Fleischer Studios
Encyclopedia
Fleischer Studios, Inc., was an American
corporation which originated as an Animation studio
located at 1600 Broadway
, New York City, New York. It was founded in 1921 as Inkwell Studios (or Out of the Inkwell Films) by brothers Max Fleischer
and Dave Fleischer
who ran the company from its inception until Paramount Pictures
, the studio's parent company and the distributor of its films, forced them to resign in April 1942. In its prime, it was the most significant competitor to Walt Disney Productions, and is notable for bringing to the screen cartoons featuring Koko the Clown
, Betty Boop
, Bimbo
, Popeye the Sailor
, and Superman
. Unlike other studios, whose most famous characters were anthropomorphic animals, the Fleischers' most popular characters were humans.
, which allowed for extremely lifelike animation. Using this device, the Fleischer brothers got a contract with Bray Studio in 1919 to produce their own series called Out of the Inkwell
, which featured their first characters, the as yet unnamed Koko the Clown
, and Fitz the Dog, who would evolve into Bimbo in 1930. Out of the Inkwell
became a very successful series. As the Bray theatrical operation started to diminish, the brothers began their own studio in 1921. Dave served as the director and supervised the studio's production, while Max served as the producer. The company was known as Out of the Inkwell Films, Incorporated, and later became Fleischer Studios in January, 1929.
Throughout the 1920s, Fleischer was one of the top producers of animation, with clever humor and numerous innovations including the Rotograph, an early photographic process for compositing animation with live action backgrounds. Other innovations included Ko-Ko Song Car-Tunes, sing-along shorts (featuring the famous "bouncing ball
"), which were a sort of precursor to Karaoke
. From May 1924 to September 1926, the studio used Dr. Lee De Forest
's Phonofilm
sound-on-film
process to produce 19 early cartoons with synchronized sound tracks, including Come Take a Trip in My Airship, Darling Nelly Gray, Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly and By the Light of the Silvery Moon
. The Ko-Ko Song Car-Tunes series ended in 1927, but returned as the Screen Songs
series from 1929 to 1938.
With their earlier experience with sound, Fleischer Studios made the transition with ease. Their production and distribution deal with Paramount allowed to expand on their song film format in their new Screen Songs
, a continuation of the earlier Ko-Ko Song Cartunes. The first of these was The Sidewalks of New York
, released on February 5, 1929. In October of that same year, the Fleischers introduced a new series called Talkartoons
. Earlier entries in the series were mostly one-shot cartoons, but Bimbo would become a staple of the series. Bimbo was upstaged by his girlfriend, Betty Boop
, who quickly became the star of the studio, and by August 1932, the Talkartoon series was renamed as Betty Boop cartoons; Fleischer Studios also gained more success by using Cab Calloway
in three Betty Boop cartoons, Louis Armstrong
, and Don Redman
each featured in separate cartoons. Betty was the first featured female character in American animation, and she reflected the distinctive adult urban orientation of the studio's product.
The studio's initial successes began to turn as the 1930s continued. In 1934, the Hays Code was enacted in Hollywood, which resulted in severe censorship for films. Betty's sexuality was neutralized, and much of her charm was lost. At the same time, the Hays Code affected the tone of Paramount's films. Paramount had also gone through three reorganizations from bankruptcy between 1931 and 1936. And the new management set out to make more general audience films of the type made at MGM, but for lower budgets. This change in content policy affected the content of cartoons that Fleischer was to produce for Paramount, who was urging Fleischer to consider emulating Walt Disney's cartoons. The most notable example of the Fleischers' adaptation of the Disney style was their Color Classics
series, which was essentially a copy
and direct parody
of Disney's Silly Symphonies
.
The Fleischers' success was further solidified when they licensed E.C. Segar's comic strip
character Popeye the Sailor
for a cartoon series of his own. Popeye eventually became the most popular series the Fleischers ever produced, and its success rivaled that of Walt Disney
's Mickey Mouse
cartoons. Three Technicolor
Popeye featurettes were produced in 1936, 1937, and 1939, and were billed in many theatres alongside with or above the main feature.
Fleischer Studios' efforts to emulate the Disney studio culminated in the production of animated feature films, following the success of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
(1937
). Paramount loaned Fleischer the money for a larger studio, which was built in Miami, Florida
to take advantage of tax
breaks and to break up union
activity resulting from a bitter 1937 strike. The new Fleischer studio opened in October 1938, and production on the first feature, Gulliver's Travels
, went from the development stage into active production.
Upon its Christmas
1939 release, Gulliver had a decent showing at the box office, although the quality of the story and animation was far behind that of the film it tried to emulate, Snow White. Between the release of Gulliver and the follow-up feature Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941
), the Fleischers produced their best work from this period, a series of high quality shorts based upon the comic book
superhero
Superman
. The first short in the series, simply titled Superman, had a budget of $50,000, the highest ever for a Fleischer theatrical short, and was nominated for an Academy Award
.
However, this late success did not help the studio lift its financial trouble. The expanded staff of the new Miami studio created a high overhead, necessitating steady production. A number of the shorts turned out during this period, such as the continuing Popeye shorts and a 1941 two-reel adaptation of Raggedy Ann and Andy, maintained a high level of quality. Others, like the Stone Age shorts, and the various Gulliver spin-off series, were among the studio's least successful output.
Mr. Bug Goes to Town was finally released on December 5, 1941. Its release fell just two days before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, which brought the United States into World War II
. Mr. Bug failed to get a general release, and while it was made within its $500,000 budget, its costs could not be recouped. While Dave Fleischer was in Hollywood supervising post-production on Mister Bug, Max Fleischer sent a telegram to Paramount explaining that he could no longer work with Dave, and Paramount produced the letters of resignation. As a result, the Fleischers were removed from control of the studio and Paramount formed a new company, Famous Studios
, as a successor to Fleischer Studios in mid-1942.
Dave Fleischer moved permanently to California, and in April 1942 became head of Columbia
's Screen Gems
cartoon studio. Max Fleischer went on to become Head of the Animation Division of the Jam Handy Organization, and Sam Buchwald, Isadore Sparber
, Dan Gordon, and Max Fleischer's son-in-law Seymour Kneitel
became the new heads of Famous Studios, which was moved back to New York by 1943. The Fleischers were never a major force in the industry again, but their films and characters have remained popular. By the 1980s, the Fleischers were recognized as the animation pioneers that they really were. Fleischer Studios is based in Los Angeles today, and handles the merchandise licensing of Betty Boop and several other original Fleischer characters.
The issue of rights to the Fleischer/Famous Studios cartoon library is complicated.
, which altered the original negatives to a majority of the black-and-white cartoons and modified their original front-and-end credit sequences. For the color cartoons they had a chance to retitle, they created new but cheaply done credits.
Before they could modify all the Paramount cartoons they acquired, the company was bought by National Telefilm Associates
, also known as NTA. This company had a different way of modifying the color cartoons in their library. Instead of creating entirely new opening/closing sequences, NTA replaced the Paramount logos with their own, and on other title cards, all references to Paramount, Technicolor
, Cinecolor
, and Polacolor
were replaced with black bars, including the original copyright notice. NTA placed a U.M.&M. copyright on the end NTA logo.
NTA changed its name to Republic Pictures
in 1984.
Today, Paramount (through Republic, which the studio's parent company, Viacom
, acquired in 1999), in a twist of irony, now owns the original elements to its 1927–September 1950 output they themselves originally released (in addition to the April 1962–December 1967 non-Comic King shorts they have retained the rights to).
Paramount now also owns the theatrical rights, while Lionsgate Entertainment (Republic's video licensee and successor to Artisan Entertainment
, previously LIVE Entertainment) holds the home video rights, and Trifecta Entertainment & Media
now holds most major TV rights on behalf of Republic/Paramount (aside from other major and minor/low budget film, TV, and video companies that distribute the public domain cartoons)--CBS Television Distribution
(as well as its predecessor companies Paramount Domestic Television
and Worldvision Enterprises) formally held such TV rights until 2009.
However, the copyrights for much of these cartoons (including the Color Classics series, the Screen Songs series, and Gulliver's Travels
) were not renewed by NTA. As a result, the films entered public domain
. Mr. Bug Goes to Town and the Betty Boop
series are among the few films that remain under copyright to Republic.
(a.a.p.), which later became part of United Artists
(for info on the Popeye retitling, see the a.a.p. article) and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
. Turner Entertainment
, after failing to buy MGM outright, settled for ownership of the library, including the Popeye cartoons, in 1986. A number of Popeye cartoons have also gone public domain, but not nearly as many entries as other Fleischer series due to better copyright management on UA's part. Popeye's trademark has been strictly enforced over the years by King Features Syndicate.
The Superman series reverted to National Comics
after Paramount's rights to the character expired. TV syndication rights were initially licensed to Flamingo Films, distributors of the 1950s Superman TV series
. All 17 entries in this series would enter the public domain in the late 60s-early 70s, when National/DC failed to renew their copyrights.
Both of these series are now under the ownership of Warner Bros.
Entertainment, a subsidiary of Time Warner
. WB bought the original film elements to the Superman series in 1969 after buying DC Comics. Then in 1996, Time Warner bought out Turner, giving WB ownership of the Popeye series, although technically speaking these two franchises are owned by the various units of WB (Turner and DC, respectively).
s have been widely available on video since the 1980s, often on inexpensive (and poor quality) videotapes sold in supermarkets and department stores as parts of collections of other public-domain cartoons. Both animation fans and the UCLA Film and Television Archive
have worked to give the classic Fleischer cartoons the credit they deserve, and high-quality restored editions of the Fleischer cartoons have also been made available on pay-cable, home video and DVD
. Many of these restored prints include the original front-and-end Paramount titles.
Roughly half of the entries in the Betty Boop series, and most of those in the Out of the Inkwell/Inkwell Imps series have also entered the public domain, though they are not as widely available because of the popular belief among today's video producers that black-and-white
and silent
cartoons in general do not appeal to young children. Some of these cartoons have also appeared in restored versions (mostly with their original credits).
Although there were official releases in the late 1980s of Betty Boop compilation VHS and LaserDisc
box sets by Live Entertainment, and select Superman cartoons by Warner Home Video (as part of separate VHS and LaserDisc collections of episodes from The Adventures of Superman TV series of the 1950s), it would take longer for any official DVD releases of the Fleischer cartoons due to Republic's ownership and video license changes, the potential film and/or digital restoration costs, and the financial viability as the result of releasing restored versions.
Warner Home Video has released all of the Fleischer Popeye cartoons in three volumes as part of the Popeye the Sailor
DVD collection.
There have been some notable video releases for the Superman series, among the best reviewed of these was a 1991 VHS set produced by Bosko Video, titled The Complete Superman Collection: Golden Anniversary Edition - The Paramount Cartoon Classics of Max & Dave Fleischer released as two volumes which featured high-quality transfers from 35mm prints.
At least two separate versions of the Superman series was released on DVD, both of which feature all 17 original episodes:
A third (and more "official") compilation using restored and remastered materials was released in November, 2006 by Warner Home Video
as part of their DVD box set of Superman films. Recently, Warner gave these Superman shorts their own stand-alone DVD release using the same remasters as in 2006.
VCI Entertainment/Kit Parker Films' DVD compilation of all the Color Classics entitled Somewhere In Dreamland, which includes only a fraction of shorts remastered from 35MM, but otherwise taken from the best available sources Kit Parker could provide VCI, and digitally recreating the original front-and-end Paramount titles, was released in 2003. Animation archivist Jerry Beck
served as consultant for this box set, as well as providing audio commentary for select shorts.
action (particularly in films such as Snow White and Bimbo's Initiation
), grungy atmosphere, and racy pre-Code
content of the early Fleischer Studios cartoons have been a major influence on many underground
and alternative
cartoonists. Kim Deitch
, Robert Crumb
, Jim Woodring
, and Al Columbia
are among the creators who have specifically acknowledged their inspiration.
Much of Richard Elfman
's 1980 cult film
Forbidden Zone
is a live action pastiche
of the early Fleischer Studios style.
In 1985, DC Comics named Fleischer Studios as one of the honorees in the company's 50th anniversary publication Fifty Who Made DC Great
for its work on the Superman cartoons
.
The style of Fleischer was used to 1995 animated series The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat
.
. It is headed by Max's grandson Mark Fleischer who oversees merchanding activities. But unfortunetly don't holds any rights the the cartoons. Fleischer Studios utilizes King Features Syndicate to license Fleischer characters for various merchandise.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
corporation which originated as an Animation studio
Animation studio
An animation studio is a company producing animated media. The broadest such companies conceive of products to produce, own the physical equipment for production, employ operators for that equipment, and hold a major stake in the sales or rentals of the media produced...
located at 1600 Broadway
Broadway (New York City)
Broadway is a prominent avenue in New York City, United States, which runs through the full length of the borough of Manhattan and continues northward through the Bronx borough before terminating in Westchester County, New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to...
, New York City, New York. It was founded in 1921 as Inkwell Studios (or Out of the Inkwell Films) by brothers Max Fleischer
Max Fleischer
Max Fleischer was an American animator. He was a pioneer in the development of the animated cartoon and served as the head of Fleischer Studios...
and Dave Fleischer
Dave Fleischer
David "Dave" Fleischer was an American animator film director and film producer, best known as a co-owner of Fleischer Studios with his two older brothers Max Fleischer and Lou Fleischer...
who ran the company from its inception until Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
, the studio's parent company and the distributor of its films, forced them to resign in April 1942. In its prime, it was the most significant competitor to Walt Disney Productions, and is notable for bringing to the screen cartoons featuring Koko the Clown
Koko the Clown
Koko the Clown was an animated character created by animation pioneer Max Fleischer. The character originated when Max Fleischer invented the rotoscope, a device that allowed for animation to be more lifelike by tracing motion picture footage of human movement. To test out his new invention...
, Betty Boop
Betty Boop
Betty Boop is an animated cartoon character created by Max Fleischer, with help from animators including Grim Natwick. She originally appeared in the Talkartoon and Betty Boop film series, which were produced by Fleischer Studios and released by Paramount Pictures. She has also been featured in...
, Bimbo
Bimbo (Fleischer)
Bimbo is a fictional character, a cartoon dog created by Fleischer Studios. He first appeared in the Out of the Inkwell series and was originally named Fitz....
, Popeye the Sailor
Popeye the Sailor (1933 cartoon)
Popeye the Sailor is a 1933 Fleischer Studios animated short, directed by Dave Fleischer. While billed as a Betty Boop cartoon, it actually starred Popeye the Sailor in his first animated appearance.-Summary:...
, and Superman
Superman (1940s cartoons)
The Fleischer & Famous Superman cartoons are a series of seventeen animated Technicolor short films released by Paramount Pictures and based upon the comic book character Superman....
. Unlike other studios, whose most famous characters were anthropomorphic animals, the Fleischers' most popular characters were humans.
Silent films
The company had its start when Max Fleischer invented the rotoscopeRotoscope
Rotoscoping is an animation technique in which animators trace over live-action film movement, frame by frame, for use in animated films. Originally, recorded live-action film images were projected onto a frosted glass panel and re-drawn by an animator...
, which allowed for extremely lifelike animation. Using this device, the Fleischer brothers got a contract with Bray Studio in 1919 to produce their own series called Out of the Inkwell
Out of the Inkwell
Out of the Inkwell was a major animated series of the silent era produced by Max Fleischer from 1918 to 1929.The series was the result of three short experimental films that Max Fleischer independently produced in the period of 1914-1916 to demonstrate his invention, the Rotoscope, which was a...
, which featured their first characters, the as yet unnamed Koko the Clown
Koko the Clown
Koko the Clown was an animated character created by animation pioneer Max Fleischer. The character originated when Max Fleischer invented the rotoscope, a device that allowed for animation to be more lifelike by tracing motion picture footage of human movement. To test out his new invention...
, and Fitz the Dog, who would evolve into Bimbo in 1930. Out of the Inkwell
Out of the Inkwell
Out of the Inkwell was a major animated series of the silent era produced by Max Fleischer from 1918 to 1929.The series was the result of three short experimental films that Max Fleischer independently produced in the period of 1914-1916 to demonstrate his invention, the Rotoscope, which was a...
became a very successful series. As the Bray theatrical operation started to diminish, the brothers began their own studio in 1921. Dave served as the director and supervised the studio's production, while Max served as the producer. The company was known as Out of the Inkwell Films, Incorporated, and later became Fleischer Studios in January, 1929.
Throughout the 1920s, Fleischer was one of the top producers of animation, with clever humor and numerous innovations including the Rotograph, an early photographic process for compositing animation with live action backgrounds. Other innovations included Ko-Ko Song Car-Tunes, sing-along shorts (featuring the famous "bouncing ball
Bouncing ball
The bouncing ball is a device used in video recordings to visually indicate the rhythm of a song, helping audiences to sing along with live or prerecorded music...
"), which were a sort of precursor to Karaoke
Karaoke
is a form of interactive entertainment or video game in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music using a microphone and public address system. The music is typically a well-known pop song minus the lead vocal. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol,...
. From May 1924 to September 1926, the studio used Dr. Lee De Forest
Lee De Forest
Lee De Forest was an American inventor with over 180 patents to his credit. De Forest invented the Audion, a vacuum tube that takes relatively weak electrical signals and amplifies them. De Forest is one of the fathers of the "electronic age", as the Audion helped to usher in the widespread use...
's Phonofilm
Phonofilm
In 1919, Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patent on a sound-on-film process, DeForest Phonofilm, which recorded sound directly onto film as parallel lines. These parallel lines photographically recorded electrical waveforms from a microphone, which were translated back...
sound-on-film
Sound-on-film
Sound-on-film refers to a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying picture is physically recorded onto photographic film, usually, but not always, the same strip of film carrying the picture. Sound-on-film processes can either record an analog sound track or digital sound track,...
process to produce 19 early cartoons with synchronized sound tracks, including Come Take a Trip in My Airship, Darling Nelly Gray, Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly and By the Light of the Silvery Moon
By the Light of the Silvery Moon
By the Light of the Silvery Moon may refer to:*"By the Light of the Silvery Moon" , a 1909 popular song*By the Light of the Silvery Moon , a 1953 musical film starring Doris Day...
. The Ko-Ko Song Car-Tunes series ended in 1927, but returned as the Screen Songs
Screen Songs
Screen Songs is the name of a series of animated cartoons produced by the Fleischer Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures between 1929 and 1938. They were revived by Famous Studios in 1945 starting with the Noveltoon Old MacDonald Had a Farm....
series from 1929 to 1938.
Sound and color
Screen Songs
Screen Songs is the name of a series of animated cartoons produced by the Fleischer Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures between 1929 and 1938. They were revived by Famous Studios in 1945 starting with the Noveltoon Old MacDonald Had a Farm....
, a continuation of the earlier Ko-Ko Song Cartunes. The first of these was The Sidewalks of New York
The Sidewalks of New York
"The Sidewalks of New York" is a popular song about life in New York City during the 1890s. It was created by lyricist James W. Blake and vaudeville actor and composer Charles B. Lawlor in 1894. The song proved successful afterwards, and is often considered a theme for New York City...
, released on February 5, 1929. In October of that same year, the Fleischers introduced a new series called Talkartoons
Talkartoons
Talkartoons is the name of a series of 42 animated cartoons produced by the Fleischer Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures between 1929 and 1932.-History:For the Fleischer brothers, the transition to sound was relatively easy...
. Earlier entries in the series were mostly one-shot cartoons, but Bimbo would become a staple of the series. Bimbo was upstaged by his girlfriend, Betty Boop
Betty Boop
Betty Boop is an animated cartoon character created by Max Fleischer, with help from animators including Grim Natwick. She originally appeared in the Talkartoon and Betty Boop film series, which were produced by Fleischer Studios and released by Paramount Pictures. She has also been featured in...
, who quickly became the star of the studio, and by August 1932, the Talkartoon series was renamed as Betty Boop cartoons; Fleischer Studios also gained more success by using Cab Calloway
Cab Calloway
Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City where he was a regular performer....
in three Betty Boop cartoons, Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
, and Don Redman
Don Redman
Donald Matthew Redman was an American jazz musician, arranger, bandleader and composer.Redman was announced as a member of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame on May 6, 2009....
each featured in separate cartoons. Betty was the first featured female character in American animation, and she reflected the distinctive adult urban orientation of the studio's product.
The studio's initial successes began to turn as the 1930s continued. In 1934, the Hays Code was enacted in Hollywood, which resulted in severe censorship for films. Betty's sexuality was neutralized, and much of her charm was lost. At the same time, the Hays Code affected the tone of Paramount's films. Paramount had also gone through three reorganizations from bankruptcy between 1931 and 1936. And the new management set out to make more general audience films of the type made at MGM, but for lower budgets. This change in content policy affected the content of cartoons that Fleischer was to produce for Paramount, who was urging Fleischer to consider emulating Walt Disney's cartoons. The most notable example of the Fleischers' adaptation of the Disney style was their Color Classics
Color Classics
Color Classics were a series of animated short subjects produced by Fleischer Studios for Paramount Pictures from 1934 to 1941 as a competitor to Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies. As the name implies, all of the shorts were made in color, with the first entry in the series, Poor Cinderella, being the...
series, which was essentially a copy
Rip-Off
Rip-Off is a top-down vector shoot 'em up arcade game released by Cinematronics in 1980. It is the first shoot 'em up arcade game to feature cooperative gameplay and to exhibit flocking behavior.-Gameplay:...
and direct parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of Disney's Silly Symphonies
Silly Symphonies
Silly Symphonies is a series of animated short subjects, 75 in total, produced by Walt Disney Productions from 1929 to 1939, while the studio was still located at Hyperion Avenue in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles...
.
The Fleischers' success was further solidified when they licensed E.C. Segar's comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
character Popeye the Sailor
Popeye
Popeye the Sailor is a cartoon fictional character created by Elzie Crisler Segar, who has appeared in comic strips and animated cartoons in the cinema as well as on television. He first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929...
for a cartoon series of his own. Popeye eventually became the most popular series the Fleischers ever produced, and its success rivaled that of Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
's Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...
cartoons. Three Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
Popeye featurettes were produced in 1936, 1937, and 1939, and were billed in many theatres alongside with or above the main feature.
Later period
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American animated film based on Snow White, a German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It was the first full-length cel-animated feature in motion picture history, as well as the first animated feature film produced in America, the first produced in full...
(1937
1937 in film
The year 1937 in film involved some significant events, including the Walt Disney production of the first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.- Events :*April 16 - Way Out West premieres in the US....
). Paramount loaned Fleischer the money for a larger studio, which was built in Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
to take advantage of tax
Tax
To tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law. Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entities...
breaks and to break up union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
activity resulting from a bitter 1937 strike. The new Fleischer studio opened in October 1938, and production on the first feature, Gulliver's Travels
Gulliver's Travels (1939 film)
Gulliver's Travels is a 1939 American cel-animated Technicolor feature film, directed by Dave Fleischer and produced by Max Fleischer for Fleischer Studios. The film was released on Friday, December 22, 1939 by Paramount Pictures, who had the feature produced as an answer to the success of Walt...
, went from the development stage into active production.
Upon its Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
1939 release, Gulliver had a decent showing at the box office, although the quality of the story and animation was far behind that of the film it tried to emulate, Snow White. Between the release of Gulliver and the follow-up feature Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941
1941 in film
The year 1941 in film involved some significant events.-Events:Citizen Kane, consistently rated as one of the greatest films of all time, was released in 1941.-Top grossing films :-Academy Awards:...
), the Fleischers produced their best work from this period, a series of high quality shorts based upon the comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
Superman
Superman (1940s cartoons)
The Fleischer & Famous Superman cartoons are a series of seventeen animated Technicolor short films released by Paramount Pictures and based upon the comic book character Superman....
. The first short in the series, simply titled Superman, had a budget of $50,000, the highest ever for a Fleischer theatrical short, and was nominated for an Academy Award
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
.
However, this late success did not help the studio lift its financial trouble. The expanded staff of the new Miami studio created a high overhead, necessitating steady production. A number of the shorts turned out during this period, such as the continuing Popeye shorts and a 1941 two-reel adaptation of Raggedy Ann and Andy, maintained a high level of quality. Others, like the Stone Age shorts, and the various Gulliver spin-off series, were among the studio's least successful output.
Acquisition by Paramount
As profits dwindled, the Fleischers had to frequently request loans from Paramount and eventually had to surrender their shares of the studio. Even worse, Max and Dave were no longer speaking to each other as a result of professional and personal disputes. Paramount had both Fleischers submit a signed letter of resignation, to be used at Paramount's discretion, in order for the Fleischer Studio to receive financing for the 1940–1941 film season. On May 24, 1941, Paramount called their loans and assumed full ownership of Fleischer Studios, Inc. The Fleischers remained in control of production through the end of 1941.Mr. Bug Goes to Town was finally released on December 5, 1941. Its release fell just two days before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, which brought the United States into World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Mr. Bug failed to get a general release, and while it was made within its $500,000 budget, its costs could not be recouped. While Dave Fleischer was in Hollywood supervising post-production on Mister Bug, Max Fleischer sent a telegram to Paramount explaining that he could no longer work with Dave, and Paramount produced the letters of resignation. As a result, the Fleischers were removed from control of the studio and Paramount formed a new company, Famous Studios
Famous Studios
Famous Studios was the animation division of the film studio Paramount Pictures from 1942 to 1967. Famous was founded as a successor company to Fleischer Studios, after Paramount acquired the aforementioned studio and ousted its founders, Max and Dave Fleischer, in 1941...
, as a successor to Fleischer Studios in mid-1942.
Dave Fleischer moved permanently to California, and in April 1942 became head of Columbia
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
's Screen Gems
Screen Gems
Screen Gems is an American movie production company and subsidiary company of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group that has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the decades since its incorporation....
cartoon studio. Max Fleischer went on to become Head of the Animation Division of the Jam Handy Organization, and Sam Buchwald, Isadore Sparber
Isadore Sparber
Isadore Sparber was an American storyboard artist, writer, director and producer of animated films. He is best known for his work with Fleischer Studios and its successor, Famous Studios. His work appeared with different versions of his name including Izzy Sparber, I...
, Dan Gordon, and Max Fleischer's son-in-law Seymour Kneitel
Seymour Kneitel
Seymour Kneitel was an American animator. He is best known for his work with Fleischer Studios and its successor, Famous Studios.-Early years:...
became the new heads of Famous Studios, which was moved back to New York by 1943. The Fleischers were never a major force in the industry again, but their films and characters have remained popular. By the 1980s, the Fleischers were recognized as the animation pioneers that they really were. Fleischer Studios is based in Los Angeles today, and handles the merchandise licensing of Betty Boop and several other original Fleischer characters.
Copyright status
U.M.&M. T.V. Corp./NTA/Republic
With the exception of the Superman and Popeye cartoons, Paramount's cartoon library from prior to October 1950 was originally sold to a company called U.M.&M. T.V. Corp.U.M.&M. T.V. Corp.
U.M.&M. T.V. Corp. is best known as the original purchaser of Paramount Pictures' pre-October 1950 shorts and cartoons...
, which altered the original negatives to a majority of the black-and-white cartoons and modified their original front-and-end credit sequences. For the color cartoons they had a chance to retitle, they created new but cheaply done credits.
Before they could modify all the Paramount cartoons they acquired, the company was bought by National Telefilm Associates
National Telefilm Associates
National Telefilm Associates was an independent distribution company that handled reissues of American film libraries, including much of Paramount Pictures' animated and short-subjects library.-History:...
, also known as NTA. This company had a different way of modifying the color cartoons in their library. Instead of creating entirely new opening/closing sequences, NTA replaced the Paramount logos with their own, and on other title cards, all references to Paramount, Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
, Cinecolor
Cinecolor
Cinecolor was an early subtractive color-model two color film process, based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and 1930s. It was developed by William T. Crispinel and Alan M...
, and Polacolor
Polacolor
Polacolor was the trade name of two very different color photography products developed by the Polaroid Corporation.-Motion picture print process:...
were replaced with black bars, including the original copyright notice. NTA placed a U.M.&M. copyright on the end NTA logo.
NTA changed its name to Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures was an independent film production-distribution corporation with studio facilities, operating from 1934 through 1959, and was best known for specializing in westerns, movie serials and B films emphasizing mystery and action....
in 1984.
Today, Paramount (through Republic, which the studio's parent company, Viacom
Viacom
Viacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...
, acquired in 1999), in a twist of irony, now owns the original elements to its 1927–September 1950 output they themselves originally released (in addition to the April 1962–December 1967 non-Comic King shorts they have retained the rights to).
Paramount now also owns the theatrical rights, while Lionsgate Entertainment (Republic's video licensee and successor to Artisan Entertainment
Artisan Entertainment
Artisan Entertainment Inc. was a privately held independent American movie studio until it was purchased by a Canadian studio, Lionsgate, in 2003. At the time of its acquisition, Artisan had a library of thousands of films developed through acquisition, original production, and production and...
, previously LIVE Entertainment) holds the home video rights, and Trifecta Entertainment & Media
Trifecta Entertainment & Media
Trifecta Entertainment & Media is an American entertainment company founded in 2006. The company's founders previously held jobs as executives at MGM Television. Trifecta is primarily a distribution company and also handles advertising sales in exchange for syndication deals with local television...
now holds most major TV rights on behalf of Republic/Paramount (aside from other major and minor/low budget film, TV, and video companies that distribute the public domain cartoons)--CBS Television Distribution
CBS Television Distribution
CBS Television Distribution is a global television distribution company, formed from the merger of CBS Corporation's two domestic television distribution arms CBS Paramount Domestic Television and King World Productions, including its home entertainment arm CBS Home Entertainment...
(as well as its predecessor companies Paramount Domestic Television
Paramount Domestic Television
Paramount Domestic Television was the television distribution arm of American television production company Paramount Television, once the TV arm of Paramount Pictures...
and Worldvision Enterprises) formally held such TV rights until 2009.
However, the copyrights for much of these cartoons (including the Color Classics series, the Screen Songs series, and Gulliver's Travels
Gulliver's Travels (1939 film)
Gulliver's Travels is a 1939 American cel-animated Technicolor feature film, directed by Dave Fleischer and produced by Max Fleischer for Fleischer Studios. The film was released on Friday, December 22, 1939 by Paramount Pictures, who had the feature produced as an answer to the success of Walt...
) were not renewed by NTA. As a result, the films entered public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
. Mr. Bug Goes to Town and the Betty Boop
Betty Boop
Betty Boop is an animated cartoon character created by Max Fleischer, with help from animators including Grim Natwick. She originally appeared in the Talkartoon and Betty Boop film series, which were produced by Fleischer Studios and released by Paramount Pictures. She has also been featured in...
series are among the few films that remain under copyright to Republic.
Popeye and Superman
The Popeye series was acquired by Associated Artists ProductionsAssociated Artists Productions
Associated Artists Productions was a distributor of theatrical feature films and short subjects for television. It existed from 1953 to 1958. It was later folded into United Artists. The former a.a.p. library was later owned by MGM/UA Entertainment and then Turner Entertainment. Turner continues...
(a.a.p.), which later became part of United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
(for info on the Popeye retitling, see the a.a.p. article) and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
. Turner Entertainment
Turner Entertainment
Turner Entertainment Company, Inc. is an American media company founded by Ted Turner. Now owned by Time Warner, the company is largely responsible for overseeing its library for worldwide distribution Turner Entertainment Company, Inc. (commonly known as Turner Entertainment Co.) is an American...
, after failing to buy MGM outright, settled for ownership of the library, including the Popeye cartoons, in 1986. A number of Popeye cartoons have also gone public domain, but not nearly as many entries as other Fleischer series due to better copyright management on UA's part. Popeye's trademark has been strictly enforced over the years by King Features Syndicate.
The Superman series reverted to National Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
after Paramount's rights to the character expired. TV syndication rights were initially licensed to Flamingo Films, distributors of the 1950s Superman TV series
Adventures of Superman (TV series)
Adventures of Superman is an American television series based on comic book characters and concepts created in 1938 by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The show is the first television series to feature Superman and began filming in 1951 in California...
. All 17 entries in this series would enter the public domain in the late 60s-early 70s, when National/DC failed to renew their copyrights.
Both of these series are now under the ownership of Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
Entertainment, a subsidiary of Time Warner
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
. WB bought the original film elements to the Superman series in 1969 after buying DC Comics. Then in 1996, Time Warner bought out Turner, giving WB ownership of the Popeye series, although technically speaking these two franchises are owned by the various units of WB (Turner and DC, respectively).
Video availability
Most of the Fleischers' color public domain filmPublic domain film
A public domain film is a film that was released to public domain by its author or because its copyright has expired.- Public domain film by country :...
s have been widely available on video since the 1980s, often on inexpensive (and poor quality) videotapes sold in supermarkets and department stores as parts of collections of other public-domain cartoons. Both animation fans and the UCLA Film and Television Archive
UCLA Film and Television Archive
The UCLA Film and Television Archive is an internationally renowned visual arts organization focused on the preservation, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles. It holds more than 220,000 film and television titles and 27 million feet of...
have worked to give the classic Fleischer cartoons the credit they deserve, and high-quality restored editions of the Fleischer cartoons have also been made available on pay-cable, home video and DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
. Many of these restored prints include the original front-and-end Paramount titles.
Roughly half of the entries in the Betty Boop series, and most of those in the Out of the Inkwell/Inkwell Imps series have also entered the public domain, though they are not as widely available because of the popular belief among today's video producers that black-and-white
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
and silent
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
cartoons in general do not appeal to young children. Some of these cartoons have also appeared in restored versions (mostly with their original credits).
Although there were official releases in the late 1980s of Betty Boop compilation VHS and LaserDisc
Laserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
box sets by Live Entertainment, and select Superman cartoons by Warner Home Video (as part of separate VHS and LaserDisc collections of episodes from The Adventures of Superman TV series of the 1950s), it would take longer for any official DVD releases of the Fleischer cartoons due to Republic's ownership and video license changes, the potential film and/or digital restoration costs, and the financial viability as the result of releasing restored versions.
Warner Home Video has released all of the Fleischer Popeye cartoons in three volumes as part of the Popeye the Sailor
Popeye the Sailor (Warner DVD series)
Popeye the Sailor is a fictional cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar, which first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929...
DVD collection.
There have been some notable video releases for the Superman series, among the best reviewed of these was a 1991 VHS set produced by Bosko Video, titled The Complete Superman Collection: Golden Anniversary Edition - The Paramount Cartoon Classics of Max & Dave Fleischer released as two volumes which featured high-quality transfers from 35mm prints.
At least two separate versions of the Superman series was released on DVD, both of which feature all 17 original episodes:
- The Complete Superman Cartoons — Diamond Anniversary Edition (released in 2000 by Image EntertainmentImage EntertainmentImage Entertainment, Inc. is an independent licensee, producer and distributor of home entertainment programming and film & television productions in North America, with approximately 3,000 exclusive DVD titles and approximately 250 exclusive CD titles in domestic release, and approximately 450...
, this DVD was a re-issue of the Bosko Video tape set) - Superman Adventures (released in 2004 by Platinum Disc Corporation).
A third (and more "official") compilation using restored and remastered materials was released in November, 2006 by Warner Home Video
Warner Home Video
Warner Home Video is the home video unit of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., itself part of Time Warner. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video . The company launched in the United States with twenty films on VHS and Betamax videocassettes in late 1979...
as part of their DVD box set of Superman films. Recently, Warner gave these Superman shorts their own stand-alone DVD release using the same remasters as in 2006.
VCI Entertainment/Kit Parker Films' DVD compilation of all the Color Classics entitled Somewhere In Dreamland, which includes only a fraction of shorts remastered from 35MM, but otherwise taken from the best available sources Kit Parker could provide VCI, and digitally recreating the original front-and-end Paramount titles, was released in 2003. Animation archivist Jerry Beck
Jerry Beck
Jerry Beck is a well-known animation historian, with ten books and numerous articles to his credit. He is also an animation producer, an industry consultant to Warner Bros., and has been an executive with Nickelodeon and Disney....
served as consultant for this box set, as well as providing audio commentary for select shorts.
Influence
The loose, improvisatory animation, frequently surrealSurrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
action (particularly in films such as Snow White and Bimbo's Initiation
Bimbo's Initiation
Bimbo's Initiation is a 1931 Fleischer Studios Talkartoon animated short film starring Bimbo and featuring Betty Boop. It was the final Betty Boop cartoon to be animated by the character's co-creator, Grim Natwick.-Plot:...
), grungy atmosphere, and racy pre-Code
Pre-Code
Pre-Code Hollywood refers to the era in the American film industry between the introduction of sound in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines. Although the Code was adopted in 1930, oversight was poor and it did not become rigorously...
content of the early Fleischer Studios cartoons have been a major influence on many underground
Underground comix
Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books which are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, including explicit drug use, sexuality and violence...
and alternative
Alternative comics
Alternative comics defines a range of American comics that have appeared since the 1980s, following the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alternative comics present an alternative to "mainstream" superhero comics which in the past have dominated the US comic book industry...
cartoonists. Kim Deitch
Kim Deitch
-Sources:* at Lambiek's Comiclopedia-External links:* Ford, Jeffrey. *Heller, Steven. **...
, Robert Crumb
Robert Crumb
Robert Dennis Crumb —known as Robert Crumb and R. Crumb—is an American artist, illustrator, and musician recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream.Crumb was a founder of the underground comix movement and is regarded...
, Jim Woodring
Jim Woodring
Jim Woodring is a Seattle-based cartoonist, comic book author, artist and toy designer. He also produces fine art works in a variety of other media, including painting and charcoal....
, and Al Columbia
Al Columbia
Al Columbia is an American cartoonist, illustrator, writer, photographer, musician, and filmmaker.-Big Numbers controversy:At the age of 19 Columbia was hired to work as an assistant to Bill Sienkiewicz on Alan Moore's Big Numbers series...
are among the creators who have specifically acknowledged their inspiration.
Much of Richard Elfman
Richard Elfman
Richard "Rick" Elfman, , is an American film actor, director, producer, screenwriter, author, and magazine publisher.-Family:...
's 1980 cult film
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...
Forbidden Zone
Forbidden Zone
Forbidden Zone is a 1982 musical comedy film based upon the stage performances of the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo. The film stars Hervé Villechaize, Susan Tyrrell and members of the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, and features appearances by Warhol Superstar Viva, Joe Spinell and The...
is a live action pastiche
Pastiche
A pastiche is a literary or other artistic genre or technique that is a "hodge-podge" or imitation. The word is also a linguistic term used to describe an early stage in the development of a pidgin language.-Hodge-podge:...
of the early Fleischer Studios style.
In 1985, DC Comics named Fleischer Studios as one of the honorees in the company's 50th anniversary publication Fifty Who Made DC Great
Fifty Who Made DC Great
Fifty Who Made DC Great is a one shot published by DC Comics to commemorate the company's 50th anniversary in 1985. It was published in comic book format but contained text articles with photographs and background caricatures...
for its work on the Superman cartoons
Superman (1940s cartoons)
The Fleischer & Famous Superman cartoons are a series of seventeen animated Technicolor short films released by Paramount Pictures and based upon the comic book character Superman....
.
The style of Fleischer was used to 1995 animated series The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat
The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat
The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat is an animated series starring the classic 1919 feline character, Felix the Cat produced for television by Film Roman. It aired from September 9, 1995 to November 25, 1997 on CBS.-History:...
.
Fleischer Studios today
Today, Fleischer Studios operates as a company which continues to hold to the rights to Betty Boop and associated characters such as Koko the Clown, Bimbo and GrampyGrampy
Grampy is an animated cartoon character appearing in the Betty Boop series of films produced by Max Fleischer and released by Paramount Pictures....
. It is headed by Max's grandson Mark Fleischer who oversees merchanding activities. But unfortunetly don't holds any rights the the cartoons. Fleischer Studios utilizes King Features Syndicate to license Fleischer characters for various merchandise.
Filmography
- *:(all works are in) public domain
- #:some works are in public domain
- **: Inherited by Famous Studios
Theatrical shorts series
- Out of the InkwellOut of the InkwellOut of the Inkwell was a major animated series of the silent era produced by Max Fleischer from 1918 to 1929.The series was the result of three short experimental films that Max Fleischer independently produced in the period of 1914-1916 to demonstrate his invention, the Rotoscope, which was a...
(1919 – 1926; earlier entries produced by John R. Bray from 1918 to 1921) - Fun from the Press (1923)
- Inklings (1926)
- Inkwell Imps (1927 – 1929)
- Song Car-Tunes (1924 – 1926)
- Screen SongsScreen SongsScreen Songs is the name of a series of animated cartoons produced by the Fleischer Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures between 1929 and 1938. They were revived by Famous Studios in 1945 starting with the Noveltoon Old MacDonald Had a Farm....
(1929 – 1938) - TalkartoonsTalkartoonsTalkartoons is the name of a series of 42 animated cartoons produced by the Fleischer Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures between 1929 and 1932.-History:For the Fleischer brothers, the transition to sound was relatively easy...
(1929 – 1932) - Betty BoopBetty BoopBetty Boop is an animated cartoon character created by Max Fleischer, with help from animators including Grim Natwick. She originally appeared in the Talkartoon and Betty Boop film series, which were produced by Fleischer Studios and released by Paramount Pictures. She has also been featured in...
# (1932 – 1939) - Popeye the Sailor# (1933 – 1942)**
- Color ClassicsColor ClassicsColor Classics were a series of animated short subjects produced by Fleischer Studios for Paramount Pictures from 1934 to 1941 as a competitor to Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies. As the name implies, all of the shorts were made in color, with the first entry in the series, Poor Cinderella, being the...
# (1934 – 1941) - Stone Age (1940)
- Animated Antics (1940 – 1941)
- GabbyGabby (cartoon)Gabby was a Max Fleischer animated cartoon series distributed through Paramount Pictures. Gabby was the town crier in the 1939 animated feature Gulliver’s Travels produced by Fleischer. Paramount and Fleischer saw fit to give Gabby his own Technicolor cartoon series, eight entries of which were...
(1940 – 1941) - SupermanSuperman (1940s cartoons)The Fleischer & Famous Superman cartoons are a series of seventeen animated Technicolor short films released by Paramount Pictures and based upon the comic book character Superman....
* (1941 – 1942)**
Two-reel shorts
- Darwin's Theory of Evolution (1923)
- The Einstein Theory of RelativityThe Einstein Theory of RelativityThe Einstein Theory of Relativity is a silent film directed by Max and Dave Fleischer and released by Fleischer Studios.In August 1922, Scientific American published an article explaining their position that a silent film would be unsuccessful in presenting Albert Einstein's theory of relativity...
(1923) - Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy (1941)
- The Raven (1942)
Feature films
- Gulliver's TravelsGulliver's Travels (1939 film)Gulliver's Travels is a 1939 American cel-animated Technicolor feature film, directed by Dave Fleischer and produced by Max Fleischer for Fleischer Studios. The film was released on Friday, December 22, 1939 by Paramount Pictures, who had the feature produced as an answer to the success of Walt...
* (1939) - Mr. Bug Goes to TownMister Bug Goes to TownMr. Bug Goes to Town, also known as Hoppity Goes to Town and Bugville, is an animated feature produced by Fleischer Studios and released to theaters by Paramount Pictures on December 5, 1941...
(1941)
See also
- Animation Before Hollywood: The Silent Period
- The Golden Age of American animationThe Golden Age of American animationThe Golden Age of U.S. animation is a period in the United States animation history that began with the advent of sound cartoons in 1928 and continued into the early 1960s when theatrical animated shorts slowly began losing to the new medium of television animation.Many memorable characters emerged...
- Famous StudiosFamous StudiosFamous Studios was the animation division of the film studio Paramount Pictures from 1942 to 1967. Famous was founded as a successor company to Fleischer Studios, after Paramount acquired the aforementioned studio and ousted its founders, Max and Dave Fleischer, in 1941...
- List of animation studios
External links
- Official site
- Toonopedia: Max Fleischer Studio
- Fleischer Sound Cartoons Filmography
- Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves at the Internet Archive.
- "The Real Heroes of Superman" essay on Max Fleischer from Flixens.com