External links
- https://archive.org/details/TomAndJerryWotANight Watch or download from Archive.org
- Wot a Night on YouTube
 | This article related to a short animated film is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
| Wot a Night | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | John Foster George Stallings |
| Produced by | Amadee J. Van Beuren |
| Starring | Unknown |
| Music by | Gene Rodemich |
| Animation by | Jim Tyer (Uncredited) |
| Color process | Black and white |
| Distributed by | R-K-O Radio Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 8 minutes 19 seconds |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Wot a Night is a 1931 animated film. It is the first film in Van Beuren's Tom and Jerry series, later re-issued as "Dick and Larry".
In their first film, Tom and Jerry are taxi drivers at the train station on a stormy day, waiting for a fare. A train comes up, and stops with an engine hauling a coach to let off two identical-looking men, who come out, similar to the pair from the Farmer Alfalfa cartoon Wooden Money. They both try to get them in the taxi. After the men are settled, Tom drives the men. It rains so much, a frog jumps in to the taxi and gets back again.
They reach a castle, and as the men walk in, Tom and Jerry run to the men to be paid, but are locked inside. Then, a cloud turns into a human-like figure with arms. He then plays crenellations as piano keys, and while near towers act as pipes, similar to a pipe organ, two trees play their own branches like piccolos. As they walk, Tom is mortified as Jerry is interested as a giant bat-like creature appears in front of them.
They come to a room where a skeleton is cleaning itself. After this point, they are sure that paranormal things are happening. Odd things that happen include: ghosts standing behind them, finding a skeleton playing a piano while another skeleton dances to the music, a glove dancing, and a blackface quartette of skeletons singing a song, which includes a few lines from versions of "Golden Slippers", such as a "long white robe" and a "starry crown", and to stop gambling.
After these things have happened, the two men walk in and point at Jerry. Jerry lifts his shirt, and now realizes that he is a skeleton, too. Tom laughs, and now realizes that he is a skeleton when Jerry lifts his shirt, too. Tom is terrified, and as both men run for their lives, the cartoon ends.
| | This article related to a short animated film is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
Magical Maestro is a 1952 American animated short comedy film directed by Tex Avery and produced by Fred Quimby for MGM Cartoons. Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the short was released on February 9, 1952. It features the Great Poochini, a canine opera singer who spurns a magician. The magician is able to replace Poochini's normal conductor prior to the show through disguise. In 1993, Magical Maestro was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", making it the only Tex Avery cartoon so far to be inducted.
The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of theater developed in the early 19th century. The shows were performed by mostly white actors wearing blackface makeup for the purpose of comically portraying racial stereotypes of African Americans. There were also some African-American performers and black-only minstrel groups that formed and toured. Minstrel shows stereotyped blacks as dimwitted, lazy, buffoonish, cowardly, superstitious, and happy-go-lucky. Each show consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music performances that depicted people specifically of African descent.
Tom and Jerry is an American animated media franchise and series of comedy short films created in 1940 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Best known for its 161 theatrical short films by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the series centers on the rivalry between the titular characters of a cat named Tom and a mouse named Jerry. Many shorts also feature several recurring characters.
Bosko, the Talk-Ink Kid is a 1929 live-action/animated short film produced to sell a series of Bosko cartoons. The film was never released to theaters, and therefore not seen by a wide audience until 2000 on Cartoon Network's television special Toonheads: The Lost Cartoons. The film was produced on May 29, 1929 and directed by Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising.
Johann Mouse is a 1953 American one-reel animated cartoon and the 75th Tom and Jerry cartoon, released in theaters on March 21, 1953 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The short is directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, composed by Scott Bradley, and animated by Kenneth Muse, Ray Patterson, Ed Barge, and Irven Spence. It won the 1952 Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons, the seventh and last Oscar given to a Tom and Jerry short.
The Skeleton Dance is a 1929 Silly Symphony animated short subject produced and directed by Walt Disney and animated by Ub Iwerks. In the film, four human skeletons dance and make music around a spooky graveyard—a modern film example of medieval European "danse macabre" imagery. It is the first entry in the Silly Symphony series. In 1993, to coincide with the opening of Mickey's Toontown in Disneyland, a shortened cover of the cartoon's music was arranged to be featured in the land's background ambiance. The short's copyright was renewed in 1957, and as a published work from 1929 it will enter the US public domain on January 1, 2025.
Wackiki Wabbit is a 1943 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon, starring Bugs Bunny. It was released on July 3, 1943, and was written by Tedd Pierce and directed by Chuck Jones.
The Night Before Christmas is a 1941 American one-reel animated cartoon and is the third Tom and Jerry short directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, produced by Fred Quimby and animated by Jack Zander, George Gordon, Irven Spence and Bill Littlejohn. It was nominated for the 1941 Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons, but lost to the Mickey Mouse short film Lend a Paw, making it the only Tom and Jerry cartoon to lose to a Disney film.
Walky Talky Hawky is a 1946 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies theatrical short directed by Robert McKimson. The cartoon was released on August 31, 1946, and features Henery Hawk and Foghorn Leghorn. This is the first appearance of both Foghorn Leghorn and the Barnyard Dawg.
Saturday Evening Puss is a 1950 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 48th Tom and Jerry short directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. The cartoon was released on January 14, 1950, produced by Fred Quimby, scored by Scott Bradley and animated by Ed Barge, Kenneth Muse, Irven Spence and Ray Patterson. It is the only Tom and Jerry cartoon to feature Mammy's face on-screen, though only briefly. A re-edited version was produced in the 1960s replacing Mammy with a white teenage girl.
Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land is a 1931 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated cartoon directed by Rudolf Ising. The short was released on November 28, 1931, and stars Piggy.
Bottles is a 1936 Happy Harmonies animated cartoon directed by Hugh Harman and produced by Rudolf Ising for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio.
Plane Dumb is the 12th Van Beuren Tom and Jerry cartoon, released on June 4, 1932. The cartoon's soundtrack is done by Gene Rodemich.
The Greeks Had a Word for Them is a 1932 American pre-Code comedy film directed by Lowell Sherman, produced by Samuel Goldwyn, and released by United Artists. It stars Ina Claire, Joan Blondell, and Madge Evans and is based on the play The Greeks Had a Word for It by Zoe Akins. The studio originally wanted actress Jean Harlow for the lead after her success in Public Enemy (1931), but she was under contract to Howard Hughes, and he refused to loan her out. The film served as inspiration for films such as Three Blind Mice (1938), Moon Over Miami (1941), and How to Marry a Millionaire (1953). Ladies in Love (1936) also has a similar pattern and was produced like "Three Blind Mice" by Darryl F. Zanuck.
Ride Him, Bosko! released in 1932, is a Western animated short film in Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes series. It features Bosko, Warner Bros.' first cartoon character and his sweetheart Honey in the Old West.
Well Worn Daffy is a 1965 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes animated short directed by Robert McKimson. The short was released on May 22, 1965, and stars Daffy Duck and Speedy Gonzales.
D' Fightin' Ones is a 1961 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on April 22, 1961, and stars Sylvester and Hector. It is a parody of the 1958 film The Defiant Ones, a film about two escaped inmates—one black, one white—who are shackled to each other.
William Charles Littlejohn was an American animator and union organizer. Littlejohn worked on animated shorts and features in the 1930s through to the 1990s. His notable works include the Tom and Jerry shorts, the Peanuts television specials, the Oscar-winning short The Hole (1962), and the Oscar-nominated A Doonesbury Special (1977). He was inducted into the Cartoon Hall of Fame and received the Winsor McCay Award and garnered lifetime achievement awards from the Annie Awards and the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Director Michael Sporn has called Littlejohn "an animation 'God'."
The Haunted House, also known as Haunted House, is a 1929 Mickey Mouse short animated film released by Celebrity Productions, as part of the Mickey Mouse film series. The cartoon was produced by Walt Disney Productions and distributed by Celebrity Productions. It was the fourteenth Mickey Mouse short to be produced, the eleventh of that year.
September in the Rain is a 1937 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on December 18, 1937.