Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Israelite
Page 11
. . . Out Of The Inkwell
The Man Who Created Cartoon Movies
By MEYER F. STEINGLASS
author of this article
s you into the studio
of \rmricas best-known
air.mated - cartoon - ist.
Max Fleischer, the
ator of the internation
ally famous animal car-
)on movies. In this
fascinating narrative Mr.
Steinglass tells how the
il’usion of motion and
life is produced from two-
dimensional drawings by
the inventive and re
sourceful mind of the
master movie cartoonist
of the world. In this in
terview-sketch you are
permitted to peep behind
the screen of your favor
ite shadowland entertain
ment.
—The Editor.
world he has created is but a
Irtd square inches in area, but within
ramped limits Max Fleischer, dean of
im; led-cartoonists,” has translated the
tein theory into graphic form, por-
d the story of evolution with suffi-
accuracy to make the Fundamental
ly i into a war dance and give life to
• rica’s funniest animal comedies. It
' >t the usual thing for one whose
-ss demands an intensive study of
whits of rnimal life and their in
ti n on the pattern of human be-
in the more prosaic channels of
d lve into the complex mazes of
ah truse theory in physics.
>me time ago, whm front page
in the newspapers everywhere re-
that thousands of New Yorkers
■t rnud the American Museum of
1 Hitory to witness a film pre-
n of the Einstein relativity theory,
her chuckled. The film had- hit its
On the same small field he used
lepicting the humble exploits of
’ the cat he had succeeded in syn-
hng an intelligible picture of the
t themes of the world-famous
matical formula. That rare com-
111 of almost antithetical interests,
accounts for the six patents Mr.
-cher holds, is responsible for the
'Pment of the animated-cartoon in-
ry.
,e principle of the “living” cartoon,
which Fleischer perfected while art ed't >r
of the Popular Science Monthly more
than ten years ago, is identical with the
general theory of motion pic‘u"es, i.e.,
stills of various positions of a moving
body which when run off in quick succes
sion reproduce the original action. That
's all very well for bodies that have the
property of mobility. But what of a
lifeless pen-and-ink sketch of a clown or
a cat ? How are they to be made to walk,
and act, and talk like human beings? Mr.
Fleischer has looked into that funda
mental problem with the k -en eye of the
scientist, and has emerged with a process
now in universal use.
He reduced the art of creating the
illusion of life from the inert, two-
dimensional drawings of hulls, bears, cats,
dogs and the more common inhabitants
of the zoo to the stereotyped ways of an
industry. A highly fascinating industry.
In addition to the novel intricacies of its
methods of procedure, of which even the
most humdrum production system
abounds, the manufacture of animated
cartoons in the Fleischer Studio requires
the collaboration of about a hundred per
sons. That in itself is no startling inno
vation, mass production methods have
made it a commonplace fact for thousands
of men and women to co-operate oil one
product. But when a hundred young men
and young women must work one week
to produce a seven-minute motion-picture
record of a simple animal story the scenes
behind the scenes must be of some extra
ordinary interest.
Although the idea of drawing the inter
mediate positions of a limb in action
was the groundwork for early animated
cartoons, the raw technique of artists pro
duced at best a wooden, jerky photo
graphic record of the drawings. To over
come this serious defect Fleischer con
ceived the idea of using motion photo
graphs of humans as models, with the
result that animated cartoons suddenly
attained a flexibility and spontaneity
exceeding the most optimistic expecta
tions.
S > far, indeed, has this art progressed
that its smooth, faultless workings have
condemned it to be taken for granted
with no more ado than in the case of
(ircta (iarbo’s undulatory movements.
Such if a too profound philosophical
aside be permitted me—is the fate of all
perfectly executed devices. Yet n >th;ng
has been quite so enthralling an experi
ence as tb • visit I made to Mr Fleischer’s
studio, the largest cartoon studio in the
world, several days ago.
From the conversation I had with Mr.
Fleischer, a genial man of 43, 1 learned
the general facts about his cartoon
factory. His studio was equipped to put
out fifty-two “talkart'Mms” a year at a
production cost of $1,750,000, in addition
to song cartoons featuring the now uni
versally known “bouncing ball." 1 hese
pictures are exhibited in five thousand
theatres in the United States and any
number of motion picture houses from
the Hebrides to Ceylon.
Of the making of "animated cartoons"
there is no end. No less than 16,000 and
often 20,(KM) individual drawings are
needed for a full length animated cartoon
comedy. ()ne scene, which was being
photographed as I looked on, required
thirty camera photos for two uncanny-
looking birds to drink one ordinary choco
late soda. All of which, when projected
on the screen, would not cover any more
than about two seconds of action.
Max Fleischer
The production of a cartoon comic is
of necessity a job for mass industrial
methods, for the combined efforts of
eighty artists are required to complete
one film a week. Of these thirty-five
are in effect authors, directors, dialogue
writers and costumers rolled into one.
Here no one personality can be said to be
reflected in the noble adventures of
Bimbo the cat or Bimhiua, the fragile
heroine whom the villian treats in chiro
practic fashion.
Somewhere on the floor Dave Fleischer,
brother of Max and director in charge
of production, is disturbed by the intru
sion of an idea. He summons the staff,
outlines his plot. Some of the staff
make suggestions for changes or addi
tions, omissions. Then an oral scenario
is sketched, scenes are doled out. Jones
will have the opening scene, Cohen the
scene following, ami so on What will
transpire in the part of the story as
signed t > them is hazy. The “chief ani
mator" must supply the action. Wherein
imagination enters as the principal asset
to the draughtsman, imagination not arbi
trarily chained by the laws of physics ami
biology. The more his fancy defies the
limitations of reality, the more "gags” or
impossible forms animate and inanimate
life assumes, the more diverting will the
artist’s w »rk be. I f, let us say, a cloud
suddenly spr ruts wings or in gray
weather is transmogrified into a sprayer
the artist wh > conceived the idea will be
dubbed "clever." Seriously contemplated,
such phenomena or "gags” are, in truth,
manifestations of poetry. They are meta
phorical conceptions of nature ami animal
life. They rival the verse of Arthur
(Continued on page 23)