Best Cartoon Shorts of the 1950's
(This list turned out VERY WB-heavy, but I've been thru several hundred cartoon shorts from the 50's, and the best were almost all Warner Bros. MGM's Tom and Jerry had peaked in the 40s, but quality dropped by the early 50's. Tex Avery was still making funny shorts for MGM in the 50's, but these were relatively rare. Disney shorts were great in the 30s, but by the 50s Disney's shorts were mostly toothless, banal children's entertainment, with the real talent going into Disney's animated features. Meanwhile, WB was making most of it's most memorable, funnyest shorts in the 50's.
TL; DR: Warner Bros cartoons were just goddam incredible in the 50's)
TL; DR: Warner Bros cartoons were just goddam incredible in the 50's)
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- DirectorChuck JonesStarsMel BlancThe short-tempered Daffy Duck must improvise madly as the backgrounds, his costumes, the soundtrack, even his physical form, shifts and changes at the whim of the animator.
- DirectorFriz FrelengStarsStan FrebergThree pigs' career as a jazz band is complicated by a wolf they rejected for membership who keeps blowing down their gigs.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsMel BlancArthur Q. BryanBugs Bunny gives Elmer Fudd a close shave as they sing and act out Rossini's opera.
- DirectorFriz FrelengStarsMel BlancWhen Bugs calls a cab he doesn't know it's the getaway car for a couple of bankrobbers (he does know the capital of Nevada).
- DirectorFriz FrelengStarsMel BlancChasing Tweety all over the rooftops, Sylvester falls off a building and dies. While waiting for his other eight lives, a satanic bulldog goads Sylvester into losing all eight by continuing to chase Tweety into risky situations.
- DirectorRobert McKimsonStarsMel BlancBea BenaderetRobert C. BruceA scientist invents the portable hole, only to have a thief steal his samples to go on a crime spree.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsMel BlancA squirrel in a downtown park lugs a giant coconut back home, but nothing he does can seem to crack it open.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsMel BlancArthur Q. BryanElmer Fudd is again hunting rabbits - only this time it's an opera. Wagner's Siegfried with Elmer as the titular hero and Bugs as Brunnhilde. They sing, they dance, they eat the scenery.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsMel BlancIn a futuristic city, Detectives Monday and Tuesday pursue a wanted criminal.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsWilliam RobertsA man futilely struggles to make his fortune with a frog that sings and dances, but only when it is alone with the owner.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsBea BenaderetMel BlancA bulldog, charmed by a kitten, tries to keep her hidden from his human guardian.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsMel BlancDuck Dodgers and Marvin Martian wage war over Planet X.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsMel BlancDaffy attempts to convince Porky, as Friar Tuck, that he really is Robin Hood.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsMel BlancArthur Q. BryanDaffy Duck tricks Elmer Fudd into believing it's rabbit season; but Bugs Bunny uses a female disguise and faulty pronouns to fight back.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsMel BlancArthur Q. BryanThe final installment of the "Hunting Trilogy" once again has Elmer out hunting, while Bugs and Daffy try to con him into shooting the other.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsMel BlancArthur Q. BryanDaffy Duck and Bugs argue back and forth whether it is duck season or rabbit season. The object of their arguments is hunter Elmer Fudd.
- DirectorFriz FrelengStarsMel BlancWhen Yosemite Sam campaigns on a platform including rabbit genocide, Bugs runs against him.
- DirectorJoseph BarberaWilliam HannaStarsWilliam HannaJerry MannTom heads for a big city penthouse to become acquainted with a rich pretty female cat that lives there. He brings her Jerry as a gift and does some humiliating things to Jerry. Jerry, in turn, attracts the attention of another cat who also becomes interested in the female cat. It eventually turns into a fight between Tom and the other cat for the lady's hand but Jerry is the one who gets her in the end.
- DirectorFriz FrelengStarsMel BlancBugs Bunny finds that gangsters Rocky and Mugsy have chosen his new abode, a condemned building, as their hideout. Bugs manipulates them into attacking each other to prove that crime doesn't pay.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsMel BlancArthur Q. BryanBugs Bunny and Daffy Duck (as Jack) find themselves at the top of a beanstalk where they get chased around by a giant Elmer Fudd.
- DirectorJoseph BarberaWilliam HannaStarsWilliam HannaTom is in a pool hall after hours; as he soon discovers, Jerry is sleeping in the corner pocket. Tom chases Jerry around the table and the rest of the pool hall.
- DirectorFriz FrelengStarsMel BlancSam Von Schamm The Hessian and Bugs Bunny fight it out in the little known American Revolutionary War Battle of Bagle Heights.
- DirectorLes ClarkJoshua MeadorWolfgang ReithermanStarsJane FowlerPaul FreesClarence NashDonald's goes on an adventure in which it is explained how mathematics can be useful in real life. Through this journey it is shown how numbers are more than graphs and charts, they are geometry, music and magical living things.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsBea BenaderetBilly BletcherStan FrebergIt's Father's Day, and Junyer and Ma have a bunch of big surprises in store for good ol' Pa, including a pipe filled with gunpowder. To top it off, there's a gala Father's Day pageant, and Pa sits cringing through Junyer's recitation and aghast at Ma's tap-dancing rendition of "I'm Just Wild About Father."
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsMel BlancSuffering from a rabbit-hangover Bugs accidentally climbs onto a rocket ship parked directly over his hole. He's taken to Marvin the Martian's home where he steals explosives Marvin was planning to use to blow up the Earth.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsMel BlancBea BenaderetDisguised as a truant officer, Bugs attempts to rescue Hansel and Gretel from Witch Hazel, who plans to cook him for her dinner.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsMel BlancA sheepdog thwarts the efforts of a thieving wolf whose tricks include altering the time clock, hiding in a bush, imitating Pan, digging a tunnel, unleashing a wildcat and disguising himself as the dog's coworker.
- DirectorFriz FrelengStarsMel BlancBugs heads toward the record carrot crop in Alabama but runs into Colonel (Yosemite) Sam who is under orders to let no Yankee cross the Mason-Dixon line.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsMel BlancDaws ButlerWhen Nasty Canasta cheats Bugs out of his gold, the rabbit retaliates by playing a naive hayseed whose effortless and unrelenting winning bankrupts Canasta's new casino.
- DirectorFriz FrelengStarsMel BlancWhen Sylvester learns of the possibly dire consequences of his passion for birds, he joins Birds Anonymous to quit. Unfortunately, the outside world taxes his resolve to the limit.
- DirectorTex AveryStarsDaws ButlerTex AveryCarlos RamírezA magician seeks revenge against an opera singer for refusing to let him perform his magic act. He then devises what he thinks is a clever plan to enact his revenge with some hilarious results.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsMel BlancJune ForayWitch Hazel's claim to be the ugliest witch of all is threatened by a Halloween witch who turns out to be Bugs trick-or-treating.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsMel BlancPorky Pig doesn't realize that the old hotel where he and Sylvester are spending the night is really part of a ghost town. It's only Sylvester who sees the band of murderous mice trying to do them in, while Porky chalks his fears up to insanity.
- DirectorRobert McKimsonStarsMel BlancStan FrebergJohn T. SmithWhile vacationing in the Ozark Mountains, Bugs Bunny encounters Curt and Pumpkinhead Martin, two dimwitted hillbillies who are duped by Bugs into a violent square dance.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsMel BlancJohn T. SmithBugs Bunny's rabbit hole floods, causing him to float to the laboratory of an evil scientist who wants to use his brain for a robot.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsPaul JulianWile E. Coyote unsuccessfully chases the Road Runner using such contrivances as a rifle, a steel plate, a dynamite stick on an extending metal pulley, a painting of a collapsed bridge (which the Coyote falls into while Road Runner passes right through), and a jet motor.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsMel BlancA fey little Martian, with his green dog-soldier, K-9, arrive on Earth with instructions to bring back an Earth creature. He chooses Bugs Bunny.
- DirectorJoseph BarberaWilliam HannaStarsWilliam HannaLillian RandolphWhile Mammy Two-Shoes enjoys her evening with the Lucky Seven Saturday Night Bridge Club, Tom and his friends have a party in the house. Jerry, unable to sleep, emerges from his mouse hole to stop it.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsMel BlancJohn T. SmithDaffy Duck plays a western hero, but things don't go as he hoped in a one horse town.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsMel BlancBaby-faced Finster robs a bank, but the baby carriage with the money in it goes down Bugs' rabbit hole.
- DirectorFriz FrelengChuck JonesStarsMel BlancRiff-Raff (Yosemite) Sam, riding a camel that won't whoa, chases Bugs into a French Foreign-Legion post.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsMel BlancJohn T. SmithThis adventure takes Bugs into the world of professional wrestling.
- DirectorRobert McKimsonStarsMel BlancDaffy Duck disguises himself as an old mountain man, as a sheriff, as an executioner, and as Pocahontas to heckle Porky Pig, who has come to what he thought was a secluded woodland to paint pictures of the scenery.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsPaul JulianWile E. Coyote's plans for catching the Road Runner involve a giant elastic spring, a gun and trampoline, TNT sticks in a barrel, and tornado seeds. The last of these schemes results in the Coyote being swept up by a twister and carried into a mine field.
- DirectorRobert McKimsonStarsMel BlancTedd PierceIn Paris Louie and Francois, Chefs of rival restaurants, argue over which establishment will have Bugs for the dinner menu.
- DirectorFriz FrelengStarsMel BlancIn an old west shootout Bugs and Yosemite Sam duel with trains.
- DirectorTex AveryStarsBill ThompsonTex AveryJohn BrownDon't be fooled by the title - Droopy looks like Droopy, but he's actually jazzman John Pettibone, with his performing flea combo, and the film shows how it came into being.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsMel BlancAn apple falls on Bugs' head, transporting him back to King Arthur's England.
- DirectorJoseph BarberaWilliam HannaStarsPaul FreesBob LaztnyJack SabelAs Tom prepares to commit suicide, Jerry recounts the cat's hopeless lover's pursuit of the opportunistic lady that led to this.