The 50 best Warner Bros. cartoons

[Ccook50]

During what's known as the Golden Age of Animation, the days when cartoons were short features made specifically for theaters, the two most notable studios were arguably Disney and Warner Bros., both inhabitants of Burbank, California. Disney knew how to animate 'em. But Warner Bros. knew how to make 'em funny in a way that Disney couldn't.

What follows (which I did elsewhere) is a completely unscientific and arbitrary list of what I think are the 50 best cartoon short subjects from Termite Terrace (the nickname given to the W-B cartoon studio). As always, this list does not reflect anyone else's opinion but mine.

1. Duck Amuck, 1953. Director: Charles M. Jones. The animation and backgrounds are the playground, the ink and paint are the jungle gyms in this penultimate classic vivisection of Daffy Duck at the hands of a mischievous animator.
2. Rabbit Of Seville, 1950. Director: Charles M. Jones. I dare you to watch this gem and not laugh during the scene where Bugs makes a fruit salad on Elmer's head, most certainly the greatest visual non-sequitur in cartoon history. Go on. I dare you.
3. Porky's Preview, 1941. Director: Fred Avery. Porky screens his own homemade cartoon film for his friends. Stick figures were never more entertaining.
4. Russian Rhapsody, 1942. Director: Robert Clampett. The "Gremlins From The Kremlin" give ol' Schickelgruber the onceover. The Gremlins are all caricatures of Warner staffers.
5. Porky In Wackyland, 1938. Director: Robert Clampett. Dizzying surrealness that has been imitated but never duplicated as Porky searches for the last Dodo. Remade by Friz Freleng in 1949 as Dough For The Do-Do.
6. What's Opera, Doc?, 1958. Director: Chuck Jones. A Wild Hare fused with Wagner. Only Warners could pull it off and only Jones could direct it.
7. Bully For Bugs, 1953. Director: Charles M. Jones. The cartoon Jones made because producer Edward Selzer told him not to. Selzer claimed "bullfighting isn't funny." As usual, he was wrong.
8. Rabbit Fire, 1951. Director: Charles M. Jones. The first of three extremely funny contretempts between Elmer, Bugs and Daffy over what season it is and whom to shoot. The ending is truly one for the ages.
9. A Wild Hare, 1940. Director: Fred Avery. The birth of Bugs Bunny and the classic co-dependence on Elmer as his foil and Elmer is on Bugs as his prey. Bugs' death scene, sham that it turns out to be, is beautifully animated by Bob McKimson.
10. A Corny Concerto, 1943. Director: Robert Clampett. A thinly veiled send-up of Disney's Fantasia, Clampett's comedy-fantasy is loaded with the peculiar Zen that Warners had perfected at this point and no other studio could get a grasp on.
11. Scrap Happy Daffy, 1943. Director: Frank Tashlin. Hitler sends a goat to destroy Daffy's scrap drive pile. Daffy gets some stirring divine intervention to help him turn the tide.
12. Rhapsody In Rivets, 1941. Director: I. Freleng. Freleng couldn't read music, but he understood it and could time a cartoon to it. In this case, a construction site puts up a building to Liszt's second rhapsody.
13. Any Bonds Today, 1942. Director: Robert Clampett. Running a mere minute-and-a-half, this special feature entreating theater patrons to buy war bonds showed Bugs Bunny as more than a wise-cracking rabbit. He became an entertainer as well.
14. Hollywood Steps Out, 1941. Director: Fred Avery. Movie stars gather at a Hollywood nightclub. Sumptuously designed and animated, hilariously written.
15. Ali Baba Bunny, 1956. Director: Chuck Jones. Bugs and Daffy take a wrong turn and end up in the treasure cave of Ali Baba. Hassan chop!!
16. The Ducksters, 1949. Director: Charles M. Jones. Daffy is the emcee and Porky the hapless contestant in a hilarious radio quiz show (a more devilish Truth Or Consequences).
17. The Dover Boys Of Pimento University, 1942. Director: Charles M. Jones. Finding his own style at this point, Jones created this stylish and frenetic damsel-in-distress parody with sophisticated and hilarious dialogue.
18. Rhapsody Rabbit, 1946. Director: I. Freleng. M-G-M was making Cat Concerto at the same time this cartoon was being made (both centered around the disruption of the piano performance of Lizst's rhapsody by a mouse). Tom and Jerry may have beat Bugs out for the Oscar, but it doesn't stop this from being a dazzling and funny cartoon.
19. Birds Anonymous, 1957. Director: Friz Freleng. Oscar winner for 1957, the disintegration of Sylvester's dignity as he weakens from swearing off birds is a sight to behold.
20. Super Rabbit, 1943. Director: Charles M. Jones. Jones finally has Bugs's personality pegged with this cartoon which capitalizes on the success of Superman and ends perfunctorally with a wartime salute.
21. Duck Dogers In the 24th-1/2 Century, 1953. Director: Charles M. Jones. A deserved cult favorite in which disintegrating guns really disintegrate.
22. One Froggy Evening, 1955. Director: Charles M. Jones. One of the genre's most famous efforts, a morality play about a singing frog.
23. Cheese Chasers, 1951. Director: Charles M. Jones. Two mice who want a cat to eat them and a cat who wants a dog to massacre him may not add up to said dog Marc Antony, but it does make a hilarious cartoon.
24. Robin Hood Daffy, 1958. Director: Chuck Jones. Porky as Friar Tuck cannot buy Daffy as Robin Hood. Neither can we, but it sure is funny seeing him try to be.
25. The Three Little Bops, 1957. Director: Friz Freleng. The Three Little Pigs story with a jazz flavor and Stan Freberg's voice. Smooth as silk.
26. Johnny Smith And Poker Huntas, 1938. Director: Fred Avery. Egghead was a very early version of Elmer Fudd, and this skewing of the Mayflower legend is his best film easily.
27. Baseball Bugs, 1946. Director: I. Freleng. Bugs Bunny on the diamond against the bruising Gas House Gorillas. The Gorillas don't have a snowball's chance.
28. Each Dawn I Crow, 1949. Director: I. Freleng. Ostensibly an Elmer Fudd cartoon, the real star is a rooster (a real cock-'o-the-walk) who thinks his goose is cooked.
29. The Great Piggy Bank Robbery, 1946. Director: Robert Clampett . Daffy in a Dick Tracy spoof that shows how brilliantly fertile Clampett's imagination is.
30. Baby Bottleneck, 1946. Director: Robert Clampett. Daffy and Porky give the stork a helping hand in delivering babies with a comedy of errors ensuing with an unhatched egg. Some great adult lines in this one.
31. What's Cooking, Doc?, 1943. Director: Robert Clampett. Bugs campaigns for the Academy Award and loses to James Cagney. His contesting the award is some of the funniest stuff ever put on film, live or animated.
32. Slick Hare, 1947. Director: I. Freleng. Posh eatery waiter Elmer has five minutes to get Humphrey Bogart fried rabbit and goes after Bugs. The highlight: Ray Milland paying his bar tab.
33. Punch Trunk, 1951. Director: Charles M. Jones. A psychoanalysis of the reaction of numerous people who encounter a tiny elephant. "Circus Cat Goes Insane."
34. The Major Lied Til Dawn, 1938. Director: Frank Tashlin. A bombast tells tales of an African safari with a generous nod to Popeye.
35. Thugs With Dirty Mugs, 1939. Director: Fred Avery. Edward G. Robbemsome's impromptu impersonation of Fred Allen is but one of many highlights in Avery's cops-and-robbers spoof.
36. Porky's Duck Hunt, 1937. Director: Fred Avery. The shot heard 'round the world.
37. Now Hear This, 1964. Director: Chuck Jones. A dialogue-less, surreal, plotless excursion of an old guard who obtains a new hearing horn.
38. The Adventures Of The Road Runner, 1962. Director: Chuck Jones; co-director: Maurice Noble. This two-reeler was the proposed pilot for a Road Runner TV show and has since been split up into two separate cartoons for TV (Zip Zip Hooray and Road Runner-A-Go-Go). The Coyote answers a viewer's question about why he wants to catch the Road Runner.
39. Lights Fantastic, 1942. Director: I. Freleng. The neon signs of Broadway come out to play as Carl Stalling's music--especially the conga ending--is brilliantly showcased.
40. Dripalong Daffy, 1951. Director: Charles M. Jones. Western hero Daffy against the hulking Nasty Canasta is a mismatch if ever there was one, but give Daffy credit for standing up to the galoot. Some great lines, especially Daffy's non-sequitur "I would like a trip to Europe!"
41. Bugs Bunny Rides Again, 1946. Director: I. Freleng. The second Bugs-Yosemite Sam encounter crackles with energy, western spirit and atypical Warner comedy.
42. To Hare Is Human, 1957. Director: Chuck Jones. All four Bugs-Wile E. pictures were very funny, but this one--where Wile E. consults a humongous computer--is the best, especially for the payoff.
43. Daffy Dilly, 1948. Director: Charles M. Jones. Daffy's attempts to make a dying millionaire laugh once more is thwarted by a persistent butler--until Daffy gives him the third degree a la Bogie.
44. You Ought To Be In Pictures, 1940. Director: I. Freleng. 48 years before Who Framed Roger Rabbit came this dazzling live/animated hybrid with Porky and Daffy, along with the producer himself, Leon Schlesinger.
45. Porky And Daffy, 1938. Director: Robert Clampett. Daffy is a prize fighter, Porky his manager. Daffy as he rides an invisible bicycle: "I'm so crazy, I don't know that this is impossible!"
46. Early To Bet, 1950. Director: Robert McKimson. A gambling treatise with a very clever--and funny--conceit: whenever the cat loses to the bulldog at gin rummy, he has to spin a "penalty wheel" and suffer whatever physical punishment it lands on.
47. Wild And Wooly Hare, 1958. Director: Friz Freleng. Think Bugs Bunny Rides Again as if UPA had made it. The Injun Joe and "I get more free beer thisaway" scenes have since been cut out for television.
48. Nelly's Folly, 1962. Director: Chuck Jones; co-director: Maurice Noble. A fable about a singing giraffe who becomes famous and then is shamed after having a tabloid-reported affair.
49. Falling Hare, 1943. Director: Robert Clampett. The stage is set when Bugs actually tries to detonate the blockbuster bomb the Gremlin was playing with and then stops just short. The plummeting plane is classic.
50. Baton Bunny, 1959. Directors: Chuck Jones and Abe Levitow. Bugs conducting the Warner Bros. Orchestra in "Morning, Noon And Night In Vienna"--or at least coping with mishaps while attempting to--is a sight to behold.

And That's All, Folks!

[Shelltoon]

This is an excellent list, but the only problem I see is that a Clampett classic is missing: Book Revue.

[Cassini90125]

Bully For Bugs was the opening act when I saw Yes in concert years ago; it got more cheers and more applause than a lot of bands I've seen.

[Ccook50]

Originally Posted by Shelltoon

This is an excellent list, but the only problem I see is that a Clampett classic is missing: Book Revue.

Book Revue certainly gets an honorary mention. Mel Blanc shows off a wonderful singing voice as he has Daffy performing the Hungarian-lilted version of "Carolina."

[Invader Bloo]

Anything with Daffy in it.

[Ccook50]

Well, I wouldn't say anything with Daffy. Those mid-60s cartoons with Speedy Gonzales were terrible.

[Medikor]

I'm not a big WB fan but I do enjoy some of the Daffy Duck and Pepi La Phew stuff. And while they aren't appropriate now, I have a real fascination with the WB propaganda cartoons made during World War II. Seeing Daffy nail Hitler on the head with a mallet is pure gold!

[Cassini90125]

It's too bad he'll never be able to do that to some of today's villains; they certainly deserve a mallet to the head. Ah, well, I suppose Eric Cartman will pick up the slack.

[Ccook50]

That cartoon was Daffy The Commando and was indeed hilarious. The initial animation of Hitler was rotoscoped (live action film projected from the rear on an animation table and the images traced onto animation paper).

Other notable WW2 propaganda cartoons include Plane Daffy, Draftee Daffy, Herr Meets Hare and The Ducktators.

[Invader Bloo]

Originally Posted by Cassini90125

It's too bad he'll never be able to do that to some of today's villains; they certainly deserve a mallet to the head. Ah, well, I suppose Eric Cartman will pick up the slack.

He's already one of the terrorist leaders. (The one who was hung this or last year)