Fleischer Studios Blog

Fleischer Studios Filmography now available!

7/28/2015

Fleischer Studios is thrilled to launch its official online filmography containing nearly 700 titles!

Starting with the earliest Fleischer film experiments in 1915, this comprehensive, searchable database includes all subsequent work by Max and Dave Fleischer through the Fleischer Studios years. Also included is a brief timeline chronicling the various names the Fleischers operated under prior to officially forming Fleischer Studios in 1929.

The filmography has been years in the making - and there are still gaps. As new material and information comes to light we will continue to grow and expand our database. In other words: this is only the beginning! You can utilize this user-friendly filmography to find your favorite Betty Boop cartoon or take on some serious animation research.

We hope this project will serve as a tribute, not only to the Fleischers themselves, but to all the artists who contributed their talents to these ground-breaking classic films and the audiences who love them.

You can visit the Filmography by using the navigation bar on this site or by clicking here.

POPEYE and OLIVE OYL © 2014 King Features Syndicate, Inc.
TM Hearst Holdings, Inc.

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It's Max Fleischer's birthday... and you're invited to the party!

7/19/2015

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Left to right: Max’s son Richard, Irene Fleischer, Max Fleischer and his wife, Essie at their home in Florida, circa 1938.

In celebration of Max’s big day – and as you will see in our new Museum exhibit, it was a big day because Max loved parties! - we want to share a bit more of Max Fleischer the man.

We know Max the animator, and Max the inventor, but in this very special exhibit you’ll get to know a bit more about Max the friend, Max the father and even Max the player of mandolins.

As an added bonus, this exciting exhibit includes private, never-before-released, home audio recordings from the Fleischer Family Collection. What was it like to be a member of Fleischer Studios' inner circle of family and friends? Now you can hear for yourself! Don't miss this very special new exhibit: We're celebrating Max's birthday... and you're invited!

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Popeye's Aladdin & His Wonderful Lamp Premieres... again!

7/8/2015

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If you enjoyed Magic in Miami, the most recent exhibit in our Museum (featuring a short 1938 Popular Science film about the making of Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp, starring Popeye), then you'll love this fun fact...

Footage from this classic, color Popeye film, released in 1939, was also used in the 1949 film Popeye's Premiere!

Famous Studios (the animation studio that succeeded Fleischer Studios), made what’s known in the world of animation, as a 'cheater’ film. In order to save money 'cheater' films mixed footage from an older film with new footage to create a film that gives the feeling (perhaps even the illusion) of an entirely new film. In Popeye’s Premiere, film stars Popeye and Olive Oyl attend the red carpet opening of "new" motion picture entitled Aladdin's Lamp, a film created entirely by piecing together chunks of footage from the 1939 animated classic Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp.

Olive Oyl and Popeye in Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp (1939)

Olive Oyl and Popeye in Popeye's Premiere (1949)

Interestingly, the original 1939 film actually starts with Olive Oyl at the typewriter writing a screenplay about Aladdin and his lamp. "I'll have to decide who the actors will be," she muses thoughtfully, then quickly casts herself as the heroine and Popeye as the hero as the scene dissolves, carrying us into the world of Olive's screenplay.

At the end of Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp, Olive receives a devastating note from her bosses at "Surprise Pictures" informing her that her story of Aladdin is being "thrown out," and so is she! So, while Popeye's Premiere may have been created as a 'cheater' film, it actually completes the story launched in the 1939 version, and provides some vindication for Olive Oyl and her screenwriting talents.

If you haven't done so already, we hope you'll check out our Magic in Miami exhibit, where you can watch a short Popular Science film featuring the making of Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp (the first film completed in Fleischer Studio's then-new, state-of-art Miami studio space) and then watch the film itself in its entirety.