The Milky Way is a one-reel
animated cartoon short subject, produced in
Technicolor and released to theatres with the movie
The Captain Is a Lady in
1940 by
Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. The short, produced and directed by
Rudolf Ising and co-produced by
Fred Quimby with musical supervision by
Scott Bradley, explores the adventures of the "
three little kittens who lost their mittens", as they explore a dreamland where space is made up entirely of
dairy products (for example, the
Milky Way is made of
milk and the
moon is made of
cheese). Mars is depicted as a planet where shooting stars are made. The short won the 1940
Academy Award for Animated Short Film, and was the first non-
Disney film to do so. Other shorts nominated in 1940 included
A Wild Hare by
Warner Bros., introducing
Bugs Bunny, and the other MGM cartoon
Puss Gets the Boot, with Jasper & Jinx, the prototype for
Tom and Jerry. It was added as a bonus feature in the Marx Bros. DVD release of
Go West (1940).