How Animated Cartoons Are Made

Lyman H. Howe's Famous Ride on a Runaway Train

May 1921 •English

A runaway train speeds down the track.

Happy Go Luckies

November 1923 •English

In Happy-Go-Luckies a pair of ukulele-strumming railroad hoboes fake their way into a dog show and make off with the prize loot. “Two heads are better than one” is the moral. To modern eyes, our trickster duo may look like two dogs—in the show they pretend to be one long dog—but audiences of the ’20s would have recognized a dog-and-cat team. The black body, white face, and sharp ears would have been most familiar from the greatest jazz-era trickster cat, Felix. Dogs and cats—much easier to animate than humans—were everywhere in silent cartoons. Terry, like most early film animators, had begun as a newspaper cartoonist, and his first strip, working with his brother as a teenager for the San Francisco Call, was about the adventures of a dog named Alonzo.

The Classmate's Frolic

February 1913 •English

A comedy about a group of school girls who bring a street musician to school with them.

The Triplets of Belleville

June 2003 •French

When her grandson is kidnapped during the Tour de France, Madame Souza and her beloved pooch Bruno team up with the Belleville Sisters—an aged song-and-dance team from the days of Fred Astaire—to rescue him.

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)

August 1909 •English

Documentary footage of the author and his two daughters at home.

The Wandering Company

January 1984 •English

Documentary about Merchant Ivory Productions, including interviews with the principals of the film production company and actors which have appeared in their films.

The Invisible Subtitler

November 2013 •English

The Invisible Subtitler is an independent documentary about the use of subtitles in cinema and the life of subtitlers themselves, focusing on the economic issues faced by the subtitlers and how they are currently invisible in the globalized business of the film industry.

False Hare

July 1964 •English

Big Bad Wolf and his nephew create a club for rabbits, Club del Conejo, to try to catch Bugs Bunny.

Bienvenido Mr. Heston

November 2016 •Spanish

Spain, 1961. Life in the small village of Torrelobatón, in the province of Valladolid, was turned upside down when the cinematic magic circus of a future Hollywood blockbuster, produced by Samuel Bronston, the rogue mogul of his own film empire, came to town: its inhabitants became participants and witnesses of the shooting of “El Cid,” a film directed by Anthony Mann, starring mythical actors Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren. Those days, legends came alive.

Wholly Smoke

August 1938 •English

A neighborhood bully convinces Porky to take a puff from his cigar, causing Porky to hallucinate a smoke-man named Nick O. Teen, along with a musical number done by cigars, cigarettes and pipes in the likeness of the 3 Stooges, etc.

Walt Disney's Standard Parade for 1939

January 1939 •English

A live action black-and-white prolog tells the story of how Walt Disney came to Hollywood with $300, was rejected by all the major studios, but went on to tremendous success, many awards, and a thriving studio. Titles then ask what this means to the Standard Oil Salesman, and a parade of Disney characters gives us the answer, featuring Mickey as drum major, Minnie carrying a banner, and the 7 Dwarfs carrying the letters "STANDARD" (Dopey gets stuck with the last two): Apparently the various ads for Standard will be featuring Disney characters in the coming year.

Notes on an American Film Director at Work

January 2008 •English

Filmmaker Jonas Mekas follows his friend, film director Martin Scorsese, and his cast and crew, through various locations during the shooting of his film The Departed, released in 2006.

Jak vzniká film

January 1926 •Czech

Cleanin' Up the Town: Remembering Ghostbusters

January 2020 •English

The documentary that tells us the full story from where it all started through to the future of the "Ghostbusters" franchise.

Castello Cavalcanti

November 2013 •English

In 1955 in Italy, race car driver Jed Cavalcanti suffers a mishap during the Molte Miglia rally and finds himself in a small town with a few familial surprises.

Three Men in a Tub

March 1938 •English

Alfalfa and the gang build their own "speedboat" powered by ducks, and challenge Waldo to a race for the hand of Darla.

Moon Rockets

June 1947 •English

This short is one of Paramount's "Popular Science" series (number L6-5, or the fifth one of the 1946-47 production season) and begins by showing moon rockets, weighing 30 tons, a flight in the ionosphere, with mounted color cameras recording pictures hundreds of miles above the earth. Coming back to earth, it discourses on modern bathroom fixtures, and then demonstrates a one-man hay-bailer.

Over the Back Fence

February 1913 •English

Harry Beaumont and Bessie Learn are in love, but their respective uncle and aunt, back fence neighbors, feud bitterly with each other and insist the youngsters have nothing to do with each other. The young leads come up with a plan in this pleasant Edison comedy.

Pistols for Breakfast

June 1919 •English

A 1919 Comedy short.

The Neverending Party

January 2023 •French

A look-back at popular French movie "La Boum" (The Party).