Mickey Mouse is an cartoon character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks.
Spider-Ham
Spider-Ham (Peter Porker) is a superhero appearing in Marvel Comics. The character is an anthropomorphic pig and is a parody version of Spider-Man. He was created by Larry Hama, Tom DeFalco, and Mark Armstrong.
KENEDA
Kaneda, the leader of a motorcycle gang in Katsuhiro Otomo’s classic anime feature AKIRA (1988).
Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck was created by Tex Avery for Leon Schlesinger Productions. He has appeared in cartoon series such as Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, in which he is usually depicted as a foil for either Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, or Speedy Gonzales.
FLEISCHER “père et fils,”a side-by-side retrospective of American film director Richard Fleischer and his father, cartoon pioneer Max Fleischer, producer of iconic Betty Boop, Popeye, and Superman cartoons in the 1930s and early 40s, will run at Film Forum from Friday, May 8 through Thursday, May 28.
Born in Brooklyn, director Richard Fleischer (1916-2006) had a career spanning over four decades, working in a wide variety of genres, including Film Noir (The Narrow Margin, Armored Car Robbery, Violent Saturday), science fiction (20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Fantastic Voyage, Soylent Green), epics (Barabbas, The Vikings), and True Crime dramas (Compulsion, The Boston Strangler, 10 Rillington Place).
Born in Kraków (at that time part of Austria-Hungary), producer Max Fleischer (1883-1972), along with his brothers Joe and Dave Fleischer (who is credited as director on all of the studio’s cartoons), began “Inkwell Studios” in the teens – years before Walt Disney’s first forays into animation. In fact, Disney’s first cartoon series, Alice in Cartoonland, was an attempt to emulate Fleischer’s popular cartoon-and-live-action Out of the Inkwell series, featuring a character named Koko the Clown who’d emerge from Max’s inkwell to romp around the real world. Both Max and Dave appeared as actors in these silent subjects – Max as himself, the artist-producer, and Dave as Koko, his real-life movements traced exactly through the Fleischer Studio’s patented invention of the “rotoscope.”
With the coming of sound in the late 1920s, Fleischer Studios began to specialize in musical subjects, with its popular “Screen Songs” series – the audience would follow a bouncing ball to sing along with a popular tune – and its early “Talkartoons,” which featured Koko the Clown, a dog named Bimbo, and his girlfriend Betty Boop (originally a dog with floppy ears, which soon evolved into floppy earrings.) The pre-1934 Betty Boop cartoons, all made at Fleischer’s midtown NYC studio at 1600 Broadway, are among the raciest films of the Pre-Code era and feature guest appearances by such jazz and show business greats as Cab Calloway, Don Redman, and young Harold Nicholas (of the Nicholas Brothers). With Hollywood’s enforcement of the Production Code in the early 1930s, Betty’s skirts were lowered and she became more a career woman and less a sex object. Fleischer Studios then began focusing much of its attention on their new character, Popeye the Sailor, based on the popular comic strip by Elzie Segar.
An early “superhero,” Popeye would gobble down a whole can of spinach in each cartoon to defeat the bad guy Bluto and win over the object of his desire, Olive Oyl. So popular were the Popeye cartoons (he soon had a bigger following than Disney’s Mickey Mouse) that spinach sales in America skyrocketed. To this day, a statue of Popeye stands in Chester, Illinois, erected in the 1930s by the grateful local spinach growers.
Following the success of Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fleischer Studios produced its own feature-length cartoons, Gulliver’s Travels and Hoppity Goes to Town (aka Mr. Bug Goes to Town). In the 1940s, it began production on an immensely popular series of cartoons starring Superman – the very first animated superhero (unless you count Popeye). Begun at the very start of World War II, the cartoons were years before their time in serious use of science fiction. Innovative in both narrative and design, the series continues to influence young artists, writers, and animators.
Special events in the festival include a conversation with Jason Ney, author of a new biography of Richard Fleischer, following a screening of Compulsion; a conversation with Gordon Gebert following a screening of Richard’s Film Noir classic The Narrow Margin, in which Mr. Gebert was featured as a 10-year-old child actor; Fleischer musical cartoons hosted by author and jazz and popular music historian Will Friedwald; and a program of “Oddball Fleischer,” curated and hosted by world-renowned cartoon historian Jerry Beck. “Oddball Fleischer” includes two restoration premieres of cartoons unseen for over 80 years: The Raven(1940) – a “comic travesty” based on the poem by Poe – and Way Back When a Triangle Had Its Points (1940), first in the short-lived “Stone Age” series that pre-dates (by over 20 years) and inspired The Flintstones!
“FLEISCHER “père et fils,”has been programmed by Bruce Goldstein, Film Forum’s Founding Repertory Artistic Director (who as a teenager ran a Betty Boop Fan Club authorized by Max Fleischer himself). Cartoon historian Jerry Beck, author of over fifteen books on animation history, served as the festival’s special cartoon consultant. Jerry’s authoritative books include The Animated Movie Guide, The 50 Greatest Cartoons, and Looney Tunes: The Ultimate Visual Guide. Jerry will introduce several programs in the series (see below).
Special thanks to Jane Fleischer Reid and Mark Fleischer, daughter and son of Richard Fleischer and grandchildren of Max Fleischer, and Thad Komorowski and Sam Davis of Cineaste Restoration. Most of the 60 cartoons in the festival have been restored in 4K by Cineaste for Fabulous Fleischer Cartoons, founded in 2021 by Jane to create a comprehensive library of Fleischer Studio cartoons.
Program text by Bruce Goldstein. Cartoon program descriptions below by Jerry Beck.
COMPULSION U.S., 1959 Directed by Richard Fleischer Starring Orson Welles, Dean Stockwell, Bradford Dillman Approx. 103 min. 4K restoration.
Friday, May 8 at 1:00, 8:00 Wednesday, May 13 at 7:10* Friday, May 15 at 3:00 Saturday, May 23 at 1:00 Thursday, May 28 at 8:40
*Post-film conversation with Jason Ney, author of the new book Richard Fleischer: Journeyman, and author and film historian Foster Hirsch. Book signing in lobby following screening.
10 RILLINGTON PLACE U.K., 1971 Directed by Richard Fleischer Starring Richard Attenborough, John Hurt, Judy Geeson Approx. 111 min. 4K restoration.
Friday, May 8 at 3:20 Saturday, May 9 at 7:10 Wednesday, May 20 at 12:30 Wednesday, May 27 at 8:00 Thursday, May 28 at 2:45
VIOLENT SATURDAY U.S., 1955 Directed by Richard Fleischer Starring Victor Mature, Lee Marvin, Richard Egan, Sylvia Sidney, Stephen McNally Approx. 90 min. 35mm and 4K restoration.
Friday, May 8 at 6:00 (35mm) Saturday, May 9 at 5:10 (35mm) Thursday, May 14 at 4:20 Wednesday, May 27 at 6:00
FLEISCHER “HEAD” CARTOONS 1930s cartoons that found new popularity with the “pot generation” of the 60s and 70s. Koko the Clown destroys the planet; Betty Boop crashes a mysterious underground cult (in one of the weirdest cartoons ever); and a rotoscoped Cab Calloway struts his stuff, in cartoons including Koko’s Earth Control, Bimbo’s Initiation, Betty Boop MD, Swing You Sinners, Betty in Blunderland, and many more.
Saturday, May 9 at 12:30, 9:30 Saturday, May 16 at 2:30
20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA U.S., 1954 Directed by Richard Fleischer Starring Kirk Douglas, James Mason, Paul Lukas, Peter Lorre Approx. 127 min. 4K restoration.
Saturday, May 9 at 2:20 Saturday, May 16 at 4:20 Friday, May 22 at 2:45
GULLIVER’S TRAVELS U.S., 1939 Directed by Dave Fleischer Approx. 76 min.
Fleischer Studios’ first full-color animated musical feature film. The second Technicolor animated musical feature ever and the tenth biggest film of 1939 – an anti-war statement released two years before America entered World War II. It is perhaps the best use of the Fleischer “rotoscope” invention, which converts live action to animation (for the character of Gulliver). It’s a hap-hap-happy adventure for all ages, featuring Gabby, a character spun off into his own short-lived series.
Sunday, May 10 at 11:00 (Part of Film Forum Jr.)
TRAPPED U.S., 1949 Directed by Richard Fleischer Starring Lloyd Bridges, Barbara Payton, John Hoyt Approx. 78 min. 35mm preservation print courtesy UCLA Film & Television Archive.
Sunday, May 10 at 12:50 Wednesday, May 13 at 3:20 Thursday, May 14 at 2:25 Tuesday, May 26 at 9:10
THE EVOLUTION OF BETTY BOOP 1930s cartoons showing how Betty went from dog character (in her debut, Dizzy Dishes), to skimpily-dressed Pre-Code icon, to career woman, to supporting character (in cartoons featuring senior citizen inventor “Grampy” and her oh-so-cute pet dog “Pudgy”). Includes Betty Boop’s Rise to Fame, Betty Boop’s Penthouse, Betty Boop and Grampy, and much more.
Sunday, May 10 at 2:40 Sunday, May 17 at 12:50
ALL FLEISCHER! ALL MUSICAL!
Some of the Studios’ most melodic and jazziest cartoons, including Ain’t She Sweet (with Lillian Roth, later subject of biopic I’ll Cry Tomorrow), Sally Swing (with the voice of Baby Rose Marie – later Sally Rogers on The Dick Van Dyke Show), and an appearance by Colonel Stoopnagle and Budd (truly bizarre and now totally forgotten radio comedians), with a very young Harold Nicholas (of Nicholas Brothers fame) doing a dead-on impression of Cab Calloway, as the other two try to follow the bouncing ball… And much more! Sunday’s show presented by author and jazz and popular music historian Will Friedwald.
Sunday, May 10 at 4:50* *Introduced by Will Friedwald Monday, May 11 at 12:15, 6:00
ARMORED CAR ROBBERY U.S., 1950 Directed by Richard Fleischer Starring William Talman, Adele Jergens, Charles McGraw, Douglas Fowley Approx. 67 min. 35mm.
Sunday, May 10 at 6:50 Monday, May 11 at 4:20 Wednesday, May 13 at 5:30 Monday, May 18 at 12:15 Tuesday, May 19 at 2:35 Thursday, May 21 at 9:20 Tuesday, May 26 at 5:30
BODYGUARD U.S., 1948 Directed by Richard Fleischer Starring Lawrence Tierney, Priscilla Lane, Phillip Reed Approx. 62 min. 35mm.
Sunday, May 10 at 8:25 Tuesday, May 12 at 2:10 Friday, May 15 at 9:30 Tuesday, May 26 at 2:10
CHILD OF DIVORCE U.S., 1946 Directed by Richard Fleischer Starring Sharyn Moffett, Regis Toomey, Madge Meredith Approx. 62 min. 35mm.
Shown with
DESIGN FOR DEATH U.S., 1947 Directed by Richard Fleischer Written by Theodore Geisel (later “Dr. Seuss”) Academy Award, Best Documentary Approx. 48 min. 35mm print courtesy Library of Congress.
Monday, May 11 at 2:00 Tuesday, May 12 at 5:40 Wednesday, May 13 at 1:00
THE NARROW MARGIN U.S., 1952 Directed by Richard Fleischer Starring Charles McGraw, Marie Windsor, Jacqueline White, Gordon Gebert Approx. 72 min. 35mm.
Monday, May 11 at 7:40* Tuesday, May 12 at 4:00 Monday, May 18 at 1:50 Tuesday, May 19 at 4:10 Friday, May 22 at 7:35 Tuesday, May 26 at 3:50 Thursday, May 28 at 7:00
*Post-film conversation with architect/college professor Gordon Gebert, featured in The Narrow Margin as a 10-year-old child actor. Moderated by Bruce Goldstein, Film Forum’s Repertory Artistic Director.
THE LAST RUN U.S., 1971 Directed by Richard Fleischer Starring George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, Tony Musante Approx. 95 min. 35mm.
Thursday, May 14 at 3:35 Friday, May 15 at 12:30 Wednesday, May 20 at 8:00
SEE NO EVIL U.S., 1971 Directed by Richard Fleischer Starring Mia Farrow, Dorothy Alison, Robin Bailey, Diane Grayson Approx. 89 min. 35mm.
Thursday, May 14 at 6:20 Sunday, May 24 at 8:10 Wednesday, May 27 at 3:45
BARABBAS U.S., 1961 Directed by Richard Fleischer Starring Anthony Quinn, Silvana Mangano, Arthur Kennedy, Katy Jurado, Jack Palance, Ernest Borgnine Approx. 137 min. 35mm/DCP
Thursday, May 14 at 8:20 (35mm) Thursday, May 21 at 2:40 Sunday, May 24 at 6:20 Wednesday, May 27 at 1:00
CRACK IN THE MIRROR U.S., 1960 Directed by Richard Fleischer Starring Orson Welles, Juliette Gréco, Bradford Dillman Approx. 97 min. 16mm.
Friday, May 15 at 5:10
THE NEW CENTURIONS U.S., 1972 Directed by Richard Fleischer Starring George C. Scott, Stacy Keach, Jane Alexander Approx. 103 min. 35mm.
Friday, May 15 at 7:20 Saturday, May 16 at 12:15 Wednesday, May 20 at 2:50
FANTASTIC VOYAGE U.S., 1966 Directed by Richard Fleischer Starring Stephen Boyd, Raquel Welch, Edmond O’Brien, Donald Pleasence Approx. 101 min. 4K restoration.
Saturday, May 16 at 7:00 Saturday, May 23 at 3:15
SOYLENT GREEN U.S., 1973 Directed by Richard Fleischer Starring Charlton Heston, Leigh Taylor-Young, Joseph Cotten, Edward G. Robinson Approx. 97 min.
Saturday, May 16 at 9:10 Friday, May 22 at 9:15
HOPPITY GOES TO TOWN (aka MR. BUG GOES TO TOWN) U.S., 1941 Directed by Dave Fleischer Approx. 78 min.
Fleischer Studios’ second and last feature-length cartoon. An original story intended as the polar opposite of Snow White and the Fleischers’ own Gulliver’s Travels, a Capra-esque romance about a thriving community of insect Manhattanites, whose neighborhood is threatened by skyscraper developers (it’s nothing new). With a jazzy modern score and songs by the great Hoagy Carmichael and Frank Loesser and Fleischer house composer Sammy Timberg.
Sunday, May 17 at 11:00 (Part of Film Forum Jr.)
“ODDBALL FLEISCHER”
Just when you thought the Fleischer cartoons couldn’t get any weirder. Animation Historian Jerry Beck presents a selection of cartoon goodies that stand out solely because of their oddness. Bizarre short-run characters in newly restored prints, featuring Gabby from Gulliver’s Travels, Flintstones precursor “The Stone Age cartoons”, Fleischer’s take on Poe’s The Raven, and more, courtesy UCLA Film & Television Archive. The strangest Koko The Clown, Popeye The Sailor and Betty Boop shorts also make the cut.
Sunday, May 17 at 2:40* *Introduced by Jerry Beck Monday, May 18 at 8:00
FLEISCHER’S SUPERMAN CARTOONS A number of firsts mark this series of incredible animated shorts. Superman had taken the country by storm in 1938, the character himself begat the modern “superhero” and established comic books as a creative medium. A radio show was established the next year – and Hollywood came a-calling in 1940. Paramount won the bidding war and put the braintrust at Fleischer Studios on it – creating the first dramatic science fiction superhero cartoons ever. Seven classic shorts will screen, including four new 4K restorations from Fabulous Fleischer Cartoons.
Sunday, May 17 at 5:30* *Introduced by Jerry Beck Monday, May 18 at 6:00
SO THIS IS NEW YORK U.S., 1948 Directed by Richard Fleischer
Starring Henry Morgan, Rudy Vallée, Hugh Herbert, Leo Gorcey, Virginia Grey Based on the novel Big Novel: How I and the Mrs. Go to New York to See Life and Get Katie a Husband by Ring Lardner
Approx. 79 min. 35mm print courtesy UCLA Film & Television Archive
Sunday, May 17 at 7:40 Sunday, May 24 at 6:30
THE HAPPY TIME U.S., 1952 Directed by Richard Fleischer Starring Charles Boyer, Louis Jourdan, Bobby Driscoll, Linda Christian Approx. 94 min. 35mm.
Monday, May 18 at 3:50 Tuesday, May 19 at 5:50 Thursday, May 21 at 12:30
THE BOSTON STRANGLER U.S., 1968 Directed by Richard Fleischer Starring Tony Curtis, Henry Fonda, George Kennedy Approx. 116 min. 4K restoration.
Wednesday, May 20 at 5:30 Friday, May 22 at 12:20 Saturday, May 23 at 5:30 Monday, May 25 at 4:10 Thursday, May 28 at 12:20
THE VIKINGS U.S., 1958 Directed by Richard Fleischer Cinematography by Jack Cardiff Starring Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, Ernest Borgnine Narrated by Orson Welles Approx. 115 min. 35mm
Thursday, May 21 at 6:00 Saturday, May 23 at 8:00
FLEISCHER’S POPEYE CARTOONS A selection of some of Fleischer Studios’ exhilarating black & white (except for one) Popeye cartoons of the 1930s, co-starring Olive Oyl, Bluto, and hamburger-obsessed Wimp. Includes Popeye’s film debut in a Betty Boop cartoon, A Dream Walking, The Dance Contest, Fleischertoons restoration of the Technicolor Popeye “special” Popeye Meets Sindbad…. and much more.
Friday, May 22 at 5:45 Sunday, May 24 at 11:00
ALL FLEISCHER! ALL COLOR! While keeping up with Disney as the 30s progressed and color cartoons became norm, the Fleischer studio was no less surreal in their gags and storytelling. In 1934, the studio introduced a third dimensional effect to their cartoons (beating Disney-his Multiplane camera wouldn’t appear till 1937). Dazzling eye-popping visuals in the Color Classic series beginning with Betty Boop as the two-color Poor Cinderella, a candyland of wonders Somewhere In Dreamland, and the sailor’s finest two-reeler, Popeye Meets Aladdin – among others.
Sunday, May 24 at 12:50 Monday, May 25 at 2:30
PRE-CODE BETTY BOOP Cartoons in the 1930s weren’t intended just for kids, but meant to entertain all members of the Depression era audiences. Betty Boop was then as much a Pre-Code sex symbol as Mae West — and here is a showcase of her most lascivious films. Program includes Boop-Oop-a-Doop, Red Hot Mama, Mask-A-Raid, Betty Boop’s Bamboo Isle, and more!
Writer, cartoon producer and author of more than 15 books on animation history. A former studio exec with Nickelodeon and Disney; currently on the faculty at both CalArts in Valencia and Woodbury University in Burbank, California.
Wow! Wish I was in New York to attend those! I love cartoons more than anything in the world!
I have the hard cover copy of your book with Will Friedwald The Warner Bros. Cartoons that you signed for me many years ago in the city when Mel Blanc was supposed to be there but could not attend but I did get to meet Friz Freleng. Do you think that these Fleischer cartoon gems will ever make it to DVD?
Signup for Latest Animation News, Interviews & Reviews
By providing your information, you agree to our
Terms of Use and our
Privacy Policy.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google
Privacy Policy and
Terms of Service apply.
Fleischer “père et fils” – A Retrospective Of Cartoon Pioneer Max Fleischer, and His Son, Director Richard Fleischer – May 8-28 at New York’s Film Forum
Featuring over 60 Classic Max Fleischer Cartoons - Starring BETTY BOOP, POPEYE, SUPERMAN, et al.,
Most Restored in 4K.
One Response
Wow! Wish I was in New York to attend those! I love cartoons more than anything in the world!
I have the hard cover copy of your book with Will Friedwald The Warner Bros. Cartoons that you signed for me many years ago in the city when Mel Blanc was supposed to be there but could not attend but I did get to meet Friz Freleng. Do you think that these Fleischer cartoon gems will ever make it to DVD?