Van Beuren Studios

Felix the Cat is perched in a tree playing his guitar and serenading himself and a canary with a little ditty called "Nature and Me." It is a beautiful day in cartoon-land but Mother Nature, perhaps not a music lover, whips up a lightning-laden thunderstorm and Felix is soon seeking shelter. He finds it at the castle of King Cole, a boastful, fabricating blow-hard. The King's ancestors, tired of hearing the braggart, come out of their pictures as ghostly specters and take the King to the dungeon and pump the gassy hot-air out of him.

A feline organ grinder wanders by Farmer Al Falfa's house making some very bad music. Farmer Al Falfa chases him away. Later, the old man chases two roosters up a tree. One of the roosters, improbably, lays an egg and throws it at Al Falfa. The old man climbs up the tree with a handsaw. He sits on the same branch as the roosters, and begins sawing it off. The roosters jump from the branch into a hole in the tree. Al Falfa doesn't realize what he's doing until he saws the branch clean through. Cartoon magic is on his side: the tree falls, but the branch stays in place. Later, a delivery man drops off a large package. Al Falfa is surprised to see that it's a robot. The robot performs a dance, and Al Falfa feels compelled to mimic him. The robot kicks Farmer Al Falfa in the behind. Al Falfa does the same to the robot, which causes it to grow so tall it reaches outer space.

Tom and Jerry go fishing, where they encounter an affectionate but annoying fish who won't leave them alone. They hear a piano-playing octopus (with twelve arms!) and have a run-in with a sword fish who cuts their boat in half. Other hijinks ensue, and the two eventually catch a tiny fish, which is in turn swallowed by a larger fish, and this process continues until they've caught a veritable whale. They row ashore triumphant, but when one of them puts their reel (still holding the fish) over their shoulder, the larger fish slip off, unbeknownst to them, leaving them with the runt they started with.

Tom and Jerry are police officers, driving around in their car and enjoying listening to some music on their police radio, when they hear a bulletin announcing another theft of a mummy from the local museum. They stumble upon the culprit, a mysterious and ghoulish man who is carrying a coffin through a secret door in a cemetery. They sneak in after him and watch him command the mummy to life; it is a beautiful woman, who he then commands to sing for his audience of skeletal theatre-goers.

Felix is feeding his various pets: a bird, two dogs, and a goldfish. But Annabelle the goldfish is unhappy; she's lonely. Felix sets out to catch her a friend. The fish drag him underwater. After a bit of searching, he finds a goldfish, but the fish cries for help, and Felix finds himself on trial before King Neptune. He's accused of wanting to eat the fish, but after he explains himself, Neptune gives him a fish from the fish orphanage, and everyone lives happily.

The Lion Tamer is a 1934 animated short film produced by the Van Beuren Studios and directed by Vernon Stallings and starring Charles J. Correll and Freeman F. Gosden as the voices of their popular radio characters, Amos 'n' Andy.

A live-action little boy is caught stealing jam! When he asks his big sister how she knew he had done it, she answers "A little bird told me." This launches an animated segment about a newspaper run by birds and how they got the scoop on the little boy's crime.

Faux documentary told in first-person narration, about an "adventuress" who sets sail to Guatemala with her father and two male crewmen, rescues them when their fresh-water supply is compromised, finds a treasure map, and attempts to steal a fabulous emerald from a ruined temple, much to the aggrevation of a worshipful native princess and her subjects.

Tom and Jerry are solving a jigsaw puzzle when the stork, frustrated by all the quarantine and "not welcome" signs, leaves a foundling on their doorstep. The tot proves to be more than a handful for them; eventually, he ends up in a closet with a giant vacuum cleaner which causes mayhem. The stork shows up and, disgusted with the job Tom and Jerry have done, decks them and flies off with the baby.

Mercury, the winged messenger, drops his sandals off with a centaur to be repaired. The centaur, who has coveted wings to the extent that he's used a couple ducks to help him fly, takes the sandals for a spin, and fails to finish the repair job on time. Mercury returns; in a panic, the centaur strips the wings from a couple birds and nails them to some plain sandals, but Mercury is not fooled. He turns the centaur into a pretzel.

This short opens showing numerous mice eating all the food in Honey's kitchen and ruining everything in her house. She tires valiantly to run them off but they outsmart her. She makes a phone call and Cubby appears at her door. The mice make quick work of him too. Only a fat cat is able to temporarily stop them but they soon turn on him too. Cubby comes to the aide of the cat but the mice outsmart the both of them. In the end the mice have run off the cat, Honey is gone, and Cubby sits dazed on the floor as the mice cheer their victory.

5th Cartoon in the Van Beuren Rainbow Parade Series. Retitled "Chinese Lanterns" during World War II.

A wedding in the Aesop's Fables jungle.

Molly Moo-Cow washes to shore on an island, the one occupied by Robinson Crusoe. Much of the short is Crusoe extolling the virtues of the solitary life, Molly trying to ingratiate herself to Crusoe and Crusoe trying to get rid of her. He finally succeeds-just before cannibals come ashore, capture Crusoe and dump him in a pot. From the time they grab him Crusoe is yelling for help (from whom is unclear, given that he wants the island to himself).

A romance between two office workers--knockoffs of Mickey and Minnie Mouse--is threatened by their lecherous boss. This blatant rip-off of Disney's Mickey Mouse is indeed a fascinating effort. Not only is it most agreeably quaint, but it's remarkably fast-paced. And even better still, it's visually well-stocked with a host of neat gags. The superbly integrated music score rates as an outstandingly entertaining bonus.

Cubby the Bear participates in a roman chariot race for his girl friend.

This Tom and Jerry cartoon (the human versions, not the cat and mouse) is an opportunity for the animators to have fun with the medium. There is no specific plot. One of the boys uses a pencil to create a myriad number of animated illusions that could only work in a cartoon. For example, a short vertical line is drawn, which when held by both ends suddenly becomes a saxophone. When played, the notes pop out of the bell of the instrument to suddenly grow legs and transform into ducks. After the song, the saxophone itself quickly follows suit and becomes a goose. The entire short consists of these disjointed, though often creative and humorously unlikely events.

The classic story of Robin Hood, with Brownie Bear as the prince of thieves.

Felix is handing out relief, thanks to a goose that lays golden eggs. The evil Captain Kidd sees the goose and breaks into Felix's house to get it. He brings the goose to his pirate ship. Felix arrives too late to catch the ship. Goldie won't lay for the pirates. Felix sees a cannon and turns himself into a human cannonball to catch teh ship. With help from Goldie and another cannon, he subdues the crew, wrapping them in the sail and depositing them in the hold. He and Kidd have a swordfight, but their swords melt together. Kidd chases Felix up the mast, then foolishly cuts off his own support. He falls into the hold. They sail for home, where Felix fires off cannonloads of gold coins.

Tom and Jerry are doughnut-makers competing against an assortment of weirdos for first prize at a bakers' convention.