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FLEISCHER, MAX & DAVE.   Term Paper ID:25408 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Examines animated characters created by brothers in silent era: Betty Boop, Koko the Clown, Minnie the Moocher.... More...

9 Pages / 2025 Words 3 sources, 7 Citations, MLA Format $36.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: Examines animated characters created by brothers in silent era: Betty Boop, Koko the Clown, Minnie the Moocher. Paper Introduction: INTRODUCTION Max and Dave Fleischer started in animation in the silent era and continued into sound and through the heyday of short film animation. They were one of the few silent studios aside from that of Disney to last into the 1940s, continuing beyond studios like Van Buren or Ub Iwerks (though Iwerks did return to the Disney fold and work on animated films after his own studio folded). The Fleischer's created a number of characters of lasting value, two of the most notable being Betty Boop and Popeye, and form the silent era, Koko the Klown. Betty Boop was a character who epitomized a certain attitude in the Depression years, though in some ways she was out of her proper time and is more a flapper of the 1920s than the showgirl of the 1930s. She can be seen as evoking the sort of optimism needed in the years Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. http://www.afionline.org/cinema/archive/ alice/koko.html. Hardly anyone else in the studio could animate it (Maltin 96).The character had no name at first, but the public responded to herstrongly. Koko the Clownappeared in the "Out of the Inkwell" series and other films from 1917-1929. They also made twoanimated features, Gulliver's Travels (1939) and Mr. Bug Goes to Town(1941), also known as Hoppity Goes to Town (Furniss www.afionline.org). Max Fleischer worked on the business side asproducer, while Dave worked on the creative end of the studio as ananimator. Jazz music plays throughout, and all theactions of Bimbo and Koko are in time to the music. The staff kept changing her appearance, however. The fear felt by Betty and Bimbo isconveyed as they go negative--if they were in a lighted place, you wouldsay they turned white, but in the dark, they turn black and their clothesturn white. "Modeling" was somewhat unique in its use of clay(Plasticine) animation. Betty Boop was a character whoepitomized a certain attitude in the Depression years, though in some waysshe was out of her proper time and is more a flapper of the 192 s than theshowgirl of the 193 s. Theanimation in these cartoons is surreal; the sound musical; the voicesdisembodied even when a character is speaking; and the jazz musicdominates, fitting with the surrealistic imagery and the in-time action.The orchestra, the song, and the action in the jungle are together becausethey are in the same film and use the same rhythm, and this adds to thesurreal nature of the work because otherwise they have nothing in common. an analysis of hercreators and of some of her shorts shows how the Fleischers used all theelements of filmmaking to create a mood, to enhance a character, and tocommunicate a different perception of the world and of animation to theaudience. New York: New American Library, 198 .----------------------- 11 Animation historians, as well as Natwick's colleagues, agree that only he would have had the ability and the confidence to devise a female character with an even remotely realistic body. The wavery lines are certainly intentionalgiven that other elements in the frame remain steady. The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. One of their first releases was the film "Modeling" (1921),which featured Koko the Clown, a character created using the rotoscopeprocess, with Dave Fleischer himself donning a clown suit and performingbefore the camera. Leonard Maltin rightly notes that the Betty Boop character was aholdover from the 192 s and represented the perfect flapper, "who couldflirt and tease but remain pure and innocent" (Maltin 97): "She really hadno other personality traits, but the sheer novelty of such a character inanimated cartoons kept her afloat for several years" (Maltin 97 .Actually, Maltin is wrong about her having no other character traits, forBoop was very much the liberated woman of her time, usually smarter thanthose around her, always the center of attention, eager to avenge a slightor help anyone being set upon by the bullies of this world. In several of the Betty Boop cartoons, beginning with thisone, Cab Calloway and His Orchestra appear for a moment at the beginning ofthe short subject, in this case playing the introduction to "Minnie theMoocher" while Calloway dances and prances and acts out the music. She can be seen as evoking the sort of optimismneeded in the years of the Great Depression, and much of her successderives form that sense of optimism along with her sexuality, something notusually seen in cartoon characters of either sex. The world itself becomes a dark and shadowy place when Betty runsaway, suggesting the terrors outside her home, terrors made all the morereal at the case to which she and Bimbo go as the saxophone carries therhythms deeper an deeper into a low-down range. The adult nature of these cartoons is evident notonly in the way Betty dresses and acts but in the lyrics to the song, whichincludes a reference to cocaine. A viewing of the "Out of the Inkwell" films gives theimpression of live-action and animation co-existing, and this illusion wasoften created by using still photos of a background along with cut-outs ofthe Koko character. The effect is that we seem to see Bettyalways dancing, even when the music is stopped, and when the music isplaying, her rhythm exactly matches the music in an undulating manner thatis both musical and sexual at one and the same time. Sound is used in these shorts in a very up-front way. When projected, the rephotographed sequence of drawingsappears as animation. Some of the animators hadtrouble drawing her even after her form was set because she had anoversized head, no visible neck, small torso, and exaggerated hips andthighs: "No matter that Betty didn't make sense anatomically: she wasadorable" (Maltin 97). Betty Boop was also a singer,and the use of music in her cartoons is different from the way music wasused by other animation studios. Betty herself tendsalways to be moving, shifting from on side to the next, from one foot toanother, in a sexual dance that takes place throughout the short. When the Fleischers later shifted Betty to a fully humancharacter, the lobes became circular earrings, a characteristic of thecharacter ever after: This character was invented and drawn by Grim Natwick, a Fleischer veteran of several years with a substantia background not only in animation but in art. Inanimate objects move on their own, as do normally quiescententities like the plant on the table that tries to get Betty to eat fromthe spoon in its stem-like hand. The animation carries through the themeof a dark and fearsome night with dancing skeletons and ghosts in a way notunlike today's MTV music videos. It seems very lifelike because it is based exactlyon the movements of a live-action figure. "MINNIE THE MOOCHER" The aforementioned "Minnie the Moocher" (1932) sets a tone that wasfollowed through a number of Betty Boop cartoons, using jazzy music, gueststars, and a surreal mixture of images of life and death, the sexy Bettyand the supernatural beings of different settings, in a mixture that wasdown and dirty. INTRODUCTION Max and Dave Fleischer started in animation in the silent era andcontinued into sound and through the heyday of short film animation. Othercharacters form in groupings around Betty, indicating that she is thecentral character but also that she is the central and primal forcemotivating the other characters to express themselves as they do. Surrealism is the order of the say once more as a huge head appearsbehind the two an chases them along the path, singing the title song. The brothers started their animation careers at the studio of JohnRandolph Bray. He later workedas an art director for Popular Science magazine. The way inanimate orusually non-moving objects move and commiserate with Betty suggests herimportance--everyone and everything wants her to be happy. The fullydeveloped Betty Boop character was evident first in "Minnie the Moocher"(1932), with Cab Calloway and his orchestra. The Fleischers later branched out on their own, and in1921, they founded Out of the Inkwell Films, Inc., which became one of themost important animation studios in the United States (it was renamed the"Fleischer Studios" in 1928). All the Betty Boop cartoons but one is in black and white,and the use of shadings and lines in these cartoons is in some ways rough-hewn, with lines that waver alongside solid shapes and clear outlinessuggesting the background. After Betty is kidnaped bynatives, Koko and Bimbo's muted dialogue is more suggestive thancommunicative--they are not speaking dialogue so much a they are mumblingin a stream-of-consciousness way. "The Fleischer Studio and Modeling." The AFI Online Cinema. This patent was granted in 1917and formed the basis of the Fleischer Studio and also of much of the earlywork of the animators (Furniss www.afionline.org). The Fleischer'swere not the only studio to do this--Felix the Cat cartoons did it fromtime to time, and Walt Disney did it with his "Alice" cartoons--but theFleischers used it almost as a trademark, with Max and Dave appearing onscreen to do battle with Koko the Klown, always trying to put him back inthe inkwell. 1998.Lenburg, Jeff. Indeed,after a moment, the cartoon head changes to a real image of Armstrong inthe sky, mixing live action with the animated figures of Bimbo and Kokorunning. Theywere one of the few silent studios aside from that of Disney to last intothe 194 s, continuing beyond studios like Van Buren or Ub Iwerks (thoughIwerks did return to the Disney fold and work on animated films after hisown studio folded). Betty, as noted, tends to be shown moving at all times, and the othertwo in the frame match themselves to her rhythm, all three of them movingup and down or back and forth. Betty at first is seated at a table while aGerman couple berate he for not eating her dinner. This is a world where all things arepossible just because they are. This method was fairly uncommon during the silentera. The cartoon itself makes use of all the tricks animators used toconvey ideas and attitudes. Clay animation could not be produced through an assembly-lineprocess, like drawings or cel animation, which is why it was generallydeemed impractical for commercial animation production. TheFleischers created other characters as well, less successful than BettyBoop or Popeye, and for Paramount in the 194 s animated a series ofcartoons based on the comic book character Superman. Dave and other artists would later trace the live-action clown performance into drawings that would then be shot asanimation. Betty Boop would continue tohave sexual themes until the mid-193 s, when censorship laws were directedat the character so that she was redrawn once more: "Her garter, shortskirt, and decolletage were soon gone, undermining her appeal" (Lenburg51). MAX AND DAVE FLEISCHER Max and Dave Fleischer were the founders of the animation studio thatwould be eventually called the Fleischer Studio. The character was completely modified by 1932, and she did not have aname until "Stopping the Show" in 1932, billed as the first official BettyBoop cartoon. The character remained a member of thecartoon repertory company appearing in cartoons with Bimbo and Koko through1931, and at that time she began to appear more prominently in cartoons ofher own and established her own personality. The world of the cartoon is aworld where anything is possible and where symbolism simply grows beforeyour eyes. Theimage would be considered racist today, the face being the usual caricatureof an African native, and it has the voice of Louis Armstrong. The Fleischers would later create Betty Boop, originally in films withKoko the Klown, and Popeye, first seen in a Betty Boop cartoon. She was also amaster of the double-entendre, part of her sexuality an such as to combineher flirting and her chastity at one and the same time as she used words totease but never to allow further advances. A ghostly walrus sings thetitle song beginning inside the cave, and the walrus has both Calloway'svoice and acts out the same dance moves Calloway did in live action at thebeginning of the short. A characteristic of the Fleischer cartoons of the silent era as themixture of live action and animation in the same frame. The background is minimal and rushes past as they run. "I'LL BE GLAD WHEN YOU'RE DEAD YOU RASCAL YOU" This cartoon was also made in 1932, and it begins with a live actionshot of the jazz band of Louis Armstrong, with Armstrong playing trumpet.Betty by now is a ful-fledged personality and so appears as she isintroduced in a characteristic sexy swaying walk past the camera--it isclear that the audience would by now recognize her, and her name alone doesnot indicate her importance, so she is given an entrance, along with hertrademark "Boop-oop-a-doop." This cartoon is set in the jungle, and again the world is shown toconform to Betty's needs. Betty also batsher eyes at ever opportunity, one of the primary non-verbal ways shecommunicates her feelings. They were brothers from afamily of inventors that had emigrated from Europe to New York in 1887. Betty Boop became known as "the first top-billed femalecartoon character of any significance" and soon had a daily newspaper stripof her own as well. The Fleischer's created a number of characters oflasting value, two of the most notable being Betty Boop and Popeye, andform the silent era, Koko the Klown. Natwick hadoriginally modeled her after singer Helen Kane, and women with similarvoices were hired to do the voice. The Fleischers did work as inventors within the confines of theirstudio, and one of their most important patents was the rotoscope, aprocess by which single frames of live-action film are projected onto adrawing surface where they can be traced onto sheets of paper, animationcels, or other materials that can then be rephotographed onto motion-picture film. Asa young man, Max Fleischer followed in the family business after a fashionby attending various trade schools and art programs in New York, but ratherthan become an inventor, he began working as a cartoonist, photographer,and photo-engraver for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper. Of Mice and Magic. BETTY BOOP The character of Betty Boop was first developed as the girl friend ofa dog character named Bimbo, and indeed, Betty herself was originally drawnas a hybrid of a girl and a dog. New York: Facts on File, 1991.Maltin, Leonard. Bimbo and Koko carry her through the jungle in abouncy walk that fits the rhythm of the music. CONCLUSION At this stage in her development, Betty Boop was more an idea than acharacter, representing sexuality, freedom, and beauty in a world thatcatered to all three concepts. Dave Fleischer continued tinkering with the characteruntil her appearance was standardized and was fully feminine. Music isalmost constant, and in this case the music is a jazzy, underworld rhythmderived from and leading to the title song. Works CitedFurniss, Maureen. The man, apparently herpapa (though with an inexplicable German accent) keeps speaking, and hishead turns into a phonograph record playing on a phonograph, indicatingthat he prattles on like a broken record. When she cries, tears pour from her eyes likerain. Her ears at that stage hung down in longlobes like a dog. Musical sound effects are usedfor other actions as well--a slid whistle sounds as Betty drops out of thewindow, and sticks tapping signal footsteps, knocking, and the like. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.