Cartoons

This thread will have pretty much everything you ever wanted to know about Western Animation. I must thank the good owner of toonepedia before I begin because it has been an excellent resource. I also own The Art of Walt Disney. I tend to favor Fleischer characters best.
So let's just run down the Studios first.

Fleischer- They came first. Maxwell Fleischer invented the rodioscope in 1921 which is how we can animate things with ease. The Fleischer brothers (David did most of the directing) opened an animation studio in New York.
Their cartoons were darker than Disney and believe it or not often more successful. Their most famous characters are Koko the Clown, Betty Boop, and Popeye.
Their distributor was Paramount.
Van Buren- So obscure it's like they didn't exist outside toonepedia. Their studio was across the street from Fleischer. The most important fact is that Van Buren's nephew Terry quit cause he didn't want to add sound to cartoons.
Terry- They are famous for being cheap. Extremly cheap. As in last studio to add sound & color. But Mr.Terry did well in TV and when he died left all th rights to CBS.
Lantz- Walter Lantz knew every job in animation. He just couldn't get a job. In fact he was chauffer to Universal head huncho Mr.Lascelles. Then Mr.Lascelles ended up firing alot of people who deserved it (you'll see later).He created Andy Panda, Chilly Willy, and Woody Woodpecker.
Warner- Warner's story begins with a couple of ex-Disney employees Harmon & Ising. (cue laughter) They were fired by Lascelles for asking to cut the middleman Lintz. Soon they quit from Warner as well and Terrence Termite & co. began by creating 3 lovable characters: Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny, and Daffy Duck.
MGM- The suits at MGM were too stuckup to get into cartoons at first. Then Disney made it more attractive and they hired Hanna & Barbarra. Tom & Jerry were stars and won a ton of Best Animation awards.
Disney- Considering what site I am on I hope I don't have to go into detail. Disney worked for Universal. The middleman was Lintz who married the distributor Margaret Wrinkler. Lintz fired Disney and hired some of his employees in order to save money. Disney created Mickey Mouse.

 

Since I got the Oswald set, I want to tell you about the Hays Code.

In 1934, the heads of major studios signed an agreement with a government commitee (headed by Senator Samuel Hays) in order to bring about "clean wholsesome entertainmen"t. That is why cartoons post-1934 are much "neater" than those before.

By that time cartoons found their audience: kids.

Sadly, this put alot of people out of business.

 

I never was too fond of Nickalodean (spelling right?). I like the novelty of the name. It's what they called those coin-operated moving picture machines at the turn of the century.

I got the Aristocats DVD recently. It's the last movie to be approved of by Walt Disney.

 

Hello everyone! It's been a long time. Ever since I started browsing this site...I'm wondering if anyone else would think a Disney subforum would be a good idea? That way we can deep into the history & characters. It could also have a timeline of critical animation.
After all without Disney we would not be here!

I'm working on my collection. I own the Jungle Book and the Aristocats now.

 

They had an excellant studio. There is a famous scene with Jerry dancing with an MGM actor. That's another fascinating thing about cartoons. More people today know who Mickey Mouse is than who Rudolf Valentino was. There's a timeless quality to these characters.