Max and Dave Fleischer are two names that get pushed aside too often when The Golden Age of American Animation is discussed. However we all have at least a passing knowledge of their Popeye, Betty Boop, and Superman cartoons, and fans of silent animation might know the "Out of the Inkwell" series as among the best cartoon series of it's time. Too few people though know about their two feature length films though. Now these films were not hits at the time they were released, and they are much less known now. However these are very entertaining and important films that I believe should not be overlooked. They were in fact the first and the only American feature length animated films not made by Disney during the 1930's and 40's. They were also the first American animated films to give credit to the voice actors, a practice very uncommon in those days.
"Gulliver's Travels" (1939) began it's life (not counting the classic book) as an idea of casting Popeye as Gulliver. While this certainly would have made an excellent film, this is not the direction they would choose to go. The character of Gulliver in this film was much more realistically animated then anything that had come out of the Fleischer studio before, and was purposely in stark contrast with the more cartoony little people of Lilliput. This was achieved through rotoscoping, a device pioneered by The Fleischers for their "Out of the Inkwell" series. Rotoscoping is a term for when an animator traces over live-action film (usually filmed for the purposes of being rotoscoped), and it is normally used to achieve more realistic animation.
"Gulliver's Travels" (1939) had little to do with the classic book. We never saw Gulliver visit any island other than Lilliput. Even then great liberties were taken with the time he spent on Lilliput. However the film doesn't suffer too much from this, because it exist as it's own entity, and should not be looked at as simply an unfaithful adaption of a great book. The film maintains much of the beautiful animation, great voice acting, trademark humor, and great storytelling that makes the Fleischer cartoons such classics. It remains a very enjoyable movie, and I recommend it highly.
For some reason the Fleischers believed the character Gabby (from "Gulliver's Travels" (1939)) would be a huge hit in a cartoon series of his own. The brothers turned out to be completely wrong on this case. While I personally don't find the character that annoying (many do) he is not a particularly interesting or funny character, and was easily a fault in an otherwise great movie. Naturally this series did not become a hit, and remains as the only truly bad cartoon series the Fleischer Brothers ever made, but with how much great entertainment the brothers have given us this is easy to forgive.
For their next feature length film The Fleshiers wanted to make an adaption of the of "The Life of the Bee" by Maurice Maeterlinck. They however could not get the film rights to the book, and so a similar original story was made. "Mr. Bug Goes to Town" (1941) became the first American feature length animated film not to be an adaption of a book, despite the original intention. One of the writer's who helped create this new story was Looney Tunes/ Merrie Melodies writer Tedd Pierce, who was loaned from Warner Brothers specifically for this film. He is defiantly part of why the movie turned out so well. Pierce also provided the voice for the villain in the movie, C. Bagley Beetle. Also included in the voice cast were Pinto Colvig (Disney writer, animator and voice of Goofy), Jack Mercer (Fleischer Brothers animator, Famous Studios writer, and voice of Popeye and Felix the Cat (the 1959 "Felix the Cat" TV series not the theatrical Felix cartoons)), and many more talented voice actors.
The opening credit sequence of "Mr. Bug Goes to Town" (1941) used another animation device the Fleischers had pioneered. This device was the use of 3D backgrounds. This was accomplished by putting 2D animation cells in a 3D set, and filming it like that. This device worked great, and the depth in the backgrounds is truly amazing. Strangely though this device has rarely been used since, despite the affect it has on audiences. This might be due the complexity of this operation, or the invention of the Disney multiplane camera (A discussion for a later date), but whatever the reason it is a sad loss this device never caught on. For an example of this device in action here is a classic Popeye cartoon that uses it to great effect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9bU9Mi8grQ
Despite Dave Fleischer being credited as the only director of "Mr. Bug Goes to Town" (1941). The beginning of the movie (after the opening credits) was directed by legendary animator Shamus Culhane (who animated the Hi-Ho-Hi-Ho musical number in Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937), and directed some of the best Woody Woodpecker cartoons). This scene naturally worked out very well as it gave us time to get to know the characters without ever boring the audience.
"Mr. Bug Goes to Town" turned out to be a great movie that can even be considered an improvement on "Gulliver" which should not be a surprise once you look at the great crew that worked on it. However the film had not been the hit it should have been. Some have blamed this on the film being released too close to when Pearl Harbor was bombed, other have blamed this on Paramount (The studio that distributed the Fleischer's films) not giving the film enough attention, but whatever the reason it had a terrible affect on the world of animation. The Fleisher Brothers closed their studio, and Paramount now got their cartoons from Famous Studios. A sad end to the life of one of America's greatest animation studios.
For a better discussion on the reasons "Mr. Bug Goes to Town" was a box office failure take a look at this article from Cartoon Research.com.
http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/mr-bug-and-hoppity-go-to-town/
-Michael J. Ruhland
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