Congress Adds 3 Toons to National Film Registry

Three animated animated films are among the 25 the Library of Congress inducted this year into the National Film Registry.

This year’s animated inductees are George Pal’s Puppetoon, John Henry and the Inky-Poo; Walt Disney’s “Silly Symphony,” The Old Mill; and The Story of Menstruation, an educational film Disney produced for the makers of Kotex.

Also making the list is the live-action short Dream of a Rarebit Fiend, a live-action film based on the work of comic-strip and animation pioneer Winsor McCay.

Under the National Film Preservation Act, each year the Library of Congress names 25 films to the National Film Registry that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant. The films must be at least 10 years old, and the librarian makes the annual registry selections after reviewing hundreds of titles nominated by the public and conferring with Library film curators and the distinguished members of the National Film Preservation Board (NFPB).

The full list follows:

1. Being There (1979)
2. Black and Tan (1929)
3. Dracula (Spanish language version) (1931)
4. Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (1906)
5. Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer (1975)
6. Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze (1894)
7. A Fool There Was (1915)
8. Ghostbusters (1984)
9. Hail the Conquering Hero (1944)
10. Humoresque (1920)
11. Imitation of Life (1959)
12. The Inner World of Aphasia (1968)
13. John Henry and the Inky-Poo (1946)
14. L.A. Confidential (1997)
15. The Mark of Zorro (1920)
16. The Old Mill (1937)
17. Our Daily Bread (1934)
18. Portrait of Jason (1967)
19. Seconds (1966)
20. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
21. Sink or Swim (1990)
22. The Story of Menstruation (1946)
23. Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968)
24. Top Gun (1986)
25. Winchester ’73 (1950)