Classic Cartoons for Kids: Felix, Early Disney & Fleischer
There’s a reason old cartoons still work on kids: they were made to make a whole theater laugh, fast, with almost no words. Our Saturday Morning channel runs public-domain cartoons all day, and this is a short guide to the stars of the schedule – and a few tips for parents.
Felix the Cat
Before Mickey Mouse, the most famous cartoon character in the world was a black cat. Felix came out of Pat Sullivan’s studio, with animator Otto Messmer generally credited as the creative force behind him. Felix the Cat: Feline Follies is usually counted as his first appearance, though he wasn’t yet called Felix.
What makes Felix fun for kids is that the rules of the world bend for him. His tail becomes a question mark, a ladder or a walking stick; he pulls things out of thin air. Good ones to start with are Felix the Cat: Felix in Fairyland, Felix Goes West and Felix in Hollywood, which is packed with caricatures of movie stars of the day. There are dozens more on the schedule, including Felix the Cat: Trifles with Time and Felix the Cat: Two-Lip Time.
Early Disney: Alice, the Laugh-O-Grams and Mickey
Walt Disney’s career began in Kansas City with a small studio called Laugh-O-Gram, which made modernized fairy tales. Several survive and air on Starlite TV, including Little Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots, The Four Musicians of Bremen and Tommy Tucker’s Tooth, a short about looking after your teeth.
Then came the Alice Comedies, which put a real little girl into a cartoon world. Alice’s Wonderland, made in Kansas City, was the pilot; child actress Virginia Davis played Alice in the first films. Kids love the mix of live action and drawings – try Alice’s Day at Sea, Alice’s Spooky Adventure or Alice’s Wild West Show.
And of course there’s Mickey. Steamboat Willie was the first Mickey Mouse cartoon released with synchronized sound, and it entered the U.S. public domain in 2024. Plane Crazy and The Gallopin’ Gaucho are from the same year. The Karnival Kid is the cartoon in which Mickey first speaks, and The Haunted House is a good pick for October. Disney’s Silly Symphonies series began with The Skeleton Dance, in which skeletons climb out of their graves and dance in a graveyard; it’s spooky, but in a playful way that most kids find funny rather than scary.
Fleischer: Koko, Betty, Popeye and Superman
Over in New York, Max and Dave Fleischer were doing something different. Max Fleischer patented the rotoscope, a way of tracing over live-action film, and the brothers used it to bring Koko the Clown to life in the Out of the Inkwell series. Many of them start with Max at his drawing board, and Koko climbs out of the inkwell to cause trouble in the real world. Try Out of the Inkwell: Modeling, Out of the Inkwell: Bubbles or Out of the Inkwell: The Cartoon Factory.
The Fleischers’ later work is on the schedule too. Dizzy Dishes is Betty Boop’s first appearance – she started out as a dog-like character. Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor was a lavish two-reel Technicolor special, and the studio’s Superman series from the early 1940s still looks fantastic: start with Superman (1941) and Superman: The Mechanical Monsters.
The pioneers
If your kids are curious how cartoons started, show them Gertie the Dinosaur. Winsor McCay performed with it on the vaudeville stage, appearing to give orders to Gertie on the screen. McCay’s Little Nemo and How a Mosquito Operates are also on the schedule, and Emile Cohl’s Fantasmagorie, a minute-long stream of stick-figure transformations, is one of the earliest hand-drawn animated films.
Something modern, too
Saturday Morning isn’t all black-and-white. The Blender Foundation’s open-licensed short films, like Big Buck Bunny and Elephants Dream, are released under Creative Commons licenses and mixed into the rotation. Big Buck Bunny in particular is a hit with small children.
A few tips for parents
These cartoons were made for general audiences between about 1908 and 1942, and they reflect their times. Some include slapstick violence, smoking, drinking, or caricatures that would not be made today. They are short, so it’s easy to watch a few together first and decide what works for your family. Most early silent cartoons on the channel play with a gentle public-domain piano score.
Because Starlite TV is scheduled television, there’s no menu of episodes to scroll through and no autoplaying recommendations – just a channel. Turn on Saturday Morning and see what’s on, the way kids used to on a Saturday morning. If you want something longer afterwards, our guide to free classic family movies has some ideas.