LAMP ANIMATION SERIES

Fleischer Studios

In 1915, Max Fleischer, who was editor of the Popular Science Monthly, got the idea for the rotoscope which was a way to project live action movement onto a screen a frame at a time where the tracing of the figure can be done to create realistic animation. With his rotoscope, Max and his brothers Joe and Dave, created a clown which they named Koko the Clown.

In 1919, the Fleischer Brothers got a contract with J. R. Bray to produce their own series featuring Koko the Clown called the Out of the Inkwell series. These were released through Paramount under the Bray name. This lasted until 1921, when Dave and Max formed the Fleischer Studios.

The Fleischer Studio teamed with Dr. Lee DeForest, an early sound experimenter, to produce sing-along cartoons with sound as early as 1924 called 'Koko Song Cartunes'', utilizing the famous bouncing ball over the words. But the DeForest process didn't catch on. It wasn't until 1928, and The Jazz Singer, that technology existed for truly effective talkies.

Even though the Fleisher Brothers didn't get the credit for their work, this caused Fleischer to be one of the few animation studios that were prepared for the sound transition.

When sound became the rage, Fleischers introduced their Screen Songs in 1929 and later the same year they introduced their 'Talkartoon'. Along with Koko, a new character, Bimbo became popular - however, once Bimbo's girlfriend was introduced, she quickly upstaged them both and Betty Boop, the first featured female character became the star of the studio.

In 1933, Fleischer Studios adapted the Thimble Theater characters into a series of Popeye the Sailor cartoon shorts for Paramount Pictures. Popeye became another instant success.

A change came in 1934, when the newly instituted Hays Code forced Fleischer to rework Betty and make her more plain which unfortunately made her lose some of her charm. This moved Popeye into their number one star spot. In the mid 1930s, Popeye was the most popular cartoon, even surpassing Mickey Mouse.

Max Fleischer created the Three-Dimensional Setback (a tiny stage with animation cels hung in front, creating a startlingly three-dimensional effect) was as effective as Disney's multi-plane camera. This invention made Fleischer Studios the only studio that could produce the more lavish cartoons like Disney.

Fleischer only received four Oscar nominations — Sinbad the Sailor (1936), Educated Fish (1937), Hunky & Spunky (1938), Riding the Rails (1938) and then an additional nomination later for first Superman cartoon (1941), while all the praise was being heaped on the Walt Disney Productions.

Fleischer decided that the only way to compete was to move to feature films. So Fleischer borrowed the money from Paramount to build a new larger studio in Miami, Florida, which opened in October 1938. Then proceded to produce their first feature length film, Gulliver's Travels (1939) and then their second, Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941 — later re-released as Hoppity Goes to Town).

These were not as succesful as they had hoped and Paramount foreclosed and took over Fleischer Studio in January 1942. They replaced Max and Dave Fleischer with Seymour Kneitel and Isadore Sparber as its heads, and renamed the studio Famous Studios.

Here are their main characters: