Some things stick with you throughout your life. Some are events, some are movies, some are even cartoons. Back in the days before there was cable TV and VCRs or DVDs, there weren’t the abundance of things to choose from when one was watching TV. Further, if something didn’t make it onto the local broadcast channels, you were unlikely to see it. If you did catch something you really wanted to watch and you missed part of it, you usually were out of luck because running the same material in multiple timeslots (especially films) was almost unheard of.
So, every once in a blue moon, this movie would come on. At the time it was at least 30 years old but, it still managed to stand out even against the current fare of the day.
Max and Dave Fleischer had no intentions of producing a full-length feature film until Paramount, who distributed Fleischer’s Popeye, Betty Boop, and Screen Songs cartoon shorts, approached him with the idea. Paramount offered to build the New York City-based Fleischer’s a new state-of-the-art animation studio in Miami Beach, Florida, away from the union influence which had polarized the Fleischer Studio after a bitter 1937 labor strike.Now, if you are familiar with the old Popeye or Betty Boop cartoons, I’m pretty sure you’ll know where I’m going with this. Maybe you’ve seen the terrific Superman cartoons done by the Fleischers. If you aren’t at all familiar with the name you should be!
Fleischer came up with a concept to simplify the process of animating movement by tracing frames of live action film. His patent for the rotoscope was granted in 1917, although Max and his brother Dave Fleischer made their first cartoon using the device in 1915. Extensive use of this technique was made in Fleischer's Out of the Inkwell series, which started in 1919 and starred Koko the Clown and Fitz the dog.Anyway, this movie really stands out because it was one of the coolest things I can remember seeing when it came to animated films. Also, I would think in some ways you could consider this the grandfather of movies like Schrek and The Incredibles because it showed just how amazing animated films could be. And wonder of wonders, now you can watch the whole thing over the internet!
2 comments:
I had a feeling that it was Gulliver's Travels by the way you were describing it. One of the best films ever made, equal to and better than some of the Disney classics. Fleischer's films always had more soul to them, an everyman feel. Whereas Disney films always seemed beyond our reach, a little too highminded and self aware in their unfolding. With the exception of Pinocchio, which I consider the best film ever made. In any medium.
I knew guys like Gabby and Popeye and Bluto. Moochers like Wimpy and cootchies like Betty Boop. but I didn't know any talking brooms or ditzy Princesses. In my world if a pretty young girl sang to birds and woodland creatures she was warming up for a stay in an asylum.
Have you ever seen Fleischer's "Mr. Bug Goes To Town"? I have a VHS copy that was given to me by a co-worker at WB Stores in the early '90s named Dante Barbetta. Dante worked at Famous Studios in the '50s and knew the Fleischers, even Max. Mr. Bug was set in NYC, and had to be an inspiration for "A Bug's Life", but the urban setting makes it an absolute Fleischer masterpiece.
I don't remember ever seeing the 3-D ship at the beginning of Gulliver before. I wonder if it was replaced in the version played on TV for all of those years? Either that or my brain is getting fuzzy.
On another note- you said TV rarely scheduled mutiple viewings of the same film, so I guess you're too young to remember "The Million Dollar Movie". They would run the same movie for a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights at 8:00. I think the station was WOR-Channel 9.
Thanks for this great post and the wellspring of memories it brought to mind.
And I can never thank you enough for all of the kind and gracious comments you leave on Soup, much appreciated.
As it turns out I just bought and started reading the Max Fleischer bio "Out of the Inkwell" by his son Richard, what a co-inky-dink!
I’ve never seen “Mr. Bug Goes To Town” but, knowing the Fleischer’s work, it must be good.
Looking back there was a period growing up where Popeye cartoons were run on a regular basis on some of the local stations here in New York. I clearly remember noticing the marked change in quality between the Fleischer studios Popeye and later work.
Ironically enough, even though they were older, I always liked the Fleischer stuff better. I remember the Fleischer shorts always had the doors on the boat opening and closing for the changing credits at the beginning of the cartoon. Again, it was something of a treat when they came on.
Of course, Betty Boop and the Jeep were a part of those shorts as well and it wasn’t until many years later that I got a chance to see the Superman cartoons. Gulliver’s Travels though was always a treat when it came on!
I do remember the Million Dollar Movie on channel 9. If I’m right, I think they used music from Gone With the Wind as the theme? I always liked the way they opened the movies but at the time I wasn’t much interested in the movies they were showing.
Always love looking in on your blog, if only because I am always blown away by your work! Drop by more often! :)
Post a Comment