I have been watching a lot of animated shorts recently. A combination of old shorts I haven’t seen in a long time (many of which I am now adding to Letterboxd) and new shorts that streaming services like Netflix, Apple TV+ and Disney+ are putting out regularly. YouTube is a treasure trove as well. As a result I was reminded of how brilliant many of these films are and I decided to share my favorites. In this blog I highlighted the fifty animated shorts I love the most as of 2021. I didn’t rank them (that was too hard) so these are just listed in the order they were released. The majority of these films are comedies released during the Golden Age of Animation (especially the 1940s and 1950s) which I love for their sense of humor, and Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies absolutely dominate the list. But Warner Bros. simply hired the funniest people so it is only fair. I include the release dates and the names of the directors too. I hope you have seen these incredible shorts. They are by far some of the most entertaining films I’ve ever watched.

The Band Concert (1935, Wilfred Jackson)

Thru the Mirror (1936, David Hand)

I Love to Singa (1936, Tex Avery)

Porky in Wackyland (1938, Bob Clampett)

Prehistoric Porky (1940, Bob Clampett)

Wabbit Twouble (1941, Bob Clampett)

Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid (1942, Bob Clampett)

The Dover Boys at Pimento University (1942, Chuck Jones)

Pigs in a Polka (1943, Friz Freleng)

Wackiki Wabbit (1943, Chuck Jones)

Porky’s Pig Feat (1943, Frank Tashlin)

A Corny Concerto (1943, Bob Clampett)

Falling Hare (1943, Bob Clampett)

Buckaroo Bugs (1944, Bob Clampett)

Mouse Trouble (1944, William Hanna and Joe Barbera)

Baseball Bugs (1946, Friz Freleng)

Hair-Raising Hare (1946, Chuck Jones)

The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (1946, Bob Clampett)

A Pest in the House (1947, Chuck Jones)

Slick Hare (1947, Friz Freleng)

Long-Haired Hare (1949, Chuck Jones)

Rabbit Hood (1949, Chuck Jones)

Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950, Bob Cannon)

Rabbit of Seville (1950, Chuck Jones)

A Bear for Punishment (1951, Chuck Jones)

Operation: Rabbit (1952, Chuck Jones)

Feed the Kitty (1952, Chuck Jones)

Magical Maestro (1952, Tex Avery)

Duck Amuck (1953, Chuck Jones)

Johann Mouse (1953, William Hanna and Joe Barbera)

Bully for Bugs (1953, Chuck Jones)

Dixieland Droopy (1954, Tex Avery)

One Froggy Evening (1955, Chuck Jones)

Three Little Bops (1957, Friz Freleng)

What’s Opera, Doc? (1957, Chuck Jones)

Now Hear This (1963, Chuck Jones)

The Dot and the Line (1965, Chuck Jones)

Bambi Meets Godzilla (1969, Marv Newland)

Luxo Jr. (1986, John Lasseter)

Creature Comforts (1989, Nick Park)

Knick Knack (1989, John Lasseter)

(Blooper) Bunny (1991, Greg Ford and Terry Lennon)

Geri’s Game (1997, Jan Pinkava)

Lifted (2006, Gary Rydstrom)

Presto (2008, Doug Sweetland)

Logorama (2009, Francçois Alaux, Hervé de Crécy and Ludovic Houplain)

Day & Night (2010, Teddy Newton)

Get a Horse! (2013, Lauren MacMullan)

Prologue (2015, Richard Williams)

Us Again (2021, Zach Parrish)