Fleischer cartoons are the best and always have been. What some have described as
post modern elements were a staple of Fleischer stuff right from the get go.
Watch some of the ‘Out of the Inkwell’ series to see what I mean.
Back in the day, I used to program film festivals when I was an animation student
at RISD. I loved Fleischer cartoons and often featured them, but there would
always be at least one student, usually an illustration major, who would beg for
some Disney. The way I obliged was to put a couple of contemporary pieces by the
two studios back to back. I’d start out with ‘Steamboat Willie’, the first sound
cartoon. It stars Mickey Mouse and is, to be rather frank, quite dull. Mickey is
bland. He has personality deficit. The next cartoon we’d show would be “
Koko’s
Earth Control” a silent cartoon from the Inkwell series that was made the very
same year as Willie. Silent or no, it is so much more dynamic and engaging than
the Disney film. Post-modern nothing, this cartoon is just flat out surreal! The
illustration majors never made a peep after that, when I loaded the programs with
Fleischer animation. I converted ‘em. Disney who?
Another episode that comes to mind took place several years later at the Museum
of Cartoon Art when it was in an old concrete Victorian mansion in Rye. I heard a
ruckus over in the next room, where the museum ran 16mm film for visitors.
The audience members on that day were school kids. I’m guessing they were about
eight years old, tops. They looked like they might have been inner city kids, a
mix of boys and girls. And they were freaking out in joy and wonderment. As they
watched what was happening on the screen, they were not able to stay in their
seats. They were clinging to each other, and pulling each other’s hair and
sitting in each other’s laps, eyes glued to the screen. It was as though the room
had been flooded with laughing gas and speed.
On the screen was a Popeye cartoon. It takes place on Labor Day, and Popeye and
Olive go on a picnic. Sweepea wanders off, as he tends to do, and the distracted
adults do not notice this until he is in trouble.
The kids in the audience had only been exposed to the likes of Hanna Barbera and
Sesame Street and the Smurfs. They’ve never seen ANYTHING like this. The movement
through the frame, the perspective shifts, the energy, the slapstick, the
violence, and the obvious love of the animators for their craft and their characters.
The children just exploded with pure kid joy. You would have to install the
wiring and fire up the pleasure center of your very brain to experience anything
as intense as the happiness and excitement these little guys were feeling.
It was good. I got a serious contact high. I’m getting a buzz just remembering now.
Oh yeah, Fleischer cartoons are the shit, no doubt about it.
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/01/16/bb-cartoon-circus-th.html#comment-689304