John Foster

Waffles the Cat and Don the Dog fiddle around with a magic pencil, producing drawings that come to life.

A "Aesop's Fable" cartoon from the Van Beuren Studios.

Tom and Jerry are ambulance-chasing lawyers in search of more business.

All the Dutch Van Beuren animals wearing clogs and making.... swiss cheese?!

After crash landing in Africa, Tom and Jerry masquerade as Africans in a futile attempt to adapt to a strange environment.

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.

Waffles the Cat and Don the Dog fiddle around with a magic pencil, producing drawings that come to life.

A "Aesop's Fable" cartoon from the Van Beuren Studios.

Tom and Jerry are ambulance-chasing lawyers in search of more business.

All the Dutch Van Beuren animals wearing clogs and making.... swiss cheese?!

After crash landing in Africa, Tom and Jerry masquerade as Africans in a futile attempt to adapt to a strange environment.

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.

All of the animal from all the continents, it appears, are gathered around a frozen lake and ice skating, playing hockey and, in general showing off and usually end up crashing through the ice. A romantic, crooning monkey serenades the lady of his dreams...a blushing hippo...while three of the most-badly animated mice in all cartoon-land take on a rhino in ice hockey. Written by Les Adams

The film begins with Milton riding his horse comically around the West until he hears a wanted criminal roaming the West. Upon hearing this, Milton's mouse agrees to comically change to be the width of a twig, as a way of disguise. The criminal, who remains nameless throughout the entire short film, rides in front of a tree; and sees a Wanted sign with himself on it.

The Van Beuren Studios animals have their Venice moments of song and romance.

It's a straight musical involving a barbershop quartet of alley cats and some dogs summoned from the pound to quiet them to little success. The animation and visual gags are simple and old fashioned, but the aural gags are nicely done and even if there's little coordination between the animation and the music.

An evil spider kidnaps a housefly from a cabaret and takes her to his secret lab.

An animated short subject created by Paul Terry and actor-turned-writer Howard Estabrook.

Rare Tom & Jerry treasures.

A group of anthropomorphic animals are having fun in the snow, and steal Farmer Al Falfa's door. After fighting with his water pump and later his hand, Al Falfa wakes up from a drunken dream and has trouble getting inside his house. The animals invite the farmer to have fun with them.

Before the animation industry became dominated by the major studios and their familiar stable of characters, there were other companies who entertained theater audiences with wild excursions into cartoon fantasies. Experimentation was the rule as the boundries of cinematic animation were being pushed to the limit and many of these early productions have the raw look of a work in progress. These classic animated shorts from the early days of sound were created by nearly forgotten production pioneers like Van Beuren Studios and Max and Dave Fleischer. Hilarious, inventive, sometimes risque and often surreal, these films are the fabulous forerunners of every cartoon we've ever watched in the theater or on TV. Laugh again at the cartoons your grandparents enjoyed in the 1930s.

In this early synchronized sound cartoon from the Van Beuren cartoon factory, a dog and cat encounter huge, strange and terrifying creatures in the jungle. They seek refuge in a missionary hits, where they play an organ, which causes the animals to dance. They are captured by cannibals, but escape and lead the jungle animals in song.

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.

An Aesop's Fable cartoon by Van Beuren Productions.

Tom and Jerry crash their plane in the cartoon wild, wild west. Surreal hi-jinx involving a vicious outlaw and robbery ensue.

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.

A catfish living in a submarine in a lake, lures a cat to pursue her. Their playful antics are interrupted by an octopus, and a fight ensues.

Comical character piece climaxing in a boxing match. Set in the rough, tough city; apparently the Bowery, if we let the music tell us. With one of those Mickey Mice that bugged the big "D".

Tom and Jerry are aboard a train making its way up a mountain in the Swiss Alps. When their train breaks down, they're spotted by a very thin St. Bernard, who brings the engine some liquor. The engine zips through the Alps, but leaves the pair behind.

A Van Beuren Studios cartoon...

Some "jazz tonic" restores Grandma's youth. When the Big Bad Wolf pays a visit, he and Grandma decide to marry on the spot; but Little Red Riding Hood finds a way to stop the wedding.

Farmer Al Falfa flies to Africa with the Royal Society of African Explorers to hunt in the jungle.

A slow farm life is turned upside-down thanks to some magic pills....

In Gandy's debut film, he leaves home to make is way in the world. Unfortunately, he's an idiot with an Ed Wynn voice, and a wolf with a George Givot voice tries to lure him into his lair to eat him. Incredible coincidences save him from the stew pot.

An Aesop's Fables Studio cartoon.

Dancing animals in a depression-era shanty town.

Silent cartoon.

A wedding in the Aesop's Fables jungle.

A German "ohm-pah" trio is incomplete until their tuba player arrives on a boat from overseas. The resulting quartet brings the whole town out for a German dance party, until the police arrive to take the "tuba tooter" to jail.

Silent cartoon.

An Aesop's Fable cartoon by Van Beuren Productions.

An animated short subject created by Paul Terry and actor-turned-writer Howard Estabrook.

Tom and Jerry run a diner with a strange assortment of customers.

The old woman who lives in the shoe is a cat. Her son Jack climbs the beanstalk and gets the golden goose.

The party life in a pond.

A goat annoys Farmer Al Falfa and Puddy the Pup. He's always butting in. They fix the billy goat by putting roller skates on him.