Color Classics: Sentimental Charm (February 2012 MuskegonOnline.NET)

This month we celebrate Valentine's Day with three love-themed Fleischer Studios cartoons.

Don't expect the urban, jazz crazy tales of the Fleischer brothers' early years in these Color Classics from 1935 (Dancing on the Moon and Time for Love) and 1937 (Bunny Mooning). Although their Koko the Clown dominated '20s cartoon popularity and Fleischer Studios' Betty Boop was a household name, the enforcement of the Hays Code in 1934 kept Fleischer cartoons from the racey, dark, city-oriented subject matter that made their early cartoons unique.

The Color Classics, obvious nods to Disney's successful Silly Symphonies series, have their own visual charm, aided by the Stereoptical process developed by Fleischer Studios. If many of the backgrounds look real, it's because they are -- drawn animation cells were positioned in front of scale model, three dimensional dioramas, giving an amazing depth to many scenes.

Dancing on the Moon, below, was one of the last films made by Fleischer Studios using the two-color Technicolor process. Disney had acquired an exclusivity to three-color Technicolor process and it took the Fleischers years to take advantage of that technology. Although Dancing on the Moon does not feature jazz music from Cab Calloway or Louis Armstrong, like earlier cartoons, you will most likely be humming this goofy theme song by Charlie Tobias and Murray Mencher for hours to come. It's catchy!

(Video here at MuskegonOnline.NET)


Bunny Mooning, below, directed by Dave Fleischer. Voices include Jack Mercer, who later became the voice of Popeye for Fleischer Studios, and Mae Questel, the voice of Betty Boop on over 150 animated shorts until the character was retired in 1939.

(Video here at MuskegonOnline.NET)


We leave the Fleischer Studios Color Classics with Time for Love, below. Though the Fleischers would never recover from a disastrous move from New York City to Miami, Florida in 1938, their Popeye cartoons continued to be popular and their carefully drawn, scored and scripted Superman cartoons remain some of the best superhero stories on film.

(Video here at MuskegonOnline.NET)

Those interested in classic cartoons can visit the The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit museum, library and digital archive dedicated to serving the worldwide animation community. A project of ASIFA-Hollywood, the archive receives support from The Walter Lantz Foundation. Go to http://www.animationarchive.org and prepare to be entertained.


These Works are in Public Domain and not Derivative as specified by U.S. copyright law (title 17 of the U.S. Code).

Editor and Publisher Gary Scott Beatty has been working in printing and publishing for over 35 years, including editing Muskegon's On the Shore magazine and typesetting Muskegon Magazine. In 2008 he won a Xeric Foundation Grant to publish Jazz: Cool Birth, a murder mystery in a 1957 jazz club with illustrations inspired by '50s album cover design. This and his other Aazurn Publishing books can be purchased through Amazon.com. Worldwide, he edits and publishes Indie Comics Magazine, 64 pages of the best story and art from today's independent comic book creators.