John Foster — Director (21)

Movie

Tight Rope Tricks (1933)
Tight Rope Tricks IMDb TMDB
Tom and Jerry have fun at the circus and then show their acrobatic talents on a tightrope. They get into trouble with an ornery lion and are chased from the Big Top by the feline's friends. When the defend themselves by spraying the lions away with an elephant's trunk, they accidentally flood the circus but are able to float away unscathed.

Movie

Jungle Jam (1931)
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Tom and Jerry are captured by cannibals while dancing and engaging in musical hi-jinx in the jungle. Can Jerry save their lives by impressing the chief with his yodeling skills?

Movie

The King of Bugs (1930)
The King of Bugs IMDb TMDB
Early sound cartoon with an all-insect cast. An eager-to-please young bugler inadvertently annoys the king during a parade and tournament, but redeems himself by rescuing the king's daughter, who's been abducted by a really horrid-looking spider.

Movie

The Iron Man (1930)
The Iron Man WikiData IMDb TMDB
A feline organ grinder wanders by Farmer Al Falfa's house making some very bad music. Farmer Al Falfa chases him away. Later, the old man chases two roosters up a tree. One of the roosters, improbably, lays an egg and throws it at Al Falfa. The old man climbs up the tree with a handsaw. He sits on the same branch as the roosters, and begins sawing it off. The roosters jump from the branch into a hole in the tree. Al Falfa doesn't realize what he's doing until he saws the branch clean through. Cartoon magic is on his side: the tree falls, but the branch stays in place. Later, a delivery man drops off a large package. Al Falfa is surprised to see that it's a robot. The robot performs a dance, and Al Falfa feels compelled to mimic him. The robot kicks Farmer Al Falfa in the behind. Al Falfa does the same to the robot, which causes it to grow so tall it reaches outer space.

Movie

Red Riding Hood (1931)
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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.

Movie

Noah Knew His Ark (1930)
Noah Knew His Ark IMDb TMDB
A crazy Aesop's Fables cartoon about Noah's Ark. With a storm and flood coming, Noah takes two of each animal aboard his ark. After the storm, the animals celebrate their safety by dancing.

Movie

Pencil Mania (1932)
Pencil Mania WikiData IMDb TMDB
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.

Movie

Piano Tooners (1932)
Piano Tooners IMDb TMDB
Tom and Jerry work as piano tuners. After seeing them at work and several creative ways of tuning a piano (such as removing the offending key and cutting the key itself to a shorter length), the two attend an opera singers performance. The singer passes out when the piano plays a wrong note, and Tom and Jerry are pressed into service to re-tune the piano. After pulling the offending key from the keyboard like a bad tooth, the two give the opera audience a jazz piano performance, with the now recovered opera singer joining in.

Movie

Magic Mummy (1933)
Magic Mummy IMDb TMDB
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.