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The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals
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First published October 1, 1994
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About the author
Jerry Beck
73 books25 followersJerry Beck (born February 9, 1955 in New York City) is an American animation historian, author, blogger, and video producer. The author or editor of several books on classic American animation and classic character, including The 50 Greatest Cartoons (1994), The Animated Movie Guide (2005), Not Just Cartoons: Nicktoons! (2007), The Flintstones: The Official Guide to the Cartoon Classic (2011), The Hanna-Barbera Treasury: Rare Art Mementos from your Favorite Cartoon Classics (2007), The SpongeBob SquarePants Experience: A Deep Dive into the World of Bikini Bottom (2013), Pink Panther: The Ultimate Guide (2005), and Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons (with Will Friedwald, 1989). He is also an authority on the making of modern films, with his books detailing the art of Mr. Peabody and Sherman, DreamWorks' Madagascar, and Bee Movie. Beck is also an entertainment industry consultant for TV and home entertainment productions and releases related to classic cartoons and operates the blog "Cartoon Research." He appears frequently as a documentary subject and audio commentator on releases of A&E's Cartoons Go To War as well as DVD collections of Looney Tunes, Popeye the Sailor, and Woody Woodpecker cartoons, on which he serves a consultant and curator.
Early in his career, Beck collaborated with film historian Leonard Maltin on his book Of Mice and Magic (1980), organized animation festivals in Los Angeles, and was instrumental in founding the international publication Animation Magazine. In the 1990s, Beck taught course on the art of animation at UCLA, NYU, and The School of Visual Arts. In 1993, he became a founding member of the Cartoon Network advisory board and he currently serves as president of the ASIFA-Hollywood board. He co-produced or was a consultant on many home entertainment compilations of Looney Tunes, MGM Cartoons, Disney Home Video, Betty Boop, and others. In 1989, he co-founded Streamline Pictures and first brought such anime as Akira, Vampire Hunter D, and Miyazaki's Laputa: Castle in the Sky to the United States. He himself compiled collections of cartoons of Warner Bros., Woody Woodpecker, and the Fleischer Studios. As Vice President of Nickelodeon Movies, he helped develop The Rugrats Movie (1998) and Mighty Mouse.
In 2006, Beck created and produced an animated pilot for Frederator Studios and Nickelodeon. That cartoon, "Hornswiggle", aired on Nicktoons Network in 2008 as part of the Random! Cartoons series. Currently, he is teaching animation history at Woodbury University in Burbank, California.
In 2004, Beck and fellow animation historian and writer Amid Amidi co-founded another blog, Cartoon Brew, which focused primarily on current animation productions and news. Beck sold his co-ownership in Cartoon Brew in February 2013 and started an Indiewire blog, Animation Scoop, for reports on current animation while continuing to write about classic animation at Cartoon Research.
Early in his career, Beck collaborated with film historian Leonard Maltin on his book Of Mice and Magic (1980), organized animation festivals in Los Angeles, and was instrumental in founding the international publication Animation Magazine. In the 1990s, Beck taught course on the art of animation at UCLA, NYU, and The School of Visual Arts. In 1993, he became a founding member of the Cartoon Network advisory board and he currently serves as president of the ASIFA-Hollywood board. He co-produced or was a consultant on many home entertainment compilations of Looney Tunes, MGM Cartoons, Disney Home Video, Betty Boop, and others. In 1989, he co-founded Streamline Pictures and first brought such anime as Akira, Vampire Hunter D, and Miyazaki's Laputa: Castle in the Sky to the United States. He himself compiled collections of cartoons of Warner Bros., Woody Woodpecker, and the Fleischer Studios. As Vice President of Nickelodeon Movies, he helped develop The Rugrats Movie (1998) and Mighty Mouse.
In 2006, Beck created and produced an animated pilot for Frederator Studios and Nickelodeon. That cartoon, "Hornswiggle", aired on Nicktoons Network in 2008 as part of the Random! Cartoons series. Currently, he is teaching animation history at Woodbury University in Burbank, California.
In 2004, Beck and fellow animation historian and writer Amid Amidi co-founded another blog, Cartoon Brew, which focused primarily on current animation productions and news. Beck sold his co-ownership in Cartoon Brew in February 2013 and started an Indiewire blog, Animation Scoop, for reports on current animation while continuing to write about classic animation at Cartoon Research.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 8, 2022
Clearly "of" "for" and "by" those who love cartoon "shorts". Can "1,000 animation professionals" be wrong? In this case, the only quibble might be the order of the fifty or that the book limits the "greatest" to only fifty.
This book delves into the making of each of the fifty. It provides all the details of the craftsmanship including drawings and "cells." It explains technology and innovation.
I learned that almost a century ago animated shorts were entertaining the public at "the movies." By 1937 Walt Disney had created his first "feature length" animation, Snow White. But this book is about shorts. The ones that even now can be seen on The Cartoon Network; ones that formed the basis for kids TV from the 1950's on. (The Warner Bros. shorts including Bugs Bunny were a daytime, night-time and weekend feature from the late 1960's to the mid 1980's...far after Warner Bros. had given up doing quality animation.) Many have been compiled into a series of DVDs called Looney Tunes the Golden Collection. I highly recommend it, if you want to own many of the best.
This book gives due credit to the other great animation studios including Walter Lantz, United Productions, Film Board of Canada, Terrytoons, Paramount, MGM, Hanna-Barbera and the Fleischer Brothers. It even suggests how the reader can get a chance to view these great cartoons.
But, for anyone who is a fan of this genre, Warner Bros. wins with both its quantity and quality. Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Wiley Coyote, the Roadrunner, Sylvester, Tweety-Pie, Speedy Gonzales as well as iconic single, Michigan J. Frog. Mickey and Donald and Goofy and Pluto are not in the same category; nor are Superman, Mighty Mouse, Quickdraw McGraw, Yogi Bear, DuckTales, Rootie Kazootie, Clutch Cargo and Crusader Rabbit. This book is a fine place to start if you want to understand why.
Some of my favorites are recognized such as:
Duck Amuck
One Froggy Evening
Some are not:
Baseball Bugs
A personal favorite: Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century directed by Chuck Jones
'Duck Dodgers (Daffy Duck) must search for the rare element Illudium Phosdex, "the shaving cream atom." The only remaining supply of the element is on the mysterious "Planet X", which fortunately is found when Dodgers follows a path of planets shaped like letters, leading from Planet A to Planets B, C, D, and so on until he reaches Planet X. Dodgers is about to claim Planet X in the name of the Earth when Marvin the Martian, in a ship called the Martian Maggot, lands on the same planet and claims it in the name of Mars....' Duck Dodgers is supported by Porky Pig as "Eager Young Space Cadet" and Marvin has the aid of C3-PO's predecessor, K-9
There are plenty of new "cartoons" that should be recognized but that is for another book.
There are plenty of quotations from those in the industry that helped determine the final fifty. Jerry Beck does a fine job with documentation and references. That makes it impossible to give it less than five stars.
This book delves into the making of each of the fifty. It provides all the details of the craftsmanship including drawings and "cells." It explains technology and innovation.
I learned that almost a century ago animated shorts were entertaining the public at "the movies." By 1937 Walt Disney had created his first "feature length" animation, Snow White. But this book is about shorts. The ones that even now can be seen on The Cartoon Network; ones that formed the basis for kids TV from the 1950's on. (The Warner Bros. shorts including Bugs Bunny were a daytime, night-time and weekend feature from the late 1960's to the mid 1980's...far after Warner Bros. had given up doing quality animation.) Many have been compiled into a series of DVDs called Looney Tunes the Golden Collection. I highly recommend it, if you want to own many of the best.
This book gives due credit to the other great animation studios including Walter Lantz, United Productions, Film Board of Canada, Terrytoons, Paramount, MGM, Hanna-Barbera and the Fleischer Brothers. It even suggests how the reader can get a chance to view these great cartoons.
But, for anyone who is a fan of this genre, Warner Bros. wins with both its quantity and quality. Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Wiley Coyote, the Roadrunner, Sylvester, Tweety-Pie, Speedy Gonzales as well as iconic single, Michigan J. Frog. Mickey and Donald and Goofy and Pluto are not in the same category; nor are Superman, Mighty Mouse, Quickdraw McGraw, Yogi Bear, DuckTales, Rootie Kazootie, Clutch Cargo and Crusader Rabbit. This book is a fine place to start if you want to understand why.
Some of my favorites are recognized such as:
Duck Amuck
One Froggy Evening
Some are not:
Baseball Bugs
A personal favorite: Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century directed by Chuck Jones
'Duck Dodgers (Daffy Duck) must search for the rare element Illudium Phosdex, "the shaving cream atom." The only remaining supply of the element is on the mysterious "Planet X", which fortunately is found when Dodgers follows a path of planets shaped like letters, leading from Planet A to Planets B, C, D, and so on until he reaches Planet X. Dodgers is about to claim Planet X in the name of the Earth when Marvin the Martian, in a ship called the Martian Maggot, lands on the same planet and claims it in the name of Mars....' Duck Dodgers is supported by Porky Pig as "Eager Young Space Cadet" and Marvin has the aid of C3-PO's predecessor, K-9
There are plenty of new "cartoons" that should be recognized but that is for another book.
There are plenty of quotations from those in the industry that helped determine the final fifty. Jerry Beck does a fine job with documentation and references. That makes it impossible to give it less than five stars.
May 28, 2021
This lovely book is a clear product of the animation renaissance, when a film like 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit', a series like 'Ren & Stimpy' and a television program like BBC's'Stay Tooned!' raised the interest in classic cartoons, their history and their makers. It's of course a matter of debate whether this book really features the 50 greatest cartoons (an appendix shows some other fine contenders that just didn't make it), but these are certainly 50 fine films.
Unfortunately, the selection only includes cel animated films (and the pre-cel film 'Gertie the Dinosaur'), and thus does include 'The Man Who Planted Trees' (a film that is very far removed from the term 'cartoon'), but not the very cartoony Academy Award winner 'Creature Comforts', because that short is a stop motion film. Surprisingly, some more modern shorts have been able to make the list, like NFB's 'The Big Snit' and 'The Cat Came Back'. Another surprise is that four of the top five cartoons are by Chuck Jones.
All shorts get a synopsis, a review and some background information. Moreover, the book is richly illustrated, and certainly inviting to watch the shorts themselves. The book's big error, however, is that the shorts are ranked 1 to 50, instead of vice versa. To me, a list like this should be a countdown, but it isn't. Anyway, that shouldn't keep any animated cartoon lover from buying this book.
Unfortunately, the selection only includes cel animated films (and the pre-cel film 'Gertie the Dinosaur'), and thus does include 'The Man Who Planted Trees' (a film that is very far removed from the term 'cartoon'), but not the very cartoony Academy Award winner 'Creature Comforts', because that short is a stop motion film. Surprisingly, some more modern shorts have been able to make the list, like NFB's 'The Big Snit' and 'The Cat Came Back'. Another surprise is that four of the top five cartoons are by Chuck Jones.
All shorts get a synopsis, a review and some background information. Moreover, the book is richly illustrated, and certainly inviting to watch the shorts themselves. The book's big error, however, is that the shorts are ranked 1 to 50, instead of vice versa. To me, a list like this should be a countdown, but it isn't. Anyway, that shouldn't keep any animated cartoon lover from buying this book.
May 3, 2024
[I thought I'd written this review back when I actually finished reading this book, but it's vanished. So my apologies for what's bound to be a fairly vague and disjointed one following.]
I've been a fan of animation my entire life, from Saturday mornings sitting in front of the TV right up to my media-addicted purchase of every new adventurous take on animating features. When I found out recently that this book existed -- a lavishly illustrated list of top cartoons, assembled by some of the greatest animation creators of the time -- I was stunned it had been around so long but under my radar.
Jerry Beck is a similarly animation-addicted adult to myself, but he's turned that love into a career by way of his authoritative books on the subject. This collection is such an obvious labour of love that any shortcomings therein are easily forgiven. He's panelled more than a thousand people from within and without the animation industry for their input, carefully tabulated the results and then written engaging, entertaining commentary on each with frequent sidebars and inserts of interest. The illustrations include stills from the shorts as well as production art and the occasional promotional piece.
Whether one agrees with all or any of these entries as among the 50 greatest shorts is kind of academic. Either way, this is a lovely book and a great way to get a lot of information on shorts you may know and a lot you may not.
This book includes the featured list as well as an animation history, timeline, 'hall of fame,' a cartoon-star gallery, a short article explaining the criteria for inclusion on the list, an appendix of other great cartoons that weren't included on the official list, as well as some then-vital resourcing information. I can only hope there is a more up-to-date version of this book somewhere in our future, as so much has changed since its publication.
This hardcover edition features a detailed wrap-around dustjacket showing a collection of animation stars in a restaurant, which has a key to the characters inside.
I've been a fan of animation my entire life, from Saturday mornings sitting in front of the TV right up to my media-addicted purchase of every new adventurous take on animating features. When I found out recently that this book existed -- a lavishly illustrated list of top cartoons, assembled by some of the greatest animation creators of the time -- I was stunned it had been around so long but under my radar.
Jerry Beck is a similarly animation-addicted adult to myself, but he's turned that love into a career by way of his authoritative books on the subject. This collection is such an obvious labour of love that any shortcomings therein are easily forgiven. He's panelled more than a thousand people from within and without the animation industry for their input, carefully tabulated the results and then written engaging, entertaining commentary on each with frequent sidebars and inserts of interest. The illustrations include stills from the shorts as well as production art and the occasional promotional piece.
Whether one agrees with all or any of these entries as among the 50 greatest shorts is kind of academic. Either way, this is a lovely book and a great way to get a lot of information on shorts you may know and a lot you may not.
This book includes the featured list as well as an animation history, timeline, 'hall of fame,' a cartoon-star gallery, a short article explaining the criteria for inclusion on the list, an appendix of other great cartoons that weren't included on the official list, as well as some then-vital resourcing information. I can only hope there is a more up-to-date version of this book somewhere in our future, as so much has changed since its publication.
This hardcover edition features a detailed wrap-around dustjacket showing a collection of animation stars in a restaurant, which has a key to the characters inside.
August 5, 2022
Five stars even though I don't agree with a few because 1) most of these are great choices, 2) some of the modern ones are far from great, but then 3) this is their list and not mine, 4) it's still a fantastic collection. Filled with biographical and historical notes for each of the selected, as well as comments from critics. Beck did a mostly good job of summarizing. I say mostly because I knew that one of their selecteds (#42), a Tom & Jerry film titled The Cat Concerto, Oscar winner for short animated, went up against Warner's Rhapsody Rabbit, which was the same subject: Listz's Hungarian Rhapsody #2. Beck doesn't mention that Warner's was actually first and the MGM folks rushed to finish their when they found out that Termite Terrace was farther along. Luck of the draw, theirs went before the voting audience first and it looked like Friz Freleng copied Hanna & Barbera. Who knows if there are any other untold backstories. But... still great stuff.
Chuck Jones on storyman Michael Maltese: "The quirky brilliance of his ready with was never, never neutral. He disdained facts as useless - only the odd, the unusual, the hilariously peculiar interested him."
Tex Avery: "We used any kind of distortion that couldn't possibly happen, like a character getting stuck in a milk bottle. You couldn't get Chaplin in a milk bottle."
Chuck Jones on storyman Michael Maltese: "The quirky brilliance of his ready with was never, never neutral. He disdained facts as useless - only the odd, the unusual, the hilariously peculiar interested him."
Tex Avery: "We used any kind of distortion that couldn't possibly happen, like a character getting stuck in a milk bottle. You couldn't get Chaplin in a milk bottle."
September 20, 2018
I think one of the standards for judging Greatest Film lists is whether they make me want to argue ("You picked THAT?") or just calmly disagree. This falls into category B. For example, I'm not sure "The Dover Boys at Old PU" would work for millennials as it's satirizing a kind of college story popular a century ago; then again, I like it, and it's not like that kind of story was fresh for my generation. Overall, this is a hugely entertaining list (I've seen quite a few) and a fun book.
June 14, 2022
This list was made in the '90s. It shows.
January 13, 2024
The 50 Greatest Cartoons, Jerry Beck editor (nonfiction)
Jeff Book Review #244
"The 50 Greatest Cartoons" was compiled in 1994 and the book serves as both a reference and front-to-back narrative that explains the history of cartoons, the giants of its golden age, commentary and "making of" notes for each of the 50 cartoons profiled, and each page has bold artwork, pictures from the cartoons themselves, and illustrations of the processes used to make them. The list is quite diverse when you dig into it.
It is a fun read beyond its reference function, which is hard for a nonfiction to accomplish. Beck and the voters' love for cartoons really comes through in the profiles for the fifty that made the cut.
I noticed about halfway through the book that I hadn't seen a Tom & Jerry cartoon yet, despite them winning a dozen Oscars for Best Animated Short over Warner and Disney all those years in the golden age. All told, only one Tom & Jerry is included in this Top 50 Cartoons list and that seemed a little unfair to me, but then I asked myself which missing Tom & Jerry should be included and realized most of those wacky pair's adventures are fun but similar and perhaps not uniquely notable. It was probably a ranking issue where each of those thousand experts voted for a bunch of Tom & Jerry's but not all the same ones, so they ended up missing the top 50.
Chuck Jones, Bugs, and Daffy rightly pretty much win the final list.
Verdict: A must-have reference book for anyone who likes cartoons. And an awesome Christmas gift idea if you know someone who likes good cartoons.
Jeff's Rating: 3 / 5 (Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: G
Jeff Book Review #244
"The 50 Greatest Cartoons" was compiled in 1994 and the book serves as both a reference and front-to-back narrative that explains the history of cartoons, the giants of its golden age, commentary and "making of" notes for each of the 50 cartoons profiled, and each page has bold artwork, pictures from the cartoons themselves, and illustrations of the processes used to make them. The list is quite diverse when you dig into it.
It is a fun read beyond its reference function, which is hard for a nonfiction to accomplish. Beck and the voters' love for cartoons really comes through in the profiles for the fifty that made the cut.
I noticed about halfway through the book that I hadn't seen a Tom & Jerry cartoon yet, despite them winning a dozen Oscars for Best Animated Short over Warner and Disney all those years in the golden age. All told, only one Tom & Jerry is included in this Top 50 Cartoons list and that seemed a little unfair to me, but then I asked myself which missing Tom & Jerry should be included and realized most of those wacky pair's adventures are fun but similar and perhaps not uniquely notable. It was probably a ranking issue where each of those thousand experts voted for a bunch of Tom & Jerry's but not all the same ones, so they ended up missing the top 50.
Chuck Jones, Bugs, and Daffy rightly pretty much win the final list.
Verdict: A must-have reference book for anyone who likes cartoons. And an awesome Christmas gift idea if you know someone who likes good cartoons.
Jeff's Rating: 3 / 5 (Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: G
September 10, 2016
Brilliant and detailed timeline and Best Of list through the history of animation in the 20th century, wonderfully informative for people interested in the medium.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews