In the early days of cinema, feature films were often accompanied by short subjects, newsreels, and the beloved cartoon short. In this Golden Age of Hollywood Animation, few names stood taller than Max and Dave Fleischer, whose cartoons were largely distributed by Paramount Pictures. The Fleischers pioneered motion picture animation with the development of the rotoscope technique for capturing realistic motion, allowing them to create human characters like Koko the Clown with greater fidelity than their competitors. At the same time, the Fleischer studio created beloved "rubber hose" style characters like Bimbo the Dog and the classic flapper Betty Boop. Based in New York, the cartoons produced by the Fleischers reflected an urban East Coast sensibility of humour that greatly contrasted with the West Coast style of Disney or Warner Bros. The Fleischers supported African American musicians in their cartoons and brought artists like Cab Calloway in to score their animations, creating early precursors to "music videos" that would greatly influence modern works like Over the Garden Wall and Cuphead. But the greatest success of the studio perhaps came in adapting popular comic characters into cartoons — it was Fleischer who brought Popeye the Sailor from the newspaper funnies into animation, creating the character's iconic theme song and planting his love of spinach and his rivalry with Bluto firmly in the public imagination.
As the 1930s became the 1940s, the studio's ambitions led them to adapt the newest and most popular character to explode into pop culture at that time — Superman! For the first time, a Fleischer cartoon series would be made in full colour, with rotoscoped realistic human characters, and amazing imagination that would not only use the character's existing mythos as a foundation (such as using the established voice actors from the character's radio show) but add to it by creating the visual language of Superman's most iconic power — flight. A character who once only leaped high into the air in the comics now flew through the air, and it was the Fleischer cartoons that have influenced our ideas of what a "flying human" looks like, all the way to modern characters like Goku and Invincible.
After almost 90 years, these classic cartoons have been restored from their original film elements by Fabulous Fleischer Cartoons Restored, an effort led by Max Fleischer's granddaughter Jane Reid. Calgary Cinematheque Society and Quickdraw Animation Society are proud to present six classic restored cartoons from the Fleischer catalogue, introduced by Kevin D.A. Kurytnik and featuring both a mini-documentary on the Fleischer Superman cartoons and a special Q&A after the show with Fleischer Studio restoration expert, Mauricio Alvarado and cartoon historian, Ray Pointers moderated by Kevin Kurytnik. Don't miss a wonderful evening of animation history!
Cartoon Line up:
Koko the Clown in "Koko's Earth Control" – Directed by Dave Fleischer, 1928
Popeye the Sailor in "I Never Changes My Altitude" – Directed by Dave Fleischer, 1937
Betty Boop in "Is My Palm Read?" – Directed by Dave Fleischer, 1933
Superman in "The Mad Scientist" – Directed by Dave Fleischer, 1941
Superman in "Terror on the Midway" – Directed by Dave Fleischer, 1942
Superman in "The Arctic Giant" – Directed by Dave Fleischer, 1942
Full short synopsis’, here.
Community Partner:
Written by Ben Rowe.
In the spirit of respect, reciprocity and truth, we honour and acknowledge that this screening takes place on Moh’kinsstis and the traditional Treaty 7 territory, as well as the oral practices of the Blackfoot confederacy: Siksika, Kainai, Piikani as well as the Îyâxe Nakoda and Tsuut’ina nations. We acknowledge that this territory is home to the Otipemisiwak Métis Government of the Métis Nation within Alberta District 6. Finally, we acknowledge all Nations, Indigenous and non, who live, work and play, as well as help steward this land, honour and celebrate this territory.