The 50 Greatest Cartoons

The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals is a 1994 book by animation historian Jerry Beck. It consists of articles about 50 highly regarded animated short films made in North America and other notable cartoons, which are ranked according to a poll of 1,000 people working in the animation industry.

Contents

• Gerald mcboing boing
• Tally
• References

Each cartoon is under 30 minutes long and cel animated (with the exception of Gertie the Dinosaur). Seventeen of the selected films were produced for Warner Bros.'s Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series, ten of which were directed by Chuck Jones. All of the selected cartoons were created and released prior to 1960, except for the 1985 short The Big Snit (#25), the 1988 short The Cat Came Back (#32), the 1969 short Bambi Meets Godzilla (#38), the 1987 short The Man Who Planted Trees (#44), and the 1975 short Quasi at the Quackadero (#46).

The book's front and rear cover art, which showed a variety of famous cartoon stars seated in a nightclub, was also printed up as a full-sized promotional poster by Turner Publishing. The posters were not sold at retail, but were distributed to book stores as marketing materials for the book.