Things Come To Life

[RetroMan]

We're all familiar with the "things come to life" theme in cartoons and was a lot during the 30's and early 40's... so let's see if we could list all of them, from all studios.

- Book Revue (the best in the genre in my opinion)
- Lights Fantastic
- Billboard Frolics
- Goofy Groceries
- Wholly Smoke

[Geezil]

September in the Rain

[Jeff]

Red-headed Baby

[Nick]

"A Coy Decoy" :daffy: :ham:
"Mickey's Choo Choo" :mickey:
"Three's A Crowd"
"Buddy Steps Out" :buddy:
"The Shanty Where Santy Clause Lives"

And does the 1987 movie, "The Brave Little Toaster" count?

[Javeman]

"Have You Got Any Castles"
"Speaking of the Weather"
"You're an Education"

[J. B. Warner]

"Smile, Darn Ya, Smile" (1931) was the one that started it all.

[Tom Stathes]

Going a bit far back, are we Tom? Strange...:p

If you count characters being drawn on paper and coming to life, which was a shock to audiences back in the day, consider:
Little Nemo (1911)
The Artist's Dream (Bray, 1913)
Gertie (1914)
The Barre Cartoons (1915, etc)- the viewer is supposed to think that the comics come to life
And all of the Out of the Inkwell/Koko the Clown/Inkwell Imps shorts.

As for cartoons with objects coming to life, :

The Great Cheese Robbery (Krazy Kat, 1918) (for those of you who've seen it, I mean the objects in Ignatz's house which come to life in the form of "guilt")
Hitting the Trail (Life Cartoon, 1927) A pancake comes to life for a moment.
Betty Boop and Little Jimmy
The Brave Tin Soldier (Iwerks)
We're in the Money (WB)
Frogland (1922, Starewicz) After being struck by lightning, a tree trunk becomes king- but he appears to be brain-dead.
The Fresh Lobster (1935? 1948?) combination of live action, and animation. A lobster comes to life in a man's (played by silent film star, Billy Bletcher) dream. Quite hilarious!

-Tom

[cbrubaker]

In Robert McKimson's 1970s theatrical cartoon "Sherlock Pink", when the Panther peeks at the hole in the tree, it screams and runs away. I think that cartoon sorta brought back McKimson spirit, which didn't last since that was his last theatrically released cartoon.

This is a comic-strip, but in "Calvin and Hobbes" a stuffed tiger comes to life. ;) :)

[J. B. Warner]

Hobbes never "came to life", IMO. I believe he was a real tiger that everyone else perceived as a stuffed tiger because they refused to see the world as Calvin did.

But I'm going off topic.

[Pietro]

What? Nobody mentioned "I Like Mountain Music," "Toytown Hall," or "Smile Darn Ya Smile" yet?

-Pietro:daffy:

[JDWeil]

How about The Dish Ran Away With the Spoon?

[frizfrelengfan]

In "Play Safe" (Fleischer) locomotives take on human characteristics, but I'm not sure this should count since it takes place in the boy's dream.