Fleischer Studios ( ) is an American company of animation studios located at 1600 Broadway, New York City, New York. Founded in 1921 as Inkwell Studios by Max Fleischer's brothers and Dave Fleischer who ran the early pioneering company until Paramount Pictures, the parent company of the studio and its film distributor, gained ownership. In his heyday, Fleischer Studios was the main producer of animated cartoons for the theater, with Walt Disney Productions becoming its main competitor in the 1930s.
Fleischer Studios is famous for Koko Clown, Betty Boop, Bimbo, Popeye the Sailor, and Superman. Unlike other studios, whose characters are anthropomorphic animals, Fleischers' most successful character is human (with the exception of Bimbo in the 1930s.). Fleischer Studio cartoons are very different from Disney products, both in concept and in execution. As a result, Fleischer cartoons are rougher than subtle, commercial rather than artistically conscious. But in their unique way, their art is expressed through the culmination of art and science. This approach focuses on surrealism, dark humor, adult psychological elements, and sexuality, and its environment is more jaunty and urban, often set in a dirty environment, reflecting the Depression as well as German Expressionism.
Video Fleischer Studios
Inheritance and influence
Loose and improvisational animation, often a real act commonly called, "The New York Style," (especially in movies like Snow White and Bimbo Initiation), the slums , and the thrilling pre-Code Content of the early Fleischer Studios cartoons has been a major influence on many underground and alternative cartoonists. Kim Deitch, Robert Crumb, Jim Woodring, and Al Columbia are among the creators who specifically recognize their inspiration. And many 1980 Richard Elfman's cult films The Forbidden Zone is a pastiche live action from Fleischer Studios's early style. The Fleischer style is also used in the 1995 animated series The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat. The style of studio art and surreal atmosphere is a major influence on the indie game Cuphead, with the studio described as "northern magnet" for the style of the game art.
Maps Fleischer Studios
Silent Era
The Fleischer Studio was built on the new film series Max Fleischer, Out of the Inkwell (1919-1927). "Novelty" is largely based on the result of "Rotoscope", created by Fleischer to produce realistic animations. The first "Out of the Inkwell" film was produced through The Bray Studio, and featured Fleischer's first character, "The Clown," later known as Ko-Ko the Clown in 1924.
In 1921, The Bray Studio insisted on legal issues, after hiring more movies than could be given to its distributor, The Goldwyn Company. The Fleischer Brothers left and started their own studio with Dave as Director and Production Supervisor, and Max as Producer. In 1924, Veteran Animator, Dick Huemer came to The Inkwell Studio and redesigned "The Clown" for a more efficient animation. Huemer's new design and experience as Animator keeps them away from their dependence on The Rotoscope for liquid animation. In addition to defining clowns, Huemer established the Fleischer style with distinctive thick and thin ink lines. In addition, Huemer created Ko-Ko's friend, Fitz the Dog, who will evolve into Bimbo in 1930.
Throughout the 1920s, Fleischer was one of the leading animation producers with smart moments and many innovations including "Rotograph", an early "Citra Air" photography process to combine animations with live action backgrounds. Other innovations include the Song Ko-Ko Song Car-Tunes Song and the sing-along shorts (featuring the famous "bouncing ball"), the predecessor for Karaoke.
In 1924, Distributors, Edwin Miles Fadiman, and Hugo Riesenfeld formed the Red Seal Pictures Corporation. Riesenfeld is The Strand, Rivoli, and Rialto Theater Managers on Broadway. Since the film Out of the Inkwell is a major part of the program at Riesenfeld cinema, Fleischers is invited to become a partner. The Red Seal Company is committed to an ambitious release schedule of 26 films with The Inkwell Studio as the premier supplier. The following year, Red Seal released 141 films that included documentaries, short comedy subjects, and live-action series. Carrie of the Chorus, also known as Backstage Comedies, is one of the Red Seal series featuring Princess Max, Ruth in supporting roles. Ray Bolger made his screen debut in this series and dated Ruth for a short time.
Red Seal released new cartoon series like Cartoons by Cartoonist "Marcus," and Inklings. The Animated Hair series is similar to a gimmick made on a screen made in Out of the Inkwell. In this case, "Marcus" produces high-quality ink portraits of celebrities and political figures. Then through stop motion animation techniques, the lines and shapes will break to comfortably reshape the portrait into another portrait. Inklings has the same concept as Animated Hair movies, but rather a new visual puzzle that uses various progressive scrolling/disclosure techniques and reset pieces of animation to change the image.
That's when Dr. Lee de Forest began filming his initial Phonofilms experiment featuring several major headliners on Broadway. The Red Seal Company began acquiring more theaters outside New York and equipping them with sound equipment produced by Lee de Forest, featuring a "talkie" three years before the sound revolution began. Due to Max's interest in technology, Riesenfeld introduced it to DeForest. And through this partnership Max produces a number of Ko-Ko Song Car songs as a sound release. Of 36 songs produced between 1924 and 1927, 12 were produced as sound films that began in 1926 with a standard version as well. The first sound release is Mother Pin a Rose on Me . Other sound releases include Darling Nellie Gray , Is Someone Here Sees Kelly? , When Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam ', Comes Through Rye , My Wife Goes to Country , Margie, Oh, How I Hate to Rise in the Morning , Sweet Adeline, Old Joe Black , Come Take a Trip on My Airship , and With Glare Moon Light .
The Red Seal is owned by 56 theaters, extending as far west as Cleveland, Ohio. But after just two years of operation, the Red Seal went bust. Max (Fleischer) sought the recipient's appointment in bankruptcy in October 1926. When the situation seemed hopeless, Alfred Weiss emerged from the horizon with Paramount's contact.
The Paramount deal provides financing and distribution. But due to legal complications of bankruptcy, the title for Out of the Inkwell was changed to The Inkwell Imps (1927-1929). One year into the relationship, Fleischer Brothers finds a mismanagement under Weiss and leaves before the expiration of the Imps contract. From Inkwell Films, Inc. filed for bankruptcy in January 1929. In March, Max formed Fleischer Studios with Dave as his partner. The first operation was established at Carpenter-Goldman Laboratories in Queens. With skeleton staff, Fleischer Studios began filming an industry film, especially, Finding His Voice, a technical demonstration film explaining Western Variable Density recording and reproduction system. Max Fleischer secured a new contract with Paramount to generate a revival of the Bounce Ball films, re-branded as Screen Songs, with The Sidewalks of New York as the first release in 1929.
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Early experiments with sound synchronization gave Fleischer Studios experience in perfecting post-production recording methods, aided by some inventions by founder Max Fleischer. And with voice conversion, Paramount needs more sound movies, and cartoons can be produced faster than widescreen movies. When Screen Songs restores Fleischer to an existing movie song format, a new sound series, Talkartoons replaces silent Inkwell Imps , the first is Noah's Lark was released October 25, 1929. The previous entry in the series is a one-shot cartoon, until the appearance of Bimbo on the fourth entry. Bimbo evolved through some redesigns in every cartoon or first year. While the goal is to develop him as the star of the series, it is a caricature cameo appearance of Helen Kane in the seventh entry, Dishes Dizzy that takes center stage. The audience's reaction to the New York preview was so great that Paramount encouraged the development of the most famous character of Fleischer Studio at the time, Betty Boop. Though derived from a human/hybrid dog character, Betty Boop transformed into a human character he recognized in 1932. After becoming the main attraction of Talkartoons, he was given his own series, which ran until 1939.
The Flapper "Jazz Baby" character, Betty Boop lifted the spirit of the Depression Era audience with a mixture of paradoxes about children's innocence and sexual attraction. And being a character of musical novelty, he is a natural for theater entertainment. Some of the early cartoons were developed as a promotional vehicle for some of the top Black Jazz artists of the day including Louis Armstrong ( I Will Be Glad When You Die You, Rascal, You ), Don Redman ( I Hear ), and in particular, three cartoons made with Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher , Snow White , and The Old Man of the Mountain . This is considered a courageous act in light of the active Jim Crow policy in the South where such films will not be shown.
In 1934, the Hays Code produced a severe sensor for the film. This affects the content of all Paramount films as well, which tends to reflect a more "mature" tone in the features of Marx Brothers, W.C. Fields, and most importantly, Mae West. As a result, each of these stars was released when Paramount changed its movie content to reflect more "general audiences" to comply with the new Code and stay in business. Paramount has also gone through three reorganizations of bankruptcy between 1931 and 1936. And the new management under Barney Balaban set out to make more generic audience films of the kind made at MGM, but for a lower budget. Changes in this content policy affect the cartoon content Fleischer will produce for Paramount, driving Walt Disney product emulation.
While Paramount is a large organization with a network of theaters, its fiscal awareness is largely responsible for preventing Fleischer Studios from obtaining a three-color Technicolor Process, making it available for a four-year exclusivity with Walt Disney, creating a new market for color cartoons, founded by Academy Award winners, i> Flowers and Trees (1932). Paramount is released to the series release of Color Classics beginning in 1934. But with the exclusivity of the three-color process still held by Disney, Fleischer Studios uses the two-color process available, Cinecolor, two-processed red and blue, and Two-color Technicolor, using red and green. In 1936, Disney's exclusivity was over, and Fleischer Studios used a three-color process in a color cartoon that began with Somewhere in Dreamland and continued to use it for the rest of the year.
The greatest success of Fleischer Studio came with the licensing of EC Comic Popeye the Sailor's comic character from 1933.
The Fleischer Studios has peaked in 1936, with four series and 52 annual releases. Due to the phenomenal success of the Popeye cartoon, Paramount demands more, and Fleischer Studio has a rapid expansion to balance the increased workload. Crowded conditions, production speed, withdrawal quota, and internal management problems resulted in Labor Strike starting in May 1937 which lasted for five months. This strike was a test, first launched in the film industry, and resulted in a national boycott of the Fleischer cartoons during that duration.
Max Fleischer has filed Paramount for three years about producing animated features. Paramount vetoed his proposal until the proven success of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Paramount now wants an animated feature for the 1939 Christmas release. This request comes at the time of preparation for a move to Miami, Florida. While relocation has been a consideration for some time, motivation has finally come true due to the lower corporate tax structure and the alleged escape of the remaining hostilities from the strike.
The new Fleischer Studio opened in October 1938, and production on its first feature, Gulliver's Travels , went from a development stage that started in New York to active production in Miami. This score was composed by Paramount staff composer Victor Young and recorded at the Paramount west coast facility. Though limited to 60 cinemas in a single month of release, Gulliver Travel earned over $ 3 million, even though it exceeded the original $ 500,000 estimated cost. Therefore, the second feature was ordered for Christmas, 1941, Bug Goes to Town .
Decline
The personal relationship between Max and Dave Fleischer worsened during the Miami period due to stress-related complications completing the first feature studio feature and a very public sexual relationship with Dave's secretary, Mae Schwartz. Max and Dave had stopped talking to each other at the end of 1939.
Dave gained full control of production in 1940, handing Max over to business and research. The studio needs new products to enter the new decade, but fails miserably with a series that includes Gabby , Stone Age Cartoons and Animated Antics . Theatrical operators complain, with the Popeye cartoon having the only value.
Max Fleischer earned the right to superhero comic book Superman to save the studio. The first entry, Superman , had a budget of $ 50,000, the highest for Fleischer's short theater, and was nominated for an Academy Award.
Superman's animated series, with its action-adventure fantasy and science fiction content, was a huge success, but it did not help the studio get out of its finances. It was sentenced to $ 350,000 for exceeding the budget on Gulliver Travel, and revenue derived from the cartoon lease Popeye should be used to offset the $ 250,000 loss incurred by the cartoon's refusal in 1940. The success Superman arrived late.
Acquisition by Paramount
While profits waned, Paramount continued to advance money to Fleischer Studios to resume cartoon production with its main focus on Popeye, Superman, and feature film for the 1941 Christmas season; all in hopes of rekindling his magic. Then on May 24, 1941, Paramount demanded reimbursement of a penalty which was still to be paid after 18 months and assumed full ownership of Fleischer Studios, Inc. Fleischers kept control of production until November 1941. The Bug Goes to Town was screened for the screening of the participants on 5 December 1941. Despite having a good critical review, it was rejected by the theater operators. Although it has been reported for decades that his release was canceled due to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, this has been found not to be the case. While the Christmas period is three weeks away, Paramount failed to find a creative solution, and held it for a second feature release the following spring, 1942, and never regained the cost.
Regardless of fulfilling his contractual obligations and providing an overview, Max Fleischer was asked to resign. Dave Fleischer had resigned the previous month, and Paramount completed the last five months of the Fleischer contract in the absence of Fleischer Brothers. The last cartoon produced in credited to Fleischer Studios was Superman's cartoon, Terror on Midway , and Paramount formed a new company, Famous Studios, as the successor to Fleischer Studios. effective May 27, 1942.
Television
The rights issue over Fleischer Studios cartoon library is complicated. This is due to a copyright issue regarding the music used on the soundtrack regardless of the Public Domain status of the films. Another complication is with the original nature of Fleischer and its licensed properties. With the exception of the Superman and Popeye cartoons, the Paramount cartoon library from before October 1950 was originally sold to U.M. & amp; M. TV Corporation in 1955. The conditions of purchase necessitated the abolition of the head brands and the main brands of Paramount and the copyrights of the Main Title. U.M. & amp; M. was careful to create a silent optical frame, retaining the original title art and replacing the Paramount copyrighted line with their own re-photographed in the room. While this is done with black and white cartoons, a new title is created with a standard yellow font on a flat red background for cartoon colors.
As soon as Fleischer's library was sold to television, Max Fleischer noticed that some of the cartoons were shown without his name on credit, which was a breach of his original contract, whether by accident or by accident. He began making extensive recordings of cartoon broadcasts and on June 17, 1956 filed a lawsuit against Paramount, U.M. & amp; M. T.V. Corporation, National Telefilm Associates, Flamingo Film Sales, and DuMont Broadcasting are looking for $ 2,750,000 in damages to show the movie "no credit and proper authority". Violations in his name are corrected on all subsequent prints on display on television, and the name Max Fleischer is stored for discovery by future generations.
Before U.M. & amp; M. has completed the title change, the company was purchased by National Telefilm Associates. NTA placed their logos on head and tail and blackened the reference to Paramount, Technicolor, Cinecolor, and Polacolor. NTA placed a copyright notice on the final NTA logo not on the title frame, which immediately void the copyright, placing it in the public domain.
NTA publishes Eastmancolor prints to the television station, the first broadcast in black and white, and then the color when the local station obtained the color license. The NTA color prints are also sold to a 16mm leasing company. While big syndicated movie companies in the 1950s and 60s, its place in the market was soon hindered by new products made for television. Many of the NTA libraries are outdated, some falling under "political truth" issues that require their removal from the airwaves. But the main problem is that most of the dated libraries are black and white, which holds the majority of Fleischer cartoons in the air in the mid-60s when original copyright was issued for renewal. The NTA failed to update the copyright, which placed most of the Fleischer film library (including the Classic Color series, the Screenplay series, and Gulliver Travel i> into the public domain. sir. Bug Goes to Town, various cartoons of Betty Boop and 1938 Classic Color, The Tears of a Onion, is one of several films that remain under copyright to Melange Pictures, LLC.
In the mid-1970s, NTA "converted" 85 black and white Betty Boop cartoons to be colored through Fred Ladd's "Color Systems" company. Unlike the "Colorization Process" supported by the Ted Turner organization, Color Systems is a Korean company that roughly copies every other frame and rebuilds the cartoon, producing a new 16mm color negative. The sloppy production and the indiscriminate use of colors are a poor reflection of the artistry of the original artists produced by Fleischer Studios that made this impossible. To save them, there was an attempt to pack it in 1976 under the title, Betty Boop for the President . It's refreshed as a compilation feature, Hooray for Betty Boop , and ran on HBO in 1980.
Paramount has regained ownership of the original Fleischer film library and continues to have theatrical rights, Olive Films owns home video rights, and Trifecta Entertainment & amp; The media currently has TV rights.
Popeye and Superman
The Popeye series, the licensed property of King Features Syndicate was acquired by Associated Artists Productions (aap), which later became part of United Artists (for info on Popeye retiteing , see article aap ) and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Turner Entertainment, having failed to purchase MGM directly, settled for library ownership, including the Popeye cartoon, in 1986. A number of Popeye cartoons have also entered the public domain. , but not as many other Fleischer series.
Superman , another series based on the license, is returned to the National Comics after the Paramount rights for the character expires. TV syndication rights were originally licensed to Flamingo Films, distributor of the 1950s Superman TV series . All 17 entries in this series entered the public domain in the late 1960s early 1970s, when National/DC failed to renew their copyrights.
The Superman cartoon is now under the ownership of Warner Bros Entertainment. Warner purchased the original film element into the Superman series in 1969 after purchasing DC Comics. WB has since generated (alone or with other companies) many other animated works featuring Superman, including the TV series of the 1990s.
Home Videos
Most Fleischer colors have been widely available in videos since the 1980s, often with cheap (and poor quality) video cassettes sold in supermarkets and discount stores. Both animated fans and the UCLA Film and Television Archive have been working to deliver the classic Fleischer cartoons of credit they deserve, and the revamped high-quality Fleischer cartoons have also been available on pay-TV, Home and DVD Videos. Many of these restored versions now include the original Paramount title and the original ending.
Most of Fleischer's silent titles from the Out of the Inkwell series Inkwell Imps have entered the public domain. They are not widely available due to popular belief that black-and-white and silent cartoons do not appeal to contemporary audiences.
However, there is an official VHS set of Betty Boop released in the 1990s by Republic Pictures which includes the Betty color display, Poor Cinderella .
At least two separate versions of the Superman series were released on DVD, both featuring all 17 original episodes:
There are some famous video releases for the Superman series, among the best viewed from this is the VHS 1991 set produced by Bosko Video, entitled Superman's Complete Collection: Gold Birthday Edition - The Paramount Classic Cartoon from Max & amp; Dave Fleischer was released as two volumes featuring high quality transfers from 35mm prints. The Complete Superman Cartoons - Diamond Anniversary Edition (released in 2000 by Image Entertainment, this DVD is a re-issue of the Bosko Video tape set)
The third (and more "official") compilation using the restored and rejuvenated material was released in November 2006 by Warner Home Video as part of the Superman movie DVD box. In 2009, Warner gave Superman shorts of their own 2-disc DVD releases of their own, Max Fleischer's Superman: 1941-1942 , using the same remaster as in 2006.
Superman cartoon by Warner Home Video (as part of a separate collection of VHS and LaserDisc episodes from the 1950s TV's "Adventures of Superman"), it will take longer to any official DVD Release of Fleischer cartoons due to ownership and change of Republican video licenses, potential film and/or digital restoration costs, and financial feasibility as a result of releasing a restored version. However, in March 2012, Olive Films, under the exclusive license of Melange/Viacom secured rights to 66 Betty Boop non-public domain cartoons and is currently restoring it to DVD and Blu-ray releases using native television internegatives (with modified credits, since no original uncut elements are available). The first two volumes of the copyrighted Boop Melange cartoons are currently available.
Warner Home Video has released all of Fleischer Popeye's cartoons in three volumes as part of Popeye the Sailor's DVD collection.
VCI Entertainment/Kit Parker Film Compilation of all Classics (except The Tears of an Onion ) entitled Somewhere In Dreamland , which includes only a small part of the remaster is remade from 35MM, but if it is not taken from the best available source, Kit Parker can provide VCI, and digitally re-create the original front-and-back Paramount titles, released in 2003. Archive animated Jerry Beck served as a consultant for this set of boxes, as well as providing audio commentary to choose shorts.
VCI Entertainment also released a DVD compilation of all public domain Popeye cartoons (both Fleischer and Famous) titled Popeye the Sailor Man Classic Cartoons: 75th Anniversary Collectors Edition in 2004.
In 1985, DC Comics named Fleischer Studios as one of the honors in the publication of Fifty Who Made DC Great's 50th anniversary for his work on the Superman cartoon.
Fleischer Studios today
Today, Fleischer Studios operates as a company that continues to hold the rights to Betty Boop and related characters such as Koko the Clown, Bimbo and Grampy. It is led by the grandson of Max Mark Fleischer, who oversees merchandising activities. Fleischer Studios uses the King Syndicate feature to license Fleischer characters for various merchandise.
The famous Fleischer Studios staff
Movieography
- *: All jobs are in the public domain
- #: Some works are in the public domain
- **: Inheritance by Famous Studios
Serial cinema shorts
- Exit from Inkwell # (1918 - 1927; previous entry produced by John Randolph Bray from 1918 to 1921)
- Fun from the Press (1923)
- Car-Tunes Song * (1924 - 1926)
- Inklings (1926)
- Inkwell Imps # (1927 - 1929)
- Screen Song * (1929 - 1938) **
- Talkartoons * (1929 - 1932)
- Betty Boop # (1932 - 1939)
- Popeye the Sailor # (1933 - 1942) **
- Classic Color # (1934 - 1941)
- Animated Antics * (1940 - 1941)
- Stone Age Cartoons * (1940)
- Gabby * (1940 - 1941)
- Superman * (1941 - 1942) **
Two-roll shorts
- Darwin's Evolutionary Theory (1923)
- Einstein's Theory of Relativity (1923)
- Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor * (1936; Popeye Color Special )
- Popeye the Sailor Meets Thirty Forty Baba * (1937; Popeye Color Special )
- Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp * (1939; Popeye Color Special )
- Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy (1941)
- The Raven (1942)
Movies
- Gulliver's Journey * (1939)
- Sir. Bug Goes to Town (1941)
See also
- Animation Before Hollywood: The Silent Period
- American animated golden Era
- Famous Studios
- List of animation studios
- Camera Effects
References
External links
- DVD
- Toonopedia: Max Fleischer Studio
- Fleischer Sound Cartoons Filmography
- "The Real Heroes of Superman" writes about Max Fleischer from Flixens.com
- Fleischer industrial film a short history
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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