INTERVIEW: Restoring Max Fleischer

The Important Cinema Club

Justin Decloux and Will Sloan

Tv & Film

4.7 • 576 Ratings

🗓️ 15 August 2024

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From 1929 to 1942, Fleischer Studios was Walt Disney's greatest rival, bringing Superman, Popeye, and Betty Boop to the screen and pioneering a range of technical innovations. But for decades, many of the cartoons by Max and Dave Fleischer have suffered neglect. In this special report, Will talks to the team behind the grassroots Fabulous Fleischer Cartoons Restored: animation historians Mauricio Alvarado and Ray Pointer, and Max Fleischer's granddaughter Jane Fleischer. Support Fabulous Fleischer Cartoons Restored - https://fleischertoons.com/ Check out The Art and Innovations of Max Fleischer by Ray Pointer - https://www.fleischerstudios.com/ray.html See "The Cartoons of Max Fleischer" at the Fox Theatre in Toronto on August 17, 18, and 20 - https://www.foxtheatre.ca/movies/the-cartoons-of-max-fleischer/

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, everyone, your old friend Will Sloan here with a special report.
0:04.2	For much of the 1930s, the most popular cartoon character in America was not Mickey Mouse, but Popeye the Sailor.
0:12.3	And while Walt Disney reigned as animation's unquestioned master, he faced his strongest competition from Fleischer Studios.
0:20.8	I'm popped by the sailor man.
0:24.8	Pop by the sailor man.
0:28.1	I'm strong to the finage because I eats me spinach.
0:31.7	I'm popped by the sweat whale a bad.
0:34.8	Fleischer Studios was founded in 1929 by brothers Max and Dave Fleischer. Max ran the studio and Dave
0:42.2	directed the cartoons. It was headquartered in Manhattan, the other side of the continent from
0:47.3	Disney. And if there's one thing you probably know about their house style, is that they were a product
0:52.3	of New York in the 30s. Where Disney's characters
0:55.8	froliced in the woods, the Fleischer's lived on the mean city streets. Their cartoons were tougher,
1:01.5	more surreal, more violent, funnier, and sometimes even a little sexier than the competition.
1:08.2	You can thank the Fleischer's for everything from Robert Crumb to Ren
1:11.5	and Stimpy. If you're anything like me, you grew up watching Fleischer cartoons without necessarily
1:17.0	knowing the name. Of course, they were the first to bring Popeye from the comics to the screen.
1:22.9	Not the domesticated Popeye of the 50s and 60s, who hung out in the suburbs, but the Popeye who was
1:29.1	violent and muttered off-color innuendo under his breath. There was also Betty Boop when her
1:34.7	garter belt was so visible in the pre-code era. Strike up the band. Get ready for something grand. A wonderful
1:43.8	treat you're going to meet the stars of the future.
1:48.0	Ooh!
1:49.0	Faster than a speeding bullet.
	...

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