The 1930s
From 1930 to 1939.
MGM
The Captain's Christmas
Pirate John and his crew threaten Christmas after taking over the Captain's role as Santa.
Watch nowUb Iwerks
Stormy Seas
Seagoing Flip the Frog saves a girl, abandoned on a neighboring boat, from a mighty storm at sea.
Watch nowMGM
Mama's New Hat
The boys buy mama a new hat for Mother's Day, but on the way home fall in the mud and ruin it. They swap the bad hat with one that a nearby horse is wearing and head home.
Watch nowMGM
Poultry Pirates
The ducks and chickens next door eye the Captain's garden covetously through a poorly mended fence. The Captain, armed with a board, is standing guard (but not fixing the fence). He falls asleep, and the poultry attack, stripping the garden methodically. When the Captain comes after them, they lock him into a shed. He gets out, and fetches his shotgun. That stops them, and they drop their booty, until the Captain sets his gun down to collect the veggies; the birds all rush in, snatch them back.
Watch nowUb Iwerks
Fiddlesticks
Flip the Frog was Iwerks' first creation. He made his debut appearance in "Fiddlesticks." In this cartoon, Iwerks supplied Flip with a bow tie and buttons, but there is no mistaking that Flip is a frog. When he first appears in "Fiddlesticks," Flip hops on all fours from one lily pad to the next as he crosses a pond. And he doesn't talk. He croaks...
Watch nowBarney Bear
The Bear That Couldn't Sleep
Barney's settling in for the winter. But water leaks, a loose shutter, a noisy fire, a teakettle left on, and some stray embers all get in the way, and Barney also locks himself out. And that's just the beginning.
Watch nowMGM
Bosko's Parlor Pranks
Bosko keeps Wilbur occupied with tales of his past exploits while Honey steps out on an errand.
Watch nowMGM
A Day at the Beach
The whole family is at the beach for an outing, and each is having their own little adventure. The Captain fights the sun with his beach umbrella, in an attempt to nap. Grandpa tries to build a sand castle, but the waves keep wiping it out. Mama, after trying to defend her picnic basket, tries dipping a cautious toe into the big bad ocean, eventually needing to be rescued by the Captain.
Watch nowMGM
The Captain's Pup
The mangiest pup at Pete's Pooch Palace catches the Captain's eye. He takes it home, but Mama is less than thrilled; she forbids it to stay in the house. The Captain pretends to put it out, but hides it under his coat. At the dinner table, though, it is soon exposed. Confined to the back yard, the dog howls the night away. The Captain is sent outside to quiet it, but is too tired to make it out the door. He finally gets there and sneaks the dog back inside to his own bed.
Watch nowMGM
Seal Skinners
A trained seal has escaped from the Jingling Brothers circus; there's a $100,000 reward. Both the Captain and John Silver hear this news, as does the seal. They show up, offering the seal a ride to wherever she wants to go; home to the arctic, as it happens. The Captain wins round one, grabbing the seal while John is engaged in a fight with yet another reward seeker.
Watch nowTerrytoons
The Nutty Network
A jungle radio station run by monkeys pulls a prank by reporting a fake space invasion.
Watch nowWalter Lantz
Snuffy's Party
Snuffy Skunk, thrown out of his own birthday party, has to save his ungrateful guests by stinking away the flood waters from a burst dam.
Watch nowMGM
Petunia Natural Park
As a narrator describes the scene, we watch the whole Katzenjammer clan camping in the park of the title, a composite of several national parks in the western USA. There are several spot gags, including Mama taking a picture of a bear and ending up being photographed by several bears. Mama has a run-in with the law for picking a flower; The Captain has his own for feeding a bear, which turns out to be a ranger/cop in disguise.
Watch nowMGM
The Bookworm
Three witches need a worm to complete their potion; they dispatch a raven to catch one, and he goes after a bookworm. He chases the worm into the horror section, where the monsters attack but soon, Paul Revere rides Black Beauty to the rescue, along with the Police Gazette, and other assorted war heroes; eventually, the Boy Scouts build a match-stick bridge, leading the worm to safety.
Watch nowUb Iwerks
Reducing Creme
Willie Whooper, doused in reducing creme, shrinks to the size of a mouse and is chased by a cat throughout a house. Finally Willie returns to normal size and angrily covers the cat in reducing creme. The cat now shrinks to mouse size, and gets a black eye from the mouse he habitually torments.
Watch nowWalter Lantz
The Hunter
In this cartoon, Oswald wears a shirt for the first time, therefore completing his outfit. Some plot elements in the cartoon would be used again in Carnival Capers.
Watch nowWalter Lantz
Do a Good Deed
Oswald is running a boy's camp and has taught the boys do do a good deed a day. This is borne out as wise advice when a bear attacks the camp, and the many animals, birds and bees befriended by the boys come to their rescue and run the bear away.
Watch nowMGM
The Winning Ticket
John Silver's ship has been repossessed; the Captain and the Kids have won $100,000 in a lottery. Silver dresses as an old lady and pretends to faint on the Captain's porch. He is taken inside and soon finds the winning ticket. Meanwhile, the kids spotted him outside and dress themselves as a young lady and come on to Silver, eventually handcuffing him to a batch of fireworks.
Watch nowWalter Lantz
William Tell
The story of how William Tell came to shoot the apple off his son's head is told in this Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon from Walter Lantz.
Watch nowTerrytoons
Sheep in the Meadow
The sheep are gazing in a rustic little meadow and their herder falls asleep. The wolf sneaks up, steals his horn and lures the sheep to his place, but they escape. But the wolf captures Mary's pet lamb...and eats it. No, that's another story. He has the lamb in his stew-pot and the hero rescues it.
Watch nowMGM
When the Cat's Away
The mice will loot the kitchen. The roaches also get into the act. A rat menaces the lead mouse couple, until the cat returns.
Watch nowWalter Lantz
Trailer Thrills
Oswald, along with his animated car and trailer, go into a rough and troublesome journey.
Watch nowMGM
Jitterbug Follies
Two thugs from The Citizens' Fair Play Committee arrive to see that Screwloose's amateur talent show is run on the level.
Watch nowMGM
Old Smokey
Engine Co. No. 1 is replacing faithful fire horse Old Smokey with a new engine, which Der Captain is very proud of. He soon gets a chance to test it, when his panicked wife calls; unfortunately, he's still learning how to use it. As he arrives, the ladder extends to its full range, with the Captain on top and most of the rungs missing.
Watch nowMGM
Cleaning House
Mama has everyone working on spring cleaning, or so she thinks; in fact, everyone's slacking off in various ways. The Captain is the only one to get caught and face her wrath, though. To escape, he fakes illness, but the boys catch him at it. Mama calls the doctor; the boys intercept him and impersonate him. They get revealed, but so does the Captain, and Mama puts him to work doing everyone's job.
Watch nowMGM
Good Little Monkeys
The Devil comes out of Dante's Inferno, hoping to get the See No Evil, Speak No Evil and Hear No Evil monkeys to his side, but a bunch of literary characters come to the rescue of the monkeys.
Watch nowBarney Bear
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
An MGM cartoon adaptation of the classic fairy tale featuring Hugh Harman's Bear Family.
Watch nowMGM
The Blue Danube
A conductor, in silhouette against sheet music, leads the title tune, which dissolves into a series of placid landscapes. As the music picks up, we see a water wheel, then a dancing fairy emerges from a whirlpool and begins singing, to the delight of small woodland creatures. The birds awaken sleeping cherubs, who begin their work of harvesting all things blue and adding them to the river. The birds even do their part, harvesting the color blue from the rainbow. Everyone tugs to open a floodgate and unleash the cerulean waters. A swan, festively decorated, leads a gondola of sorts lit by fireflies.
Watch now
