History Creator / MaxAndDaveFleischer

* ''Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy'' (1941): A two-reeler about two sentient dolls (not to be confused with the feature-length [[RaggedyAnnAndAndyAMusicalAdventure film about the same characters]] made by Creator/RichardWilliams over three decades later). Famous Studios later produced two Raggedy Ann shorts of their own in 1944 & 1947.

** The Color Classics also had its own seven-short sub-series, ''Hunky and Spunky'' (1938-41), a series of films about a mother donkey and her son. Famous Studios later produced two cartoons starring Spunky alone in 1944 & 1958 as part of their Noveltoons series.

Majer "Max" (July 19, 1883 – September 11, 1972) and David Fleischer (July 14, 1894 – June 25, 1979) are two of the most prolific and influential ([[MainstreamObscurity sadly, mostly unknown to today's audiences]]) men to ever work in the HistoryOfAnimation. Getting their start off in the [[UsefulNotes/TheSilentAgeOfAnimation Silent Era]], they pioneered one of the earliest attempts at blending [[RogerRabbitEffect live action and animation]] with their hit ''WesternAnimation/OutOfTheInkwell'' series, starring Koko The Clown. They were also a top of the line animation studio in the [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation 1930's and early 40's]], producing such landmark hits like ''WesternAnimation/BettyBoop'', the ''{{ComicStrip/Popeye}} The Sailor'' cartoons, and eventually the ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheatricalCartoons''.

While the Brooklyn Daily Eagle provided him with the necessary tools to become a proficient artist, it provided very little money. As a result, Max accepted a job as an illustrator for a fashion catalog in Boston, Massachusetts, only to be subsequently hired at ''Popular Science Monthly'' by Waldemar Kempft, returning to New York City in 1912. Max also couldn't help but acknowledge the budding art form which was animation; which was slowly on the rise in New York in the early 1910's following the success of Creator/WinsorMcCay's initial films, such as ''ComicStrip/LittleNemo'' and ''WesternAnimation/GertieTheDinosaur''. He became an avid follower of animation and read many technical articles; at the same time hhe put thought and consideration into trying to correct many of the technical shortcomings that plagued early animated films. Max was determined to provide a solution, particularly once Waldemar Kempft encouraged him to devise a solution following Waldemar's personal experience watching a UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt animated cartoon; appalled at the quality, he lamented about it to Max. Waldemar, recognizing his diverse understanding of commercial art, photography, and machinery, encouraged Max to dedicate time to improving the quality of animated films. This was the genesis to the [[{{Rotoscoping}} rotoscope]].

* ArtEvolution: Their earliest cartoons were drawn like slick newspaper comic illustrations, often using rotoscoping and very surreal gags. By the mid to late 20's, the studio adapted to the then-ubiquitous rubberhose animal style of cartoons, but still brought their gag sense and surrealism with it. By the early 30's, Grim Natwick came to the studio and with his influence, the studios animation and designs [[SerialEscalation got even more surreal and wild]] than they already were. By the mid 30s period, they started toning down the wild stuff, but still stuck to their newspaper cartoon like design sense, oddly even in their Disney-esque stuff like the Color Classics. By the late 30s, the studio brought in many ex-west coast animators, including former Disney and Looney Tunes artists, and the studio went into a transitional period where the drawings got more loose and floppy, but also resulted in a bizarre mix of the Fleischers newspaper comic designs and slick but softer west coast style designs. By the early 40s, they had completed their transition to the west coast animation style, which would carry on to their successor outfit, Creator/FamousStudios.

* CaptainErsatz: Their first star character of the 30's, Bimbo the Dog, is sometimes considered to be a copycat of WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse, or at least a more urban variation of him. Some also consider Bimbo to be an {{Expy}} of Fitz the Dog from Max Fleischer's ''Out of the Inkwell'' cartoons.

* {{Surrealism}}: For the bulk of their run, the Fleischer cartoons thrived on this approach to animation. Their cartoons had humor and settings that were topical and contemporary for their time, but the way they presented them was totally unrealistic and dreamlike. This element of their works was gradually toned down and then abandoned around the mid-30's once Fleischer began emulating Disney.

Max And Dave Fleischer are two of the most prolific and influential ([[MainstreamObscurity sadly, mostly unknown to today's audiences]]) men to ever work in the HistoryOfAnimation. Getting their start off in the [[UsefulNotes/TheSilentAgeOfAnimation Silent Era]], they pioneered one of the earliest attempts at blending [[RogerRabbitEffect live action and animation]] with their hit ''WesternAnimation/OutOfTheInkwell'' series, starring Koko The Clown. They were also a top of the line animation studio in the [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation 1930's and early 40's]], producing such landmark hits like ''WesternAnimation/BettyBoop'', the ''{{ComicStrip/Popeye}} The Sailor'' cartoons, and eventually the ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheatricalCartoons''.

The other issue was that Dave wanted to compose the score for ''Gulliver's Travels''. He had some extensive experience writing compositions for Screen Songs, although he never had the expertise that Lou Fleischer had in the musical department. Max was skeptical and brought this up with Paramount's management who decided to ignore Dave's proposal and hire a professional songwriting team. Dave's fiery attitude was further cemented against Max, when their were rumors of Dave having an affair with a secretary, which he wasn't. However, Dave's wife was so paranoid that he told Max's wife Essie about it, and Essie demanded that Max confront Dave. Dave, sick of these rumors, caved in and decided to retaliate by actually having an affair with the secretary to spite them all. Dave took extended leave and headed back to New York with the secretary for a good amount of 1940. Without Dave supervising the films Cal Howard was left to manage the studio creatively and things went south fast.

Max's contempt for Dave was not only his moral shortcomings concerning his marriage, but also his tendency to exert complete creative control following their relocation. Dave forced Max away from any creative consulting within the studio and forced him to the business administrative end of the studio. Max, knowing the sacrifices and effort he put into the studio and feeling irrelevant, was compelled to send Paramount a telegram voicing his frustrations. The telegram, along with them being in debt with Paramount following the loan they borrowed to pay for the studio, allowed them to begin buying out the studio by 1940. Much of the motivation to acquire the brothers' company was so they could split the profits for Popeye with King Features two-ways instead of three. Though also renew the contract for Popeye so that by 1942 the negatives and any traces of the series would survive and they could continue to exploit how commercially successful the series was.

The other issue was that Dave wanted to compose the score for ''Gulliver's Travels''. He had some extensive experience writing compositions for Screen Songs, although he never had the expertise that Lou Fleischer had in the musical department. Max was skeptical and brought this up with Paramount's management who decided to ignore Dave's proposal and hire a professional songwriting team. Dave livid attitude was further cemented against Max, when their were rumors of him having an affair with a secretary, which he wasn't. Though Dave's wife was so paranoid that he told Essie Max's wife about it, and Essie demanded that Max confront Dave, Dave sick of these rumors caved in and decided to retaliate by actually having an affair with the secretary to spite the people that were paranoid. This made Dave take extended leave and head back to New York with the secretary for a good amount of 1940. Without Dave supervising the films Cal Howard was left to manage the studio creatively and things went south fast.

''Out of the Inkwell'' became the second most lucrative series in animation during the twenties, only trailing behind Pat Sullivan's ''WesternAnimation/FelixTheCat''. Although ''Inkwell'' was initially distributed by M.J. Winkler who also handled Felix, and newcomer Walt Disney's ''AliceComedies'', Max decided to associate himself with another distribution company buying shares from this company entitled Red Seal films. Red Seal was a company that was not exclusively tied to animation but specialized in almost every genre of film. ''Essie of The Chorus'', a live action short-subject series had Ruth Flesicher as co-star, and eventual ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' castmember Ray Bolger made his motion picture debut in this series. ''Inklings'' was Dave trying to strike out on his own, sick of living in Max's shadow; much of that frustration planted the seeds for the eventual adversarial relationship the two would have later on. Unfortunately, only one of the Inklings (No.12) survives, but shows great promise and how inventive Dave Fleischer could be. The most crucial role Red Seal played in its brief history was that Max managed to use Red Seal to come into contact with Lee De Forrest who recognized Max's engineering background and believed it could be of use to conduct some synchronized sound experiments with his cartoons. As a result, ''Song Cartunes'' featured some of the earliest synchronized sound cartoons beginning in 1926, a two-year advantage over Paul Terry's ''Dinnertime'' and Walt Disney's ''WesternAnimation/SteamboatWillie''.

* ArtEvolution: Their earliest cartoons were drawn like slick newspaper comic illustrations, often using rotoscoping and very surreal gags. By the mid to late 20's, the studio adapted to the then-ubiquitous rubberhose animal style of cartoons, but still brought their gag sense and surrealism with it. By the early 30's, Grim Natwick came to the studio and with his influence, the studios animation and designs [[SerialEscalation got even more surreal and wild]] than they already were. By the mid 30s period, they started toning down the wild stuff, but still stuck to their newspaper cartoon like design sense, oddly even in their Disney-esque stuff like the Color Classics. By the late 30s, the studio brought in many ex-west coast animators, including former Disney and Looney Tunes artists, and the studio went into a transitional period where the drawings got more loose and floppy, but also resulted in a bizarre mix of the Fleischers newspaper comic designs and slick but softer west coast style designs. By the early 40s, they had completed their transition to the west coast animation style, which would carry on to their successor outfit, FamousStudios.

* LaterInstallmentWeirdness: From around 1934 and on, the Fleischers began toning down their once wild animation and gags and tried emulating the approach of their competing studios--Popeye was the last stronghold of their old comedic style after that, but even those shorts slowly began to move away from the Fleischer's urban humor upon the move to Miami circa 1938. Their later ColorClassics cartoons, their first feature film, Gulliver's Travels, and many of their other attempts at new series are Fleischer cartoons in name only, featuring almost none of their trademark drawing style or brand of humor. Mr. Bug (and, to a much lesser extent, Superman) was an attempt to return to their urban roots and humor while still working in the west coast cartoon style, but this tragically coincided with the Fleischer brothers being ousted from their own studio and the reformation into FamousStudios, which completely abandoned any remaining vestiges of the Fleischer house style, ironically despite moving back to New York shortly after the reformation.

Max And Dave Fleischer are two of the most prolific ([[SugarWiki/NeedsMoreLove sadly, mostly unknown to today's audiences]]) men to ever work in the HistoryOfAnimation. Getting their start off in the [[UsefulNotes/TheSilentAgeOfAnimation Silent Era]], they pioneered one of the earliest attempts at blending [[RogerRabbitEffect live action and animation]] with their hit ''WesternAnimation/OutOfTheInkwell'' series, starring Koko The Clown. They were also a top of the line animation studio in the [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation 1930's and early 40's]], producing such landmark hits like ''WesternAnimation/BettyBoop'', the ''{{ComicStrip/Popeye}} The Sailor'' cartoons, and eventually the ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheatricalCartoons''.

''Out of the Inkwell'' became the second most lucrative series in animation during the twenties, only trailing behind Pat Sullivan's ''WesternAnimation/FelixTheCat''. Although ''Inkwell'' was initially distributed by M.J. Winkler who also handled Felix, and newcomer Walt Disney's ''AliceComedies'', Max decided to associate himself with another distribution company buying shares from this company entitled Red Seal films. Red Seal was a company that was not exclusively tied to animation but specialized in almost every genre of film. ''Essie of The Chorus'', a live action short-subject series had Ruth Flesicher as co-star, and eventual WizardOfOz castmember Ray Bolger made his motion picture debut in this series. ''Inklings'' was Dave trying to strike out on his own, sick of living in Max's shadow; much of that frustration planted the seeds for the eventual adversarial relationship the two would have later on. Unfortunately, only one of the Inklings (No.12) survives, but shows great promise and how inventive Dave Fleischer could be. The most crucial role Red Seal played in its brief history was that Max managed to use Red Seal to come into contact with Lee De Forrest who recognized Max's engineering background and believed it could be of use to conduct some synchronized sound experiments with his cartoons. As a result, ''Song Cartunes'' featured some of the earliest synchronized sound cartoons beginning in 1926, a two-year advantage over Paul Terry's ''Dinnertime'' and Walt Disney's ''WesternAnimation/SteamboatWillie''.

''Out of the Inkwell'' became the second most lucrative series in animation during the twenties, only trailing behind Pat Sullivan's ''WesternAnimation/FelixTheCat''. Although ''Inkwell'' was initially distributed by M.J. Winkler who also handled Felix, and newcomer Walt Disney's ''AliceComedies'', Max decided to associate himself with another distribution company buying shares from this company entitled Red Seal films. Red Seal was a company that was not exclusively tied to animation but specialized in almost every genre of film. ''Essie of The Chorus'', a live action short-subject series had Ruth Flesicher as co-star, and eventual WizardOfOz castmember Ray Bolger made his motion picture debut in this series. ''Inklings'' was Dave trying to strike out on his own, sick of living in Max's shadow; much of that frustration planted the seeds for the eventual adversarial relationship the two would have later on. Unfortunately, only one of the Inklings (No.12) survives, but shows great promise and how inventive Dave Fleischer could be. The most crucial role Red Seal played in its brief history was that Max managed to use Red Seal to come into contact with Lee De Forrest who recognized Max's engineering background and believed it could be of use to conduct some synchronized sound experiments with his cartoons. As a result, ''Song Cartunes'' featured some of the earliest synchronized sound cartoons beginning in 1926, a two-year advantage over Paul Terry's ''Dinnertime'' and Walt Disney's ''SteamboatWillie''.

Unfortunately, Red Seal wasn't a commercially successful venture, and the studio found itself in bankruptcy in Summer 1927. This came right around the period that Max pioneered animated lip-synch in the final Song Cartunes entry ''By The Light of the Silvery Moon''. Max losing much of his finances in the venture couldn't pay back the film labs to receive his negatives for upcoming films, so Alfred Weiss paid the film's labs to return the negatives and took over management making Max and Dave salaried employees instead of leaders of their own company. Alfred Weiss brought Max into contact with Paramount who would distribute Max's work until his company was acquired by them in June 1942. The film series was re-titled ''Inkwell Imps'', and would continue to be released until 1929 when the company folded. Alfred Weiss resurrected ''Song Cartunes'' briefly in 1928 where ''My Old Kentucky Home'' was produced. [[note]](it's largely mistaken as the Fleischers' cartoon, when in actuality it was an entry under Weiss)[[/note]] The tension between Max Fleischer and Alfred Weiss made him absent from ''Out of the Inkwell''[='s=] final films, and as a result said last entries have a series of Weiss employees trying to emulate Max's role as the master cartoonist. Max, after leaving Weiss, managed to re-organize ''Out of The Inkwell'' films in 1929 as ''Fleischer Studios'', which is what the company is better known by, Max's friend Frank Goldstein provided studio space in Long Island City free-of-charge as Max began to rebuild the company from scratch and resurrected his Song Cartune series as ''WesternAnimation/ScreenSongs'' which were very cheap to produce. Max re-associated with Paramount and exploited the fact that him and his staff had added experience with sound animation in comparison to the rest of their competitors, which is a large reason why Paramount decided to distribute them.

Screen Songs began in January of 1929, Max decided to expand on his experience with Lip Synch by dedicating WesternAnimation/{{Talkartoons}} exclusively to that purpose which began with ''Noah's Lark'' in October of 1929. Talkartoons had no central character, like many Flesicher productions the shorts were based on successful gag structure and the characters actions [[MickeyMousing timed to the musical track]]. After several one-shots they would eventually settle on Bimbo, a cigar wielding, sarcastic, chauvinist personality whose design was based on Mickey Mouse's. Much of what Bimbo actually was, was a [[{{Expy}} redesign]] of Fitz from ''Out of the Inkwell''; at least Creator/GrimNatwick's personal interpretation of the character. After Huemer accepted a job at Mintz producing the ''Scrappy'' shorts, Natwick became the driving force for Fleischer Studios. Once more Paramount was anxious to promote one its headlining stars Helen Kane and used Talkartoons as a tool to help promote her likeness. Natwick was in charge of conceiving this character as Bimbo's love interest, this character eventually evolved into Betty Boop. She first made a cameo appearance in ''Dizzy Dishes'' and eventually went through several redesigns, much of her development as a personality took place following Grim's departure to the UbIwerks studio. Betty Boop abruptly took over the series and became one of the largest box-office draws of the early 1930s. Talkartoons was converted to Betty Boop by 1932, Bimbo being [[DemotedToExtra demoted to little more than a sidekick]] and Ko-Ko the Clown occasionally being brought out of retirement.

Max, however, had a tendency to downplay Betty's potential - many staff proposed trying to have the character have her own line of merchandise and license her to others. Max reminded them that they were exclusively invested in one business, but undermining the commercial potential of his own properties was one of many major flaws that made people question Max's business abilities.

However, as UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode came to provide strict guidelines about what was and wasn't prohibited throughout UsefulNotes/{{Hollywood}}, Betty found herself reinvented. Much of this was not just motivated by the code itself, much of the option to clean up her public image somewhat had to do with the Hays Code but also Creator/{{Paramount}}'s management under the leadership of Barney Balbian decided it was time to reinvent themselves and their image. Paramount went through several bankruptcies and financial reorganizations between 1931-36; they became more budget conscious, and with this change of heart they began to play it economically safe by emulating those that had a guaranteed audience such as Creator/{{Disney}} and Creator/{{MGM}} but with a fraction of the budget, these attitudes were applied to the direction Fleischer found themselves going from 1934 onward. With less flexible deadlines to meet and being committed to producing a film a week, it was difficult for them to dedicate time to improving their product and their quality began to stagnate from 1934 up until the end of the decade. So many of the advancements that the west coasts found themselves making were not taking place within Fleischer's company, because their picture commitments made it difficult to dedicate time to improving their product.

Another issue was concerning Paramount's re-organizations was that Max proposed interest in converting his films to the Three Strip Technicolor process. Paramount, still going through financial re-organization and bankruptcies, rejected anything that was so commercially risky. Max made similar proposals for an animated features as early as 1934, but because of Paramount's skepticism of it being commercially practical he found himself waiting until Walt Disney proved its commercial practicality with ''Disney/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'' in late 1937.

Also despite Betty's popularity, Helen Kane felt that her career had gone downhill, and sued Max for $250,000 in May 1932, feeling that she was misrepresented in the Betty Boop cartoons. The trial went on for two years, Kane lamenting about how she owned the rights to the line "Boop Boop a Doop". The judge ruled against her, holding as primary evidence that Baby Esther, a somewhat obscure singer, had been using that line prior to Helen Kane, which made Kane's claims seem irrelevant. Regardless, the Betty Boop series would soon find itself outclassed by the Fleischers' newcomer star PopeyeTheSailor. Max Fleischer was an avid fan of E.C. Segar's popular comic strip; however King Features Syndicate was skeptical about the Sailors commercial potential. Max convinced them that his grotesque features would make him a successful box-office draw because it helps maintain more comedic appeal. The contract signed in 1932 had listed that they should have all their negatives and traces of the series burned or disposed of within a ten-year period, because of their constant skepticism concerning the series' merits. The contract's expiration coincided with Paramount's acquisition of Fleischer in 1942, and this played a role in why Paramount bought out the studio when they were in debt with them.

The mid-1930s proved to be commercially prosperous but also artistically stagnant - as stated earlier, their picture commitments and short production periods gave them little time to improve the quality of their work. Despite this they pioneered the precursor to the Multi-Plane which was the Stereoptical Process, aka the Three-Dimensional Setback. This complex device, which used large model sets built out of papier-mache and lighting tools, was patented in 1933 but not used until 1934 for Betty Boop's ''Poor Cinderella''. This short was also Max's first foray into color production, in a series called ''WesternAnimation/ColorClassics'' that would exclusively be dedicated to color production, with Max using Cinecolor instead of Three-Strip which was exclusively controlled by Walt Disney until 1936. The Stereoptical Camera, while technically impressive and successful creating a convincing illusion of depth, was very difficult to control and maintain, and all of the sets were quickly disposed once the film was completed. Max as usual undermined his company's accomplishments and failed to see the intense admiration these sets would receive from cartoon aficionados and historians.

Feeling comfortable enough to test Popeye elsewhere, Paramount granted Max to produce two-reelers starring the one-eyed sailor. ''WesternAnimation/PopeyeTheSailorMeetsSindbadTheSailor'' and ''WesternAnimation/PopeyeTheSailorMeetsAliBabasFortyThieves'', produced in 1936 and 1937 respectively, were the first time an American animated film had extended beyond one-reel. Although animated features were already pioneered in Argentina, and Germany this was a first for America. The two-reelers, however, were downplayed following Walt's triumph with ''Snow White'' - after Max had badgered Paramount to produce an animated feature for over three years, they finally caved in.

Max, however, didn't want to continue producing within New York and was anxious to relocate, visibly distressed by his employees unionizing in 1937. Much of this was because of the oppressive working conditions. A lot of this was Paramount's doing as stated earlier with the management change and Barney Balbian's leadership. Not only did they give short deadlines to meet, committing to several different series at once, and oppressive working conditions made it difficult to dedicate time to improving the product. It also added considerably to the working conditions of the staff, who lamented about this through unionization. So a lot of employees that may have had a pre-existing relationship with Max now found themselves on opposite ends and physically confronting some of his close friends who had trouble getting in and out of the studio because of the picketing outside. Max was alienated by New York, as by the mid-1930s he and Dave were dedicating a fraction of the year to going to Miami where they owned vacation homes and just wanted to completely abandon residing in New York. Animator ShamusCulhane later recalled how impulsive Max was with his decision, as there was cheap enough studio space throughout Manhattan that could be enough to produce an animated feature.

Paramount, wanting to duplicate ''Snow White'', became increasingly cooperative to Max's demands to not only raise budgets but help them relocate to Miami in 1938. There was a contract that Max not only borrowed a loan from Paramount to pay for the Miami Facilities, but they reached an agreement that the loan be paid back by 1948 with interest, and previous studio properties be used as collateral; by getting into such debt, it made it easy for Paramount to acquire the studio in 1942.

Miami was a doomed venture from the start not just from a financial perspective, but concerning Max abandoning the talent pool in New York. A good percentage of the studios musical department also refused to move, and as a result the compositions for many Miami Productions waned. The other issue was that the advantages were minimal - the working environment in Miami was much more comfortable than the crammed office space in 1600 Broadway, and as a result many artists that were employed at the Miami facility have fond memories of working there, not aware of the tension between Max, Dave, and Paramount. Taxes were lower so that extra cash flow could be used to charge higher salaries than Disney's, however they were still unable to recruit all the best talent the west had to offer.

To meet the short deadline of trying to get ''Gulliver'' released by Christmas 1939 (production beginning May 1938), Max overpopulated the studio with over 750 employees, a size far larger than the Miami studio was meant to contain. Many of these staffers were Miami Art School students, with minimal resources and a less-than-stellar artistic background, and as a result many of these novices didn't have the same advantages that the west coast recruits had...and proved to be a hindrance to production. Many of the West Coast recruits, namely Cal Howard, a former Warner employee, recommended completely revamping the entire production of ''Gulliver'' (Max's initial vision was to make it a ''Popeye'' vehicle, but Cal's charisma and manipulative personality made them go a direction that would make it seem they were trying to emulate Disney).

Much of ''Gulliver''[='s=] banality and constant need to hold up to Disney's standards was much of Paramount's management's and Cal Howard's doing. Max himself actually was apathetic to trying to be like Disney; he even downplayed Disney's merits by claiming that ''Gulliver'' would not have any scary or intimidating scenes such as Snow White fleeing from the huntsman throughout the forest, in order to promote it as a clean family picture, just not wanting to acknowledge Disney's triumph. Their were other feature proposals as well - Paramount suggested ''Peter Pan'', ''Blue Bird'', and a film dedicated to the [[Literature/TheBible Nativity Scene]] were also tossed around. None of these came to fruition, but concept art still survives.

The rivalry between Max and Dave was already brewing prior to Miami. Dave was always lamenting about him and his brothers living in Max's shadow as Max received the majority of publicity, while Dave and his brothers constantly reminded him that the studios accomplishments were a collaborative effort between him and his brothers and not exclusive to just him. Max was willing to abandon Popeye as well, considering that when the King Features contract expired in 1942 they were obligated to dispose of the Popeye film negatives. Max was interested in abandoning Popeye sooner than this, and proceeded to take the studio down the path of producing more dramatic films, however he was quite vague about what he wanted and his brothers specifically Dave were livid at the constant effort and sacrifice they made for Popeye and for him to just abruptly want to end its production when it was lucrative made Dave frustrated.

Max's contempt for Dave was not only his moral shortcomings concerning his marriage, but also his tendency to exert complete creative control following their relocation. Dave force Max away from any creative consulting within the studio and forced him to business administrative end of the studio. Max knowing the sacrifices and effort he put into this studio and feeling irrelevant was compelled to send Paramount a telegram voicing his frustrations. The telegram, along with them being in debt with Paramount following the loan they borrowed to pay for the studio allowed them to begin buying out the studio by 1940. Much of the motivation to acquire the bother's company was so they could split the profits for Popeye with King Features two-ways instead of three. Though also renew the contract for Popeye so that by 1942 the negatives and any traces of the series would survive and they could continue to exploit how commercially successful the series was.

To ensure that Paramount managed to buy out the studio, they forced Max and Dave to sign a contract which had them cooperate with resigning from their own studio when Paramount asked for them to do so, and have Paramount take over management. The contract was signed May 24, 1941, and Max caved in because he was blackmailed by Paramount to do so or they might lay off Seymour Kneitel who was his son-in-law and creative head of the studio and the stress may lead to another heart attack after Seymour was recovering from his first. Max and Dave were now salaried employees and the rights to their name were owned by Paramount. The contract did however promise they would receive royalty checks and their names in the credits for any television airings of their work, this broken promise lead to the lawsuit Max would conduct against Paramount in 1956.

As Paramount began to exert more control, they dove into production for Mr.Bug which was the first American Animated Feature not to be based on a previously written book or literature. Mr.Bug is a profound improvement over Gulliver, much of this is not only because they recruit more proficient artists, but also because many of the hard lessons learned in Gulliver prepared them to produce something that is very dexterously animated. The films budget was also considerably lower than Gulliver's and deadlines were shorter and were less flexible that it makes in interesting to know how much more successfully produced this film is.

Superman was also being bought into production around the time of Paramount's takeover, Paramount had successfully bid for the rights of the character and convinced the Fleischers to make it. Reluctant and skeptical because they had little experience in the science fiction genre, Dave tried to talk Paramount out of it by demanding $100,000 per cartoon budget. Paramount responded by offering half the amount and at $50,000 still was considerably higher than the average Fleischer short subject. The series relied heavily on the rotoscope however had effective narratives, proficient use of F/X, and more sophisticated designs in comparison to previous series. The series was one of the most pervasive in the renaissance of animation fifty years later, in the early nineties especially providing influence for Bruce Timm and all the animated science fiction adventure programs that subsequently followed.

Max trying to exert any kind of creative control sent a memo to Dave who was directing the film on what parts of the narrative could be improved. Dave replied by denying that there were any problems with the film. Dave once again proposed his involvement with composing the film, and as usual was rejected and replaced by a professional songwriting team. Dave's total alienation with his brothers along with his apathy for the work he produced compelled him to leave Fleischer Studios following Mr. Bug's completion to replace Frank Tashlin as head of Screen Gems in 1942 which was Columbia's cartoon department. Mr. Bug opened the week of Pearl Harbor on December of 1941 however regardless of the event, Mr. Bug was doomed because of Paramount's reluctance to promote the film and give it the publicity it needed, so in addition to Pearl Harbor Paramount themselves were apathetic to the film and giving it the necessary promotion it deserved.

Paramount however was actually willing to return Max's shares for the studio, however Dave's moonlighting made Paramount convinced that the studio should be a subsidiary without Max's involvement and the studio was re-organized as Creator/FamousStudios in the summer of 1942. Dan Gordon, and Isadore Sparber survived the massive layoff Paramounts have after they began to clean house following Max and Dave resigning from the studio. Seymour Kneitel was creatively put in charge to intimidate Max not to sue Paramount after being ousted from his own studio.

After Dave Flesicher's tenure at Screen Gem's he gravitated over to Universal where Creator/WalterLantz was largely responsible for his employment. Dave directed commercials and helped solve technical errors throughout many of the studios features. His life long ambition was to produce a third feature entitled Pandora's Odyssey which failed to come to fruition however the concept did appear in Variety Magazine.

After Max tried to unsuccessful raise the money to have a new studio at his estate in Miami, trying to recruit his other brothers who were less hostile than Dave, Max was visited by Jam Handy who wanted to know the status of the situation. Jam benevolently offered him employment at his Detroit facilities and Max Fleischer was recruited by this former Bray associate to act as a supervisor for many of the studios productions. This included the original animated adaptation of Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer in 1948. He also continued to patent countless inventions, following Paramount acquiring the rights to his previous patents, which although were not directly associated with Fleischer Studios they were still taken from Paramount, because of loopholes in the contracts he signed with them. Max also made a semi-auto biography entitled Noah's Shoes in 1944 which made reference to his association with Paramount and Dave and how they played a role in ousting him from the company he spent years building. Max used several different tropes to discuss his contempt for Paramount's management and Dave using Noah's Arc metaphors. Max than briefly re-associated himself with John Randolph Bray in 1953, the two hadn't professionally worked with one another since Max departed his studio in 1921, the creative partnership lasted three years but nothing seemed to have come out of it. Max decided to sue Paramount in 1956 after he discovered that Paramount broke their promise for Max to receive royalties for his cartoons television airings but also replaced his name in the credits with Paramount head Adolph Zukor. Stan Handman represented Max, not to long after Dave Fleischer commenced a lawsuit against Paramount trying to argue how Max conspired with Paramount to get Dave out of the picture.

Max continued to actively produce documentaries, and educational films, and also resurfaced in Hal Segar's 1959 adaptation of ''Out of the Inkwell'' for which he was appalled by the low budgets and visibly poor quality that couldn't hold a candle to what was produced 30 years earlier. After spending years of trying to resurface in the public eye, Max retired at The Motion Picture Country House in 1967.

Although the rift with his brother Dave was never resolved, Max eventually formed a friendship with his old rival Walt Disney, who welcomed Max to a reunion with former Fleischer animators who were by then employed by Disney. Marx's own son, Richard Fleischer, was also working there and would direct one of the studios most beloved live action movies, "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea". Max died of congestive heart failure on September 11, 1972, sadly never completing what was to be his greatest invention - a ''Perpetual Motion Clock''. Dave Fleischer would go on to work as a special effects expert at Universal after his work at Columbia Pictures ended with the shutdown of its animation department, retired in the late 1960s, and died of a stroke on June 25, 1979.

While the Fleischer brothers and their star characters have long since passed, their influence in the medium of entertainment must not be underestimated. Besides the aforementioned examples of Miyazaki and DCAU, the Fleischers, along with Disney were a heavy influence on anime legend Creator/OsamuTezuka, whom would take many of the Fleischer's techniques (and their limited animation) and integrate it into his own style in his manga and anime like ''Anime/AstroBoy'' and Kimba the Lion-stuff which would go on to make the anime industry into what it is today. Animation legend Creator/BobClampett of WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes fame also seemed to take a lot of inspiration from the Fleischers, taking many a queue from them by making his cartoons as wacky and surreal as possible, as well as intergrating music in a very similar way Fleischer did into his cartoons. ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'' creator Creator/JohnKricfalusi also cites the Fleischer brothers as a major influence in his works.

** A few of the ''Color Classics'' shorts are based on pre-existing stories, such as ''[[Literature/{{Cinderella}} Poor Cinderella]]'', ''The Kids in the Shoe'', and ''Greedy Humpty Dumpty''.

** The Betty Boop short ''Snow White'' is a surrealistic, jazzy burlesque of the classic Snow White fairy tale. A few other Betty Boop shorts are inspired by classic stories, such as the shorts ''Jack and the Beanstalk'', ''Dizzy Red Riding Hood'', ''Mother Goose Land'', and ''Betty in Blunderland''. ''Henry, the Funniest Living American'' doubles as a crossover and a cartoon adaptation of Carl Anderson's "Henry" comic strip. ''Betty Boop and The Little King'' is likewise a crossover and cartoon adaptaton of Otto Soglow's ''The Little King'' comic strip.

** A few of the ''Color Classics'' shorts are based on pre-existing stories, such as ''Poor Cinderella'', ''The Kids in the Shoe'', and ''Greedy Humpty Dumpty''.

** ''WesternAnimation/GulliversTravels'' is a very loose adaptation of Jonathan Swift's [[Literature/GulliversTravels classic satire]], keeping the skeleton of the Lilliput voyage of the story and hints of anti-war satire, but largely abandons the bulk of the books content.

** ''WesternAnimation/GulliversTravels'' is a very loose adaptation of Jonathan Swift's [[Literature/GulliversTravel classic satire]], keeping the skeleton of the Lilliput voyage of the story and hints of anti-war satire, but largely abandons the bulk of the books content.

** The two-reeler film ''The Raven'' is ''[[SubvertedTrope not]]'' [[SubvertedTrope one]]--It has a FakeoutOpening of a book with the Creator/EdgarAllanPoe [[Literature/TheRaven story]] and quotes the famous "Nevermore!" line, but otherwise its an InNameOnly comedy short.

** The Popeye series also spawned three acclaimed two-reeler films in full color: ''WesternAnimation/PopeyeTheSailorMeetsSindbadTheSailor'' (1936), ''WesternAnimation/PopeyeTheSailorMeetsAliBabasFortyThieves'' (1937), and ''Popeye the Sailor in: WesternAnimation/AladdinAndHisWonderfulLamp'' (1939).

** ''WesternAnimation/PopeyeTheSailor'', which is a cartoon adaptation of E.C. Segar's classic newspaper comic. The three two-reeler films in the series are inspired by stories from the Literature/ArabianNights, including ''Literature/SinbadTheSailor''[[note]]although that technically wasn't part of the Arabian Nights until the 18th century french translation by Antoine Galland [[CanonImmigrant added it]][[/note]], ''Literature/AliBabaAndTheFortyThieves'' and ''[[Literature/{{Aladdin}} Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp]]''.

** ''WesternAnimation/PopeyeTheSailor'', which is a cartoon adaptation of E.C. Segar's classic newspaper comic.

** The Betty Boop short ''Snow White'' is a surrealistic, jazzy burlesque of the classic Snow White fairy tale.

** The two-reeler film ''The Raven'' is ''[[SubvertedTrope not]]'' [[SubvertedTrope one]]--It has a FakeoutOpening of the Edgar Allen Poe book and quotes the famous "Nevermore!" line, but otherwise its an InNameOnly comedy short.

''Out of the Inkwell'' became the second most lucrative series in animation during the twenties, only trailing behind Pat Sullivan's ''FelixTheCat''. Although ''Inkwell'' was initially distributed by M.J. Winkler who also handled Felix, and newcomer Walt Disney's ''AliceComedies'', Max decided to associate himself with another distribution company buying shares from this company entitled Red Seal films. Red Seal was a company that was not exclusively tied to animation but specialized in almost every genre of film. ''Essie of The Chorus'', a live action short-subject series had Ruth Flesicher as co-star, and eventual WizardOfOz castmember Ray Bolger made his motion picture debut in this series. ''Inklings'' was Dave trying to strike out on his own, sick of living in Max's shadow; much of that frustration planted the seeds for the eventual adversarial relationship the two would have later on. Unfortunately, only one of the Inklings (No.12) survives, but shows great promise and how inventive Dave Fleischer could be. The most crucial role Red Seal played in its brief history was that Max managed to use Red Seal to come into contact with Lee De Forrest who recognized Max's engineering background and believed it could be of use to conduct some synchronized sound experiments with his cartoons. As a result, ''Song Cartunes'' featured some of the earliest synchronized sound cartoons beginning in 1926, a two-year advantage over Paul Terry's ''Dinnertime'' and Walt Disney's ''SteamboatWillie''.

* ''The Raven'' (1942): An extremely loose two-reeler adaptation of EdgarAllenPoe's [[TheRaven classic poem]].

* FollowTheLeader: In their later years, they started copying the kind of cute cartoons Disney was doing, and eventually the fast paced slapstick and west coast brand of animation and humor by cartoons like WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes.
* HeAlsoDid: Dave Fleischer also did [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9QAPch2o6Q this iconic Theater Snipe.]]

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The Fleischer cartoons, especially the ones from the early 30's, are loaded with topical gags, popular music of their day and [[VisualPun visual hyperbole]] that have long lost their proper context, making their work seem a lot more bizarre and non sequitur than it was seen as in their day.

Paramount however was actually willing to return Max's shares for the studio, however Dave's moonlighting made Paramount convinced that the studio should be a subsidiary without Max's involvement and the studio was re-organized as Creator/FamousStudios in the summer of 1942. Dan Gordon, and Izzy Sparber survived the massive layoff Paramounts have after they began to clean house following Max and Dave resigning from the studio. Seymour Kneitel was creatively put in charge to intimidate Max not to sue Paramount after being ousted from his own studio.

** The Color Classics also had its own seven-short sub-series, ''Hunky and Spunky'' (1938-41), a series of films about a mother donkey and her son. Though Famous Studios didn't continue the main series, their Noveltoons series produced two cartoons starring Spunky alone in 1944 & 1958.

* ''Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy'' (1941): A two-reeler about two sentient dolls (not to be confused with the feature-length [[RaggedyAnnAndAndyAMusicalAdventure film about the same characters]] made by Creator/RichardWilliams over three decades later).

* SceneryPorn: Especially in the double-reel ''Popeye'' cartoons, which had 3D backgrounds in some scenes as seen [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBIahkWEaI4&t=761 here.]]

** The Color Classics also had its own seven-short sub-series, ''Hunky and Spunky'' (1938-41), a series of films about a mother donkey and her son.

* ''Animated Antics'' (1940-41): A series of 11 cartoon shorts with six one-shot gag stories, but five of them feature appearances of characters from ''Gulliver's Travels''.
* ''Stone Age'' (1940): A 12-short series of caveman-themed cartoons.