Fleischer Studios Animation History

Beyond good, beyond evil, beyond your wildest

imagination! Welcome to Tooncast Beyond. This

is yet again another animation direction spotlight.

Which one is this? Fired. I know, right? I probably

should be fired, ladies and gentlemen. This is

the seventh, yes, seventh animation direction

spotlight, and this time we're going to be talking

about the Fleishers. Um, of course, IMT, if you

wouldn't mind joining me as TV's Mr. Neil. I

would gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger

today. Oh my god. I don't know if he is the best

or the worst sidekick ever. He has his moments.

Over in pixels the animation I bitched and bitched

and bitched in the Mario era about Mario being

obsessed with food and everything else but you

know sadly I don't mind that um oh god what's

his damn name? Wimpy. Wimpy that's right Wimpy

um I don't mind that I mean Wimpy's already obese

really he's just adding to his problem um But

yes, we're talking about the Fleischer's And

what I find really interesting we're gonna start

off in the now in the today and then we're gonna

go back to the past what I find really interesting

about the Fleischer studios today is that It

operates as a company which continues to hold

the rights to Betty Boop and associated characters

such as Coco the clown So I like that it's been

kept in the family. So often you'll see companies

like this, you know, be sold off to some giant

conglomerate and not have any of the original

family members in it. Eh, there's that. Flesher

Studios started, it was founded in 1921 as Inkwell

Studios, or out of the Inkwell films. Right.

So Inkwell Studios, you know what the first thing

I think of when I see that name? What? The Ink

and Paint Club. Ah, okay. That's the first thing

I think of when I see that name. And man Yeah

And man that that studio is it's been open 93

years Wow Holy crap For the Fleischer stuff.

I remember seeing a lot of Popeye cartoons, but

I never really as a kid paid attention to who

was doing The Popeye cartoons. You know what

I mean? Yeah. And even now, I hear the theme

song, but unlike the Looney Tunes stuff where

I actually look at the credits, I never really

looked at the credits for Popeye. And it's so

interesting that he was at Fleischer. He started

at Fleischer, didn't he? Yeah. And they have

two of the Biggest strongmen in pop culture history.

They have Popeye and Superman, right? They also

have Betty Boop. Oh Well, well really quick you

asked where Popeye started he didn't actually

start at those cartoons So he was originally

a cartoon comic book character comic strip character

that started in 19 1990 think and He was actually

like a bit character who was in a comic called

Symbol Theater, I think. And he eventually evolved

into the main character, and the comic's name

was changed to Popeye, eventually. So... Yeah,

I meant in animation, though. He started at Fleischer.

Absolutely. In fact, his first... I think his

first cartoon was in a Betty Boop cartoon. Oddly

enough. Oh, God. Olive Oyl is Betty Boop's sister.

Oh, no. What, um, what drew you to the Fleischer

cartoons? Um, well, it's not really that anything

specifically drew me to the Fleischer cartoons

because going back to when I was a kid, everything

was in syndication packages and you had, you

had, you know, the Hannah Barbera stuff, you

know, it's like you'd have Flintstones and you'd

have Jetsons in another package and then you'd

have Tom and Jerry and then you'd have like what

he put would pack her in his own package and

then he had Popeye and back then Popeye they

just mixed everything there was like the uh oh

let's see there was the Fleischer Popeye there

was the famous Popeye and there was one I think

in the 60s like god I don't remember I should

remember the name of the guy because I hate him

but uh there was a guy who had at a studio that

made some of the worst Popeye cartoons ever then

there was like a late 70s early 80s Hanna -Barbera

Popeye and those are like the the four main ones

and the Fleischer ones are the best of the group

because they're so well animated they're kind

of simple and and they got they have a lot of

like repeating cycles and everything but they're

really well drawn and the animation is really

top -notch in fact I think the Popeye cartoons

are the best black and white cartoons out of

any studio I mean you compare this like the porky

pig cartoons. These Popeye cartoons blow porky

pig away because they're just so funny and lots

of lots of really great funny gags and you know

just it's the one that makes me laugh the hardest

is when it's the first the first one where Sweet

Pea shows up and he's he's taking Sweet Pea to

the uh to the zoo and there's all these funny

gags with the animal like Sweepee gets into the

elephant pen and the elephant's just barely missing,

trampling on Sweepee. And there's the one where,

or the same episode where Popeye has to wrestle

an alligator and he does the alligator wrestling

where you rub the, you get it on its back and

you rub its belly. And then the alligator gets

up and lays Popeye down and rubs his belly and

Popeye falls asleep. And that I think I laughed

the hardest out of any cartoon. Yeah, these are

such great cartoons and I think 1929 or so they

or maybe what maybe later than that they did

three short or actually they did three shorts

that were like they were double real so they

were like um Well, they were more than double

like they're almost triple length But they were

two real cartoons and they made three of them

and it was like this trilogy of color specials

It was the first time Popeye was in color those

those are like the best and I think you should

put those in the show post because they're all

public domain anyway so you're not getting into

any trouble if you show them on the site so yeah

those are really neat like the one where he meets

Alibaba in the one where he meets Sinbad the

sailor that's the funniest one I think yeah what

I remember about Popeye is As a kid what I remember

about it without Going back and watching some

of them which I did before we did this I mean

I saw the Alibaba one I saw the sin bad one and

Almost I really remember is it's either I Don't

think it's Fleischer, but it's um It's later

when he has the the three nephews They saddle

him with three nephews and or three sons or something

They basically pull a Donald duck on him. Yeah,

they do and They're talking about eating the

spinach and the kids don't want to eat that.

That's what I as a kid That's what I remember

from Popeye But going back and watching these

really as a kid watching the Fleischer Popeyes,

what I remember the most is just a constant Battles

between him and Bluto over olive oil And I'm

sorry the hell kind of a name for a woman is

olive oil I just don't... I like that she's just

a twig, and for some reason you have to use two

clowns fighting over her. I don't get it. And

they make... I know in certain ones, Bluto was

more... fat than muscular, but in some of these,

Flasher ones, he's... He's muscle bound. He's,

he's, he's not, you know, obese. He's not, you

know, out of shape. And it just, I don't know,

like the ones where he's shown to be fat and,

you know, not your, your average typical guy.

Well, not the the the strong, you know, big muscled

guy. I can kind of see why Olive wouldn't want

to date Bluto, but it's one of those things where

it's it's a little strange and it just I don't

know. The love triangle between the three of

them is just so weird. It really is. I think

my favorite Popeyes are him and Wimpy and Wimpy

always dealing with the hamburgers. My favorite

thing about the about the old Popeyes is just

they let that voice actor oh Man, I wish I don't

have his name here But that guy they would just

let him ad lib like crazy like you watch those

cartoons Popeyes lips are not moving He's not

he's not he doesn't even appear to be communicating

and that guy's just ad libbing like crazy Mm

-hmm, and it's it's always funny The Popeye's

a Voyage 2004 Popeye and Son 87 Popeye meets

the man who hates laughter 72 1980 Jack Mercer

Jack Mercer. Yeah, and you know what that guy

voiced Popeye from From the very early cartoons

all the way until the Hanna -Barbera era he voiced

that character right up to the 80s and The first

cartoon that he wasn't the voice was Popeye and

Son. Right, right. And he might have been like,

he might not have been in the very earliest Popeye

cartoons, but he was in there pretty quickly.

Other Fleischer properties such as Betty Boop.

Oh my God. I hadn't thought of Betty Boop until

she showed up. Who framed Roger Rabbit honestly

like I hadn't seen him by the time I was nine

years old and 89 I had not seen a bitty boop

cartoon. I I don't think in a long time and 88

I should say there's one Roger Rabbit came out,

but the fact that Mae Questel was able to reprise

like Reprise in who framed Roger Rabbit for that

one scene, right? because she was the original

Betty Boop. That's awesome. Yeah. Um, the other

crazy thing about her is she is, um, um, uh,

the aunt in, uh, uh, she, she, she's uncle Louis's

wife and Christmas vacation. I, I cannot believe

they got the voice of Betty Boop to be this basically

aunt who is just off her rocker and not all there.

Aunt Bethany, that's what it is, Bethany and

Louis, that's what it was. Oh, in 33 she started

providing the voice for Olive. That's interesting,

1933. Let's see Alzheimer's disease she When

was it? Age of 89 doesn't say exactly what year

here. I'll say She died in 1998 You know, I love

the Betty Boop cartoons they're just Between

them and, I know this isn't Fleischer, but between

them and the red hood cartoons, the wolf in the

red riding hood. Right. Oh my god, this is so

amazing. Fleischer's has had a lot of stuff over

the years. Arguably their two biggest are Superman

and Popeye. Right. those I can't believe there

are only 17 Superman shorts right I just cannot

I mean Superman was huge and I just can't believe

that that they were only only had 17 shorts Superman

was a huge step up from Popeye I mean they they

increased the quality quite a bit when they start

to make Superman cartoons yet you could still

kind of tell that they were the same studio I

still remember that very first episode because

it's such a... The very first episode of the

Superman Fleischer cartoons is him going up against

the mad scientist in the castle on the hill that

has this evil bird and everything else. This

mad scientist is going to destroy this city.

It really reminds me of one of the Gossamer Bugs

Bunny cartoons. Yeah, it does. It really, really

does. But I still love it. I think what I love

most about the Fleischer Superman stuff is just

how well... The the wink wink nudge nudge was

done when it came to Superman being Clark Kent

like you You hear Lois and Perry off to the side

saying something about Superman and Clark Kent

Clark's never around when we need him and blah

blah blah and you'll see Superman on screen just

kind of wink and then run off to To either be

Clark or you know, whatever else. It's just it's

so funny It's just absolutely so funny I think

that was my outside of the 78 film The Fleischer

Superman cartoons was my first exposure to Superman

outside of the 78 film and obviously Super Friends,

but I Don't remember ever seeing a lot of the

old TV series for Superman I mean, I remember

Batman because it was so so Campy and so there

and so in your face and it's interesting that

at least to some people in You know the mainstream

that Batman's kind of everywhere now and Superman

still around he's still everywhere as well, but

it seems like the popularity has shifted Between

the two and Batman's kind of in the lead right

now. Yeah, they kind of go back and forth were

you talking about the the superman uh theatrical

serials like uh one with no um because i don't

know the the the tv series the 50s tv series

adventures of superman uh not to look that up

it was with um oh i don't remember off top my

head uh yeah i i don't remember Speaking of Batman,

these shorts actually inspired Batman the Animated

Series quite a bit. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely,

that and the 89 film. Yeah, but they really went

for the style of this cartoon over pretty much

anything else. Right, right. Yeah. And the sad

thing about the Fleischer Superman is that This

is actually around the time that Fleischer fell

apart. So it started at Fleischer and ended at

famous studios, which is not one of my favorite

studios. The famous Popeyes are kind of not good.

I mean, they're acceptable, but it's less about

visual gags and more about like, you know...

You know working up to Popeye getting spinach

and just beating up Ludo for I don't know we're

hitting on olive for some reason And they're

just I just don't find them as funny Yeah Whereas

like in in the Fleischer's it's just amazing

Like I said, it's so simple and yet like sometimes

they would just do this do some of the most amazing

animation like in one of the one of the extra

length episodes that I was talking about there's

one where they they have Popeye hanging from

a rope, and he eats the spinach and he beats

up this fish that's about to eat him, and then

he spins up the rope, and as the rope is wrapping

around his body, if you watch the animation,

they aren't just running a loop, they're actually

showing how the rope is wrapping around and around

his body, and there are no two frames that are

the same. It just gets more and more complex

as the rope around his body is getting bigger.

bigger. It's really incredible animation for

the 1920s and 30s for Christ's sake. And it's

like stuff that you wouldn't even see today.

Like they would never do that today except for

like I don't know CG animation where like you

could actually like I guess program a routine

in the computer to do that but they would never

do that traditional. No not at all. Not at all

Yeah, you know looking on Looking it up on Wikipedia

to jump back to Superman for a second here. I

was thinking of Bud Collier but the one that

that came up was the It Come on back button The

adventures of Superman 104 episodes six seasons

It was George Reeves But I mean I Just remember

what I was saying about this was I remember seeing

the specials on that 14 disc Giant DVD set they

did for the films and I remember seeing the special

feature they you know talking about the history

of Superman and how on the TV show he used a

springboard for flying and that and that kind

of thing and and like This is what I was saying.

It's like Outside if it wasn't for the Fleischer

cartoons my first exposure to Superman would

have been Donner's 78 film It would not have

been anything other than that. Well, it really

shouldn't be Super Friends, anyway. Well, yeah,

Super Friends. It's like how many episodes that

I'm just fighting weather. That or how many episodes

is it just Darkseid lusting over Wonder Woman?

Or just Wendy and Marvin. Say typical Saturday

morning, you know, you can't have them like actually

doing anything violent So you have to kind of

find a way to do Superman and Batman while not

actually doing the things that Superman and Batman

actually do It's like they can I guess Batman

can throw a grappling hook, but he can't punch

the Joker Yeah, yeah no punching allowed but

he can meet Scooby -doo Yeah, we were really

off -topic. Why is your studios? Yes, why is

your studios? Yeah, and I guess what happened

to the studio was It's kind of a long story but

short of it is that the brothers weren't getting

along and I guess they were hemorrhaging money

and they they actually had to sell out to Paramount

Paramount basically took over the studio and

it became famous and You had said that that that

the Fleischer studio actually continues on but

I think that's more of like a Like a holdings

company. It's not the actual studio. Yeah, the

studio became famous and Yeah, and made some

terrible puppy I'm sorry. I just don't like those

cartoons. What do you prefer better Popeye and

color or Popeye and black and white? I would

say black and white but um One caveat on that

is that they had colorized some of the black

and white cartoons and Some of those are hit

-and -miss like I know like most the the popular

opinion is that like Popeye and colorized black

and white Popeye No, but like some of them came

out. Okay, and some of them really weren't very

good at all So yeah, I guess I I guess I sort

of side with the people who like are purest and

want black and white But some of them are okay,

I guess That's not counting the the three color

specials where they were in color to begin with

Yeah, and those were actually pretty cool because

you notice they had like 3d sets in there They

had they had actually built little sets and they

put the animation on top of it in sort of a weird

I'm not even sure how they did it. It was like

kind of what it kind of looked like Roger rabbit

ish, but it also The way they were built they

kind of look cartoonish anyway, and it didn't

look weird so you have you have Ludo and pop

by walking around these sets that are built in

clay and whatever else, but they look like they

belong it's they Really did a great job on those.

Mm -hmm. Yeah I wish we had you know something

today um that had Popeye and like something like

Roger Rabbit that made it make sense for all

the cartoons to come together um I know they've

done several commercials where several different

like 80s cartoons have come together and stuff

but um it's It's still not. I really want to

see a lot of these old cartoons kind of come

together in some sort of way, even if it is just

some ad. I'm trying to remember what ad that

was for like a bunch of cartoons all came together.

It was like Popeye and a bunch of Hanna Rivera

characters and the peanuts and Grapevape and

Voltron. It was probably. I don't remember what

that was a commercial for. I think I think it's

MetLife. Oh, really? Think it is met life because

it had peanuts in it and usually when you're

talking met life The peanuts are not far behind

yeah I'm just trying to see if if I'm right here

I don't know. Yeah, but I could have sworn it

was a MetLife commercial. See, when you make

stuff like that, it kind of builds a sort of

a Saint Elsewhere theory where all the cartoons

exist in one universe and all you have to do

is find all the places where they cross over.

If anyone out there knows what the Tommy West

ball theory is. It was from two years ago. It

was... It was MetLife. They're all in a field.

It's Peanuts, He -Man and Battle Cat, Peppy,

Speedy, Scooby, Mr. Magoo, Quickdraw and Yosemite

Sam walking hand in hand is strange, Marvin the

Martian, Elroy Jetson... Grapeape, Richie Rich.

Richie Rich has Daphne in his limo. Voltron,

yeah, it was MetLife. It was the Everyone commercial,

that's what it was. It's just so, so hilarious.

Something like that would be interesting to see

with a lot of the old stars, it really would.

And I know we've gotten way off topic here, folks,

but Fleischer Studios... amazing stuff that they

put out absolutely love it even today it's still

very enjoyable and very funny I mean the Popeye

stuff is just it's just so funny the Popeye stuff

might be the earliest cartoons that dealt with

bullying I don't think they dealt with bullying

I think they were It's like we're talking about

a time when like none of these social issues

were really a thought in anyone's mind It was

just like what is the funniest way that we can

make pop? I beat the shit out of Ludo Well, yeah,

but I mean, you know you take it in today's Standard

and crux and look at it that way. Yeah, but then

tech technically Bluto was a bully Yeah, then

you get you get the cynical people who are like

well Popeye was just preventing You know, Bluto

from raping Olive, and I'm like, dude, don't

look at it that way. I hate when you superimpose

social issues on Holder. Okay, no, I don't look

at it that way, but I do kind of see it as Bluto

was the bully. Yeah, I'm just, you know... Popeye

had to be the hero. I'm just I'm just afraid

of opening that can of worms It's like once you

go down that road then other people like oh,

there are other social issues we could talk about

All right, um All right, so that has been this

episode of tune cast beyond You know Fleischer

Studios amazing amazing stuff coming up next

we've got Walter Lance that's gonna be all you

buddy had to give the history lesson on that

cuz I Until you mentioned the name. I don't think

I've seen anything that they've done Yeah, Woody

Woodpecker is kind of falling out of favor. That's

really weird because there was a time when like

that was a staple thing you would have like the

classic cartoon blocks. It would be like Flintstones,

Tom and Jerry, Woody Woodpecker, and Popeye.

Just like two hours of, pretty much anywhere

you lived. Someone had like a two hour block

where it was like those four cartoons all stitched

together. And of the four, Woody Woodpecker is

the one that's fallen into total obscurity. And

I'm not sure why. Yeah, and it's kind of sad

though when you think about it, I mean cuz Woody

Woodpecker cartoons were hilarious. They were

funny Yeah, I mean they kind of they kind of

went to the the same way that Popeye cartoons

went but not as bad Like some of the later Woody

Woodpecker cartoons are kind of left, but there

are certainly a lot a lot of funny ones And I

think I could be wrong about this but wasn't

Chilly Willie blocked in with him. Yes See, I

used to love the Chilly Willy stuff as a kid.

Wasn't that supposed to be Chilly Willy in one

of those Bugs Bunny cartoons where... No, it

wasn't, but I think it was supposed to be a ripoff

of Chilly Willy. It was very similar. Yeah, the

penguin who wants to go home but got left and

Bugs has to take him to the South Pole. Oh, I'm

dying! it's like oh god you get to the south

pole and turns out the penguins from hoboken

new jersey god so hilarious all right we are

gonna get out of here folks we will see you next

time here on tooncast beyond Cheers, spinach.

If he gets through fast, kids, we'll go and hook.

But we don't like spinach. Spinach can make you

strong enough to do impossible stunts. You can

even play the piano like... reaches of the universe,

there once existed a planet known as Krypton,

a planet that burned like a green star in the

distant heavens. There, civilization was far

advanced and it brought forth a race of supermen

whose mental and physical powers were developed

to the absolute peak of human perfection. But

there came a day when giant quakes threatened

to destroy Krypton forever. One of the planet's

leading scientists, sensing the approach of doom,

placed his infant son in a small rocket ship

and sent it hurtling in the direction of the

earth just as Krypton exploded. The rocket ship

sped through star -studded space, landing safely

on Earth with its precious burden, Krypton's

sole survivor. A passing motorist found the uninjured

child and took it to an orphanage. As the years

went by and the child grew to maturity, he found

himself possessed of amazing physical powers.

Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful

than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings

at a single bound. The infant of Krypton is now

the man of steel. Superman! To best be in a position

to use his amazing powers in a never -ending

battle for true justice, Superman has assumed

the skies of Clark Kent, mild -mannered reporter

for a great metropolitan newspaper. Has Wendy

been in yet? Don't mention that Scallywags name

to me. He's a moocher and lives by his wits,

but I'm wise to him. He'll get only what he pays

for. He can't chip me.