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Fleischer Studios is an American New York animation company founded by the brothers, Max Fleischer and Dave Fleischer who ran the company from 1921-1942. In its prime, it was the most significant competitor to The Walt Disney Company.
Silent FilmsThe company had its start when Max Fleischer invented the rotoscope which allowed for animation in an extremely lifelike fashion. 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 character, Koko the Clown. This became a very successful series which gave them the confidence to start their own studio in 1921. Throughout the 1920s, the studio proved to be one of the top producers of animation with clever humour and numerous innovations. These included sing along shorts which were the precursor to music videos, extended length educational films on subjects like relativity. The studio even produced some experimental sound films years before The Jazz Singer, although these attracted little interest, in part because only a small number of theaters were equipt with electronic speakers at the time. The studio used Lee De Forest's methods to produce over a dozen early cartoons with synchronized sound tracks, including:
Sound and ColorWith the full adoption of sound films in the late 1920s, the studio was one of the few animation companies to successfully make the transition with a new series called Talkartoons with a new character called Bimbo. That character was quickly upstaged by a supporting character called Betty Boop who quickly became the star of the studio. Betty was the first female feature character in American animation and she reflected the distinctive adult urban orientation of the studio which made the studio stand out from their competitors. Their success was further solidified when they licensed Popeye for a film property and it became the most popular series which resulted in not only a long series of shorts but three extended length colour films. Unfortunately, events turned against the studio and the brothers. In the mid 1930s the Hays Code was put in place in Hollywood which meant severe censorhip for films. As a result, Betty was desexualized and a major part of her charm was lost. What's worse, the Fleischer's eventually caved into pressure from their distributor, Paramount Pictures, to begin emulating Walt Disney in their film content, which robbed the studio of their distinctive flavour. This showed in the film series Color Classics, essentially a copy of Disney's Silly Symphonies. This culminated in their attempt to compete with Disney in the feature film market with two films, Gulliver's Travels and Mr. Bug Goes To Town both of which failed due to a combination of inferior quality by a studio with a newly expanded and green production staff and poor marketing by Paramount. The Fleischer's best work of this later period was the animated adaptation of the Superman comic character which boasted both the biggest budget ever for a theatrical short series and a return to the original urban tone of the studio which guided its excellent animation and writing which won it an Oscar for the premiere film. However, this late success did not help the studio lift its financial trouble and in 1942, Paramount called in their loan, ousted the Fleischers and took over the studio under the new name, Famous Studio. The Fleischers were never a major force in the industry again, but their films and characters have remained popular and by the 1980s, they were recognized as the pioneers in the artform they were. Fleischer Studios is today an in-name-only company, handling the licensing of many of its characters, such as Betty Boop and Koko the Clown. Public DomainThe rights to the Famous Studios cartoon library are complicated. With the exception of the Superman and Popeye cartoons, Paramount's cartoon library was originally sold to a company called U M & M Corp. (which later became National Telefilm Associates [NTA] and Republic Pictures). U M & M (as well as its NTA successor) altered the original negatives to a majority of the cartoons and modified their original front-and-end credit sequences, either blocking out all references to Paramount or created new but cheaply done credits. True animated historians and fans should know this was not the way these classic cartoons were originally intended to be seen. The 1950-1962 cartoons were sold to Harvey Comics in 1962 (today they are owned by Classic Media). The copyright for the Fleischers' cartoons was not renewed by Famous or Paramount, and as a result the majority of the Fleischers' cartoons entered the public domain. This included the Color Classics series, the Superman series, and the two full-length feature films. The Popeye series did not become public domain as Popeye's trademark was enforced by King Features Syndicate and the cartoons themselves acquired by Associated Artists Productions (which became part of United Artists); however, the three two-reel Popeye feature cartoons ("Sindbad," "Aladdin," "Ali Baba and his Forty Thieves") were not included in the Popeye series and also became public domain. The Flesichers' color films 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 Flesicher 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. The Betty Boop and Koko the Clown 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). In any case, DC Comics (via Warner Bros.) now own the original film elements to the Superman series, while Turner Entertainment (also via Warner Bros.) owns the Popeye series outright (with the exception, of course, of the public domain shorts). Meanwhile, Paramount (through Republic, which the studio acquired in 1999), in a twist of irony, now owns the original elements to its 1927-1950 output they themselves orignally released (in addition to the 1962-1967 shorts they have retained the rights to), while Lions Gate Home Entertainment (via an output deal with Republic) owns the video rights. Although there have been official releases in the late 1980s of Betty Boop compilation VHS and LaserDisc box sets by Live Entertainment (Lions Gate's predecessor), and select Superman cartoons by Warner Home Video (as part of seperate VHS and LaserDisc collections of episodes from The Adventures of Superman TV series of the 1950s), sadly there have not been any official releases of the Fleischer cartoons on DVD thus far. External links
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