Best Family 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.

Rebecca's Uncle Harry leaves her with Aunt Miranda who forbids her to associate with show people. But neighbor Anthony Kent is a talent scout who secretly set it up for her to broadcast.

Tom Sawyer and his pal Huckleberry Finn have great adventures on the Mississippi River, pretending to be pirates, attending their own funeral and witnessing a murder.

Detective Alfalfa and his assistants Buckwheat and Porky try to solve a missing-candy case but find themselves in an amusement park haunted house.

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

To stop Pinkie's widowed, struggling mother Dottie from marrying a well-off older man they know she doesn't love, teenager Pinkie and her best friend Buzz kidnap her in the family travel trailer to live a carefree life on the open road. They then get the idea to find Dottie a financially secure husband whom both she and Pinkie would like.

An orphan is provisionally adopted by the manager of a hotel populated by show business people. The hotel's owner doesn't like the entertainers and wants the girl returned to the orphanage.

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

Darla pretends to like Butch, hoping to motivate Alfalfa into a better performance in the football game against Butch's team.

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.

Spanky and Alfalfa plot to play hooky so they can go fishing, by pretending that Alfalfa is sick and Spanky should stay with him while the parents are away. But Spanky's mom, knowing the truth, turns the tables by insisting they also watch Spanky's little brother. But taking care of little brother turns out to be more difficult than they expected.

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.

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.

Daffy causes trouble on a Hollywood set.

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

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.

Cinderella goes to the ball, where she meets Prince Charming (Egghead).

Porky is a tourist. He's missed the main camel, so he rents one of his own. Both of them are soon overcome by the hot desert sun; the camel starts hallucinating, and marches off, playing the bagpipes. Porky sees the camel swimming in a pool, but it turns out to be a mirage. The camel eventually recovers enough to bring both of them back to town, where Porky goes mad.

The mice are on the loose after hours in a doctor's office, playing with the various pieces of medical apparatus. Susie Mouse is caged for research until her lover Johnnie frees her. A mouse orchestra plays a swinging wedding song. But throughout, a cat is stalking...

"Summer is gone" and throughout the forest, squirrels are working hard gathering acorns for the long cold winter ahead. But one young squirrel has a better idea...winning acorns by shooting dice. His father disapproves of the plan but can't make his son stop gambling. Winter comes and the father sends the son to the First Nutional Bank to retrieve the family acorn savings. On the way back, the son meets up with a mysterious squirrel intent on teaching him the evils of gambling...

At the Katnip Kollege, we see a roomful of cats taking a course in Swingology. Everyone swings except Johnny, who can't cut it and has to sit in the dunce chair. Miss Kitty Bright tells him to look her up when he learns how to swing. Finally, listening to the pendulum clock at night, Johnny gets the beat. He rushes out to where everyone is playing and sings "Easy As Rollin' Off a Log" to Kitty Bright. She joins in; he grabs a trumpet for an instrumental break, with the complete band. They both fall off a log; she covers him with kisses.

Emily the chicken lives in Hickville but dreams of Hollywood. Her chance comes when director J. Megga-Phone happens to drive past and gives her his card.

A spoiled boy sent to the country to grow-up. He has to deal with life, friends and crooks.

Eleanor and her parents are hunting big game, acompanied by her wimpish fiance.

Birds present their own radio broadcasting service, featuring feathered versions of such stars as Bing Crosby, Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Rudy Vallee, Eddie Cantor, Ed Wynn, and many others.

The kids go to the hospital to visit Darla, who's recovering from a tonsillectomy. Chaos soon ensues.

Alfalfa imagines himself as a western movie hero battling with Butch for Darla's heart.

Alfalfa, Butch and Waldo compete for Mayor For A Day. Whoever becomes Mayor gets to take Darla to the Strawberry Festival.

The big bantamweight fight is in a few months and papa rooster is getting nervous: the eggs start hatching, and all the males look like real fighters - except for one little runt.

Scrappy, the city slicker, goes to visit his country cousin. Scrappy is a practical joker and carries an electrical buzzer in his hand, and water-squirting bouquets in his button hole. But his country cousin is not as dumb as Scrappy thinks, and some of Scrappy's jokes backfire on him.

15 year old Mary is bored. With her parents permission she writes her chum Martha to come for summer vacation and they will make a movie. In the meantime two convicts escape from the nearby prison. To frighten the girls away the convicts decide to play ghosts. Film ends with a hand-colored inferno.