Quarantine means binge-watching documentaries - and in week 8 of this, the topic is animation. We'll kick off today's post with a film about Leon Schlesinger, the executive from Pacific Title who ended up as the producer of Warner Brothers cartoons. By pretty much leaving the Termite Terrace bunch alone to create as they saw fit, Leon, perhaps unwittingly, made it possible for the next wave of animation innovation, classic comedy and comic genius to flourish.
Leon hired Frank Tashlin and Tex Avery, two of the greatest comic minds to ever hit animation and filmmaking. They started turning the cartoon world upside down practically the moment they began directing Looney Tunes.
There is a very enjoyable documentary about stop-motion innovator Charley Bowers.
Never tire of watching the incredibly imaginative and frequently way-out Bowers Comedies.
Wondering if the rest of the following documentary, Looking For Charley Bowers, is on the Lobster Films Blu-ray of Charley Bowers films. Here is an excerpt from it.
Seeing Charley Bowers films and reading his story brings to mind another filmmaking innovator who loved devising gadgetry and was clearly pulled by his love of inventing and fascination with machines into making cartoons, Max Fleischer (1883-1972). The topic of Max' brilliant mind and creative inventions is a book in itself - and Fleischer Studio historian Ray Pointer has penned one, The Art and Inventions of Max Fleischer: American Animation Pioneer, which delves into the technological and filmmaking innovations in depth.
The following documentary covers the Fleischer brothers and their studio, which in this writer's opinion does not receive enough credit, even today, as loved as their work remains among animators, cineastes and classic film enthusiasts.
In the 1930's, the Fleischer Studio started utilizing a 3-D effect known as "The Stereoptical Process," with the camera dedicated to it known as The Setback Camera. Backgrounds were built on a revolving tabletop and, in the cartoons, were often integrated surprisingly seamlessly with the painted backgrounds. The 3-D backgrounds are utilized in all the Fleischer studio's series in 1934-1937. The Stereoptical Process was even spotlighted (starting at 3:50) in the following "Popular Science" short subject.
The Max Fleischer Color Classics series was introduced in 1934 to both compete with Disney's Silly Symphonies and spotlight the 3-D background process. The following Color Classic cartoon, Musical Memories, showcases the Stereoptical Process in a storyline that departs from the animated cartoon norm. It is nostalgic, lyrical and evocative, perhaps drawing upon the Fleischer brothers' reminiscences of growing up in the 1890's and turn of the 20th century, and features a quiet but moving ending.
The dream sequence in Play Safe, one of the best of the Color Classics, involves a spectacular multi-colored train station and presents one of the more psychedelic applications of the Fleischer Studio's 3-D tabletop background technique.
In the Popeye series, among the greatest animated cartoons ever made, the 3-D backgrounds enhance the storylines and the characters.
Note: the following dramatic excerpts from the Popeye Color Features do NOT demonstrate the Rotograph, but are prime showcases for the Stereoptical 3-D Process.
The Rotograph, just one among of many creative inventions developed by Max Fleischer in the early 1920's, was an aerial image photographic process where live-action film was rear projected behind animation cels (producing a backlit silhouette) to create an in-camera matte. Then, the film was rewound to the beginning, and the cels photographed again, top lit against a black card. The result: a first generation composite combining the animation with live-action.
Pondering how the Fleischer brothers got their start back in the teens, I thought of Donald Crafton's book Before Mickey: The Animated Film 1898-1928, a scholarly and painstakingly researched study of animation's early days - and was totally unaware that a documentary had been produced based in part on this book. It's a terrific film. Must thank Darren Nemeth for posting it, and also thank Devon Baxter from the Cartoon Research website for many of the other video clips.
Shifting from silent era animation, we love cartoon voice artists and documentaries about them. Do we love Mel Blanc here at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog? Yes.
Documentaries about cartoon voice artists were welcome extras in the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD sets. In the following, it is a pleasure to see such all-time greats as Stan Freberg and June Foray, along with more recent luminaries of the cartoon voice world such as Keith Scott, Billy West, Nancy Cartwright and Tom Kenny.
As we begin watching Noir Alley on TCM (on Robert Osborne's birthday) and set a reminder to check out today's Silent Comedy Watch Party this afternoon, we hope that all of you reading this are well. Also pay tribute to those individuals staffing the hospitals, ambulances, supermarkets, bodegas and pharmacies; these are the heroes who are keeping the country going through a difficult time. It is fantastic that the citizens of NYC are giving our brave first responders the accolades and rousing round of applause they deserve.
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