Puppetoon animated short film (an Academy Award Best Short Subject, Cartoons nominee), Tubby the Tuba is disappointed that his sound limits what he's permitted to do in an orchestra of self-playing instruments that, unlike him, get to play pretty melodies. A chance meeting with a bullfrog changes everything.

Bongo, the performing bear, escapes from the circus and tries to adapt to life in the wild.

Bugs Bunny relates his early life in the Manhattan tenements and spotlights his encounter with a gang of canine toughs.

George and Junior get a job as dog catchers and spend the picture trying to catch one measly little dog.

Seven children from around the world follow Santa home on Christmas Eve and decide to surprise him with some help around the house while he sleeps.

Two polite twin gophers raid a vegetable patch guarded by a rather smug dog, whose various unsuccessful schemes to nullify the crafty and modest gophers involve a female gopher disguise, a hand grenade, and a carrot stuffed with TNT.

Donald Duck would never believe it, but he suffers from sleepwalking. In this blessed innocent state he makes a nightly call at Daisy's, as if it were the time of their romantic appointment; knowing one should not wake or contradict a sleepwalker, she plays along, but finds it increasingly difficult to follow Donald and prevent him coming to harm when he ignorantly strolls the most dangerous places, such as the lion's cage in the zoo, including impossible ones, such as up a wall and even upside down. When she finally gets Donald safely in bed, he wakes up and thinks, seeing her sneak out, she's the sleepwalker.

Bugs gets roped into delivering the Easter Rabbit's eggs for him.

In the African jungle, the narrator introduces us to the various birds living there and to wildlife photographer Donald Duck intent on getting some pictures. Unfortunately, all his attempts to photograph birds are ruined by the "clown of the jungle", the Aracuan Bird. Example: when Donald attempts to photograph a chorus line of hummingbirds, the Aracuan Bird interrupts the picture with a Russian kick dance. Donald becomes aggravated to the point where he gives chase but the bird always manages to outsmart Donald and make short work of his sanity.

Donald and Daisy are walking when he is hit by a flowerpot. He's convinced he's a famous singer, and he croons divinely, but does not recognize Daisy. He in fact does become famous. Daisy is devastated by her inability to get over him and sees a psychiatrist. He tells her she has to choose between the world having Donald, or her getting him back. She picks herself, and drops another flowerpot, which restores him.

Henery Hawk hides in an egg to catch his first chicken, while Foghorn Leghorn tells him that Sylvester is the real chicken and the farm dog joins in the fun.

Striving to be like all the high-class dogs in their fine coats, a little hairless pooch borrows a black and white fur coat of her owner, not realizing it makes her appear to be a skunk. Once she has it on, she finds everyone fleeing from her - everyone, that is, except for the amorous Pepé Le Pew.

Out of work, Woody complains about his not having any living quarters. A slick talking con man convinces him to buy some "magic beans" promising they will guarantee him a home. Sure enough, Woody climbs the resulting beanstalk and finds a huge castle at the top. Unfortunately, the castle is already occupied by a sleeping giant who Woody eventually outwits, turning his castle into a series of apartments with the giant as a bellboy and Woody as his manager.

Pluto has just finished moving his bones into a spiffy new doghouse when a turtle comes along and starts moving them out. While Pluto is dealing with the turtle, Butch takes up residence. Butch chases Pluto back to his grungy old doghouse, and now it's his turn to deal with the tenacious little turtle. The turtle wins, and he and Pluto become friends.

The king of the jungle, after a well-spent day terrorising the rest of the animals, is petrified by a mouse.

The snow covered mountains; but not to worry, rescue dog Pluto is on duty. Actually, given that he barely keeps himself safe, maybe you should worry. A playful seal keeps stealing his cask of grog.

Figaro is hungry for a small, yellow canary named Frankie but must pass a barrier; Minnie Mouse.

Donald is travelling the countryside and decides to rest for the night. He refuses to stay at the motel because of its $16 fee so he sets up camp in a woodland area. First he has problems blowing up the air mattress, then by a troublesome boulder, and finally after the air mattress is blown up, it deflates sending Don riding through the air back to the motel where it is presumed he changed his mind and slept there for the night and must pay the $16.

Even though Mickey's evening started slow and lazy, things get moving in a hurry when Minnie calls from outside the big dance, wondering why he's late. Luckily his best pal Pluto is happy to help wrangle the uncooperative evening wear and help get him out the door...without the tickets

Charlie Dog, looking for a good home and some easy living, thinks he's found the perfect sap in Porky Pig. He tries to ingratiate himself with the pig, all the way avoiding Porky's attempts to get rid of the dead-beat dog.

Donald runs a shooting gallery. His nephews come by and he offers them a free shot, but when the first one hits all the targets, the notoriously cheap Donald switches a cheap prize for the correct one. He then gives the other two boys gimmicked guns; the last one is empty, but the targets break anyway because one boy is hitting them from behind. Donald chases them off; they use the mystic's booth next door to get revenge.

Popeye is taking Olive on a boat ride when she spots a pirate ship. They are soon captured, and Popeye has to rescue Olive from the (initially charming) pirate captain. He tries tricks, like dressing in drag, but until the spinach, no luck. Fortunately, a passing swordfish reading a Popeye comic book recognizes him and feeds him the spinach on the comic cover.