Max Fleischer

Henry Bernstein

Max Fleischer

At his core, Max Fleischer was an innovator more than anything. He was a tremendous artist obviously. His first job was as an illustrator for a catalog company in 1905. His next job was as the Art Editor of Popular Science Magazine in 1912. But his greatest accomplishments in art were only made possible by his innovations in the art world. He invented the Rotoscope, which was a device that introduced a new process of animating movement by tracing frames of live action film. This allowed animators to create more lifelike movements. Using this device he and his brother created their first big animation work- the Out of the Inkwell series starring Koko the Clown and Fitz the dog.

            His next big contribution to the animation field was the introduction of music-synced animation. He invented the bouncing ball concept that was made popular by sing-a-long videos and then karaoke.

            He then experienced considerable success with his characters. His most famous creation was the half dog/half girl character who would eventually evolve into the flapper Betty Boop. She started out as a secondary character but her popularity quickly turned her into the “Queen of the Animated Screen”.

            Fleischer’s career took a path that intertwined directly with the cartoon boom of the early 20^th century. This means that his work took off at the same time as Walt Disney. The two were the main up-and-coming artists of the time. However Fleischer worked for Paramount Studios, and they were very restrictive on his career growth. While Disney’s employers and eventually his own success allowed him to invest in the newest technology of the day including Technicolor process, Fleischer’s employers were late to the party on almost every technological innovation available. However he did find short-lived success over Disney with his creation of Popeye the Sailor Man. Popeye was another side character who actually debuted as a newspaper comic and then later appeared in some Betty Boop shorts. His popularity in the early 1930s brought him to the point of surpassing Mickey Mouse briefly as the king of the cartoon market. However Mickey Mouse’s international success was more than Fleischer could have ever hoped for any of his creations. This was partly because of his technological setbacks but also because of the content of his animations. The design of his shows were usually squalid, base, and urban, with sexual, violent, and drug-related themes. Disney’s were more family friendly.