What if Paramount Animation founded in 1921?/Paramount Animation

Paramount Animation is the animation division and label of Paramount Pictures. The division was founded on  It was founded in 1921 by brothers Max Fleischer and Dave Fleischer, formerlly known as Inkwell Studios and Fleischer Studios, who ran the pioneering company from its inception until Paramount Pictures, the studio's parent company and the distributor of its films, acquired ownership. In its prime, Fleischer Studios was a premier producer of animated cartoons for theaters, with Walt Disney Productions's becoming its chief competitor in the 1930s.

Fleischer Studios was notable for Koko the Clown, Betty Boop, Bimbo, Popeye the Sailor, and Superman. Unlike other studios, whose characters were anthropomorphic animals, the Fleischers' most successful characters were humans (with the exception of Bimbo). The cartoons of the Fleischer Studio were very different from the Disney product, both in concept and in execution. As a result, the Fleischer cartoons were rough rather than refined, commercial rather than consciously artistic. But in their unique way, their artistry was expressed through a culmination of the arts and sciences. This approach focused on surrealism, dark humor, adult psychological elements, and sexuality, and the environments were grittier and urban, often set in squalid surroundings, reflecting the Depression as well as German Expressionism.

In the 1940s, Max and Dave Fleischer left the studio which lead to Fleischer Studios to be renamed into Famous Studios and later Paramount Cartoon Studios, after Paramount acquired the animation studio as its first animation division, along with producing new characters such as Little Audrey, Little Lulu, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Honey Halfwitch, Herman and Katnip, Baby Huey, and the anthology Noveltoons series.

The Famous name was previously used as Famous Players Film Company, one of several companies which in 1912 became Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, the company which founded Paramount Pictures. Paramount's music publishing branch, which held the rights to all of the original music in the Fleischer/Famous cartoons, was named Famous Music.

Many of the Famous Studios productions are currently owned by AT&T's WarnerMedia through Turner Entertainment (for Popeye The Sailor and Superman) and Comcast's NBCUniversal through DreamWorks Animation (for Harvey Comics and Felix the Cat). The 1962-1967 cartoons are still owned by Paramount Pictures today along with the pre-October 1950 Noveltoons through Republic Pictures.

Paramount Animation is also known for its continuous line-up of its animated feature films such as Gulliver's Travels, Mr. Bug Goes to Town, Charlotte's Web, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Barnyard, Gnomeo and Juliet, and Wonder Park, as well as producing films based on other ViacomCBS propieties such as Rugrats, South Park and SpongeBob SquarePants.

The Silent Era
The Fleischer Studio was built on Max Fleischer's novelty film series, Out of the Inkwell (1919-1927). The "novelty" was based largely on the results of the "Rotoscope", invented by Fleischer to produce realistic animation. The first "Out of the Inkwell" films were produced through The Bray Studio, and featured Fleischer's first character, "The Clown," which became known as Ko-Ko the Clown in 1924.

In 1921, The Bray Studio ran afoul with legal issues, having contracted for more films than it could deliver to its distributor, The Goldwyn Company. The Fleischer Brothers left and began their own studio with Dave as Director and Production Supervisor, and Max as Producer. In 1924, Veteran Animator, Dick Huemer came to The Inkwell Studio and redesigned "The Clown" for more efficient animation. Huemer's new design and experience as an Animator moved them away from their dependency on The Rotoscope for fluid animation. In addition to defining the clown, Huemer established the Fleischer style with its distinctive thick and thin ink lines. In addition, Huemer created Ko-Ko's companion, Fitz the Dog, who would evolve into Bimbo in 1930.

Throughout the 1920s, Fleischer was one of the leading producers of animation with clever moments and numerous innovations including the "Rotograph", an early "Aerial Image" photographic process for compositing animation with live action backgrounds. Other innovations included Ko-Ko Song Car-Tunes and sing-along shorts (featuring the famous "bouncing ball"), a precursor to Karaoke.

In 1924, Distributor, Edwin Miles Fadiman, and Hugo Riesenfeld formed the Red Seal Pictures Corporation. Riesenfeld was the Theatrical Manager of the Strand, Rivoli, and Rialto theaters on Broadway. Because the Out of the Inkwell films were a major part of the program in Riesenfeld's theaters, the Fleischers were invited to become partners. The Red Seal Company committed to an ambitious release schedule of 26 films with The Inkwell Studio as the primary supplier. The following year, Red Seal released 141 films that included documentaries, short comedy subjects, and live-action serials. Carrie of the Chorus, also known as Backstage Comedies, was one of the Red Seal series that featured Max's daughter, Ruth in a supporting role. Ray Bolger made his screen debut in this series and dated Ruth for a short time.

Red Seal released cartoon novelty series such as The Animated Hair Cartoons by Cartoonist “Marcus,” and Inklings. The Animated Hair series resembled the on-screen hand drawing gimmick establish in Out of the Inkwell. In this case, “Marcus” produced high-quality ink line portraits of celebrities and political figures. Then through stop motion animation techniques, the lines and forms would break away to entertainingly re-form the portrait into another. Inklings was similar in concept to the Animated Hair films, but was more of a visual puzzle novelty using a variety of progressive scratch-off/reveal techniques and rearranged animated cutouts to change the images.

It was during this time that Dr. Lee de Forest started filming his early Phonofilms experiments featuring several of the major Broadway headliners. The Red Seal company began acquiring more theaters outside of New York and equipped them with sound equipment produced by Lee de Forest, displaying “talkies” three years before the sound revolution began. Because of Max's interest in technology, Riesenfeld introduced him to deForest. And it was through this partnership that Max produced a number of the Ko-Ko Song Car-tunes as sound releases. Of the 36 song films produced between 1924 and 1927, 12 were produced as sound films beginning in 1926 with standard silent versions as well. The first sound release was Mother Pin a Rose on Me. Other sound releases included Darling Nellie Gray, Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly?, When the Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam’, Coming Through the Rye, My Wife’s Gone to the Country, Margie, Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning, Sweet Adeline, Old Black Joe, Come Take A Trip in My Airship, and By the Light of the Silvery Moon.

Red Seal owned 56 theaters, extending as far west as Cleveland, Ohio. But after only two years of operation, Red Seal was broke. Max (Fleischer) sought an appointment of receiver in bankruptcy in October 1926. Just as the situation looked hopeless, Alfred Weiss appeared from the horizon with a Paramount contact.

The Paramount deal provided financing and distribution. But due to legal complications of the bankruptcy, the title to Out of the Inkwell was changed to The Inkwell Imps (1927-1929). One year into the relationship, the Fleischer Brothers discovered mismanagement under Weiss and left before the end of the Imps contract. Out of the Inkwell Films, Inc. filed bankruptcy in January 1929. In March, Max formed Fleischer Studios with Dave as his partner. Operations were first set up at the Carpenter-Goldman Laboratories in Queens. With a skeleton staff, Fleischer Studios started out doing industrial films, most notably, Finding His Voice, a technical demonstration film explaining Western Electric's Variable Density recording and reproduction system. Max Fleischer secured a new contract with Paramount to produce a revival of the "Bouncing Ball" song films, re-branded asScreen Songs, with The Sidewalks of New York as the first release in 1929.

Sound films
The early experiments with sound synchronization gave Fleischer Studios experience in perfecting the post-production method of recording, aided by several inventions by founder, Max Fleischer. And with the conversion to sound, Paramount needed more sound films, and cartoons could be produced faster than feature films. As the Screen Songs returned Fleischer to the established song film format, a new sound series,Talkartoons replaced the silent Inkwell Imps, the first being Noah's Lark released October 25, 1929. Earlier entries in the series were one-shot cartoons, until the appearance of Bimbo as of the fourth entry. Bimbo evolved through several redesigns in each cartoon or the first year. While the intent was to develop him as the star of the series, it was the cameo appearance of a Helen Kane caricature in the seventh entry,Dizzy Dishes that took center stage. Audience reactions to the New York preview were so great that Paramount encourage the continued development of the most famous character to come from the Fleischer Studio by that time, Betty Boop. While originated as a hybrid human/canine character, Betty Boop was transformed into the human character she is known as by 1932. Having become the main attraction of the Talkartoons, she was given her own series, which ran until 1939.

The "Jazz Baby" Flapper character, Betty Boop lifted the spirits of Depression Era audiences with her paradoxical mixture of childlike innocence and sexual allure. And being a musical novelty character, she was a natural for theatrical entertainment. Several of her early cartoons were developed as promotional vehicles for some of the top Black Jazz performers of the day including Louis Armstrong (I'll Be Glad When You're Dead You Rascal, You), Don Redman (I Heard), and most notably, the three cartoons made with Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher, Snow White, and The Old Man of the Mountain. This was considered a bold action in light of the Jim Crow policies active in the South where such films would not be shown.

In 1934, the Hays Code resulted in severe censorship for films. This affected the content of all of Paramount's films as well, which tended to reflect a more "mature" tone in the features of the Marx Brothers, W.C. Fields, and most of all, Mae West. As a result, each of these stars was released as Paramount changed the content of its films to reflect a more "general audience" in order to comply with the new Code and stay in business. Paramount had also gone through three reorganizations from bankruptcy between 1931 and 1936. And the new management under Barney Balaban set out to make more general audience films of the type made at MGM, but for lower budgets. This change in content policy affected the content of cartoons that Fleischer was to produce for Paramount, urging the emulation of the Walt Disney product.

While Paramount was a large organization with a network of theaters, its fiscal consciousness was largely responsible for preventing Fleischer Studios from acquiring the three-color Technicolor Process, leaving it available for a four-year exclusivity with Walt Disney, who created a new market for color cartoons, established by Academy Award winner, Flowers and Trees (1932). Paramount relinquished to the release of the Color Classics series starting in 1934. But with the exclusivity of the three-color process still held by Disney, Fleischer Studios used the available two-color processes, Cinecolor, a two-emulsion red and blue process, and Two-color Technicolor, using red and green. By 1936, after the Disney exclusivity was expired, Fleischer Studios used the three-color process in its color cartoons beginning with Somewhere in Dreamland and continued using it for the remainder of its active years.

The Fleischer Studio's greatest success came with the licensing of E.C. Segar's comic strip character Popeye the Sailor beginning in 1933. Popeye the Sailor eventually became the most popular series the studio ever produced, and its success surpassed the one of Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoons, documented by popularity polls. And with the availability of full spectrum color, the Fleischer Studios produced three two-reel Popeye featurettes, Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor (1936), Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves (1937), and Popeye the Sailor Meets Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp (1939). This series of longer-format cartoons were an indication of the emergence of the animated feature film, which was finally established by the success of Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).

The Fleischer Studios had reached its zenith by 1936, with four series and 52 annual releases. Due to the phenomenal success of the Popeye cartoons, Paramount demanded more, and the Fleischer Studios experienced rapid expansion in order to balance out the increased workload. The crowded conditions, production speedups, drawing quotas, and internal management problems resulted in a Labor Strike begiining in May 1937 which lasted for five months. This strike was a test case, the first launched in the motion picture industry, and produced a nationwide boycott of Fleischer cartoons for the duration.

Max Fleischer had been petitioning Paramount for three years about producing an animated feature. Paramount vetoed his proposals until the proven success of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Paramount now wanted an animated feature for a 1939 Christmas release. This request came at the time of preparations for relocating to Miami, Florida. While the relocation had been a consideration for some time, its final motivation was made a reality due to lower corporate tax structures and an alleged escape from the remaining hostility from the strike.

The new Fleischer Studio opened in October 1938, and production on Paramount's first animated feature, Gulliver's Travels (1939), went from the development stage begun in New York to active production in Miami. The score was by Paramount staff composer, Victor Young and recorded at the Paramount west coast facilities. While limited to only 60 theaters in a one-month release, Gulliver's Travels earned more than $3 million, in spite of exceeding its original $500,000 estimated cost. Accordingly, a second feature was ordered for the Christmas period, Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941).

Fall and departure of Fleischer
The personal relationship between Max and Dave Fleischer deteriorated during the Miami period due to complications associated with the pressures of finishing the studio's first feature film and a very public sexual affair with Dave's secretary, Mae Schwartz. Max and Dave had stopped speaking to each other altogether by the end of 1939.

Dave gained total control of production in 1940, relegating Max to business affairs and research. The studio was in need of new products going into the new decade, but failed miserably with series that included Gabby, Stone Age Cartoons, and Animated Antics. Theater operators complained, with the Popeye cartoons having the only value.

Max Fleischer acquired the rights to comic book superhero Superman to save the studio. The first entry, Superman, had a budget of $50,000, the highest ever for a Fleischer theatrical short, and was nominated for an Academy Award.

The animated Superman series, with its action-adventure and science fiction fantasy content, was a huge success, but that did not help the studio out of its financial trouble. It was penalized $350,000 for going over budget on Gulliver's Travels, and the revenues earned from the rentals of the Popeye cartoons had to be used to offset the loss of $250,000 incurred by the rejection of cartoons in 1940. The success of Superman came too late.

Acquisition by Paramount and Famous Studios era
While profits dwindled, Paramount continued to advance money to Fleischer Studios to continue the production of cartoons with its focus mainly on Popeye, Superman, and a feature film for the 1941 Christmas season; all in hope of rekindling the studio. Then on May 24, 1941, Paramount demanded reimbursement on the penalties still owed after 18 months and assumed full ownership of Fleischer Studios, Inc. The Fleischers remained in control of production until November 1941. Mr. Bug Goes to Town, intended for release in December 1941, was not released until spring 1942, and never recouped its costs.

In spite of living up to his contractual obligations and delivering the picture, Max Fleischer was asked to resign. Dave Fleischer had resigned the month before, and Paramount finished out the last five months of the Fleischer contract with the absence of the Fleischer Brothers. The last cartoon produced under Fleischer Studios' name in the credit was the Superman cartoon, Terror on the Midway, and Paramount renamed the studio Famous Studios on May 27, 1942.

Shortly after the the rename, Paramount began plans to move a significantly downsized Famous Studios back to New York, a move completed early in 1943. Virtually all of the Famous staff, from voice artist/storyman Jack Mercer, Mae Questel and storyman Carl Meyer to animators such as Myron Waldman, David Tendlar, Tom Johnson, Nicholas Tafuri, and Al Eugster, were holdovers from the Fleischer era. These artists remained with Famous/Paramount for much of the studio's existence. As at Fleischer's, the head animators carried out the tasks that were assigned to animation directors at other studios, while the credited directors—Kneitel, Sparber, Gordon, and Disney/Terrytoons veteran Bill Tytla—acted more as supervisors. Sammy Timberg served as musical director until he was replaced in 1946 by Winston Sharples, who formerly worked with the Van Beuren Studios.

Continuing series from the Fleischer era included Popeye the Sailor and Superman, both licensed from popular comics characters. The expensive Superman cartoons, having lost their novelty value with exhibitors, ended production in 1943, a year after Famous' inception. They were replaced by a series starring Saturday Evening Post comic strip character Little Lulu. Also in 1943, Famous began producing the formerly black-and-white Popeye cartoons in Technicolor, and began a new series of one-shot cartoons under the umbrella title Noveltoons (similar in respects to the Color Classics series from Fleischer Studios, and also the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series from Warner Bros.).

The Noveltoons series introduced several popular characters such as Herman and Katnip, Baby Huey, Buzzy the Funny Crow, and Casper the Friendly Ghost who, created by writer Seymour Reit and Famous animator Joe Oriolo during World War II as a children's book manuscript, was sold to Famous in 1945 and became the studio's most successful wholly owned property. In 1947, Paramount decided to stop paying Little Lulu creator Marge Buell licensing royalties, and created another "mischievous girl" character, Little Audrey, as a replacement. That same year Famous resurrected an old Fleischer series, Screen Songs, introducing a new series of musical cartoons featuring a "bouncing ball" sing-along. In 1951, the Screen Songs became "Kartune Musical Shorts," which ended in 1953 after Max Fleischer claimed ownership of the "bouncing ball" trademark. Only two more musical cartoons were released (as one-shot Noveltoons): in 1954 ("Candy Cabaret") and 1963 ("Hobo's Holiday").

Although the studio still carried much of the staff from the previous regime, animation fans and historians note that its films soon diverged from the previous style. Many of them deride the company style for being highly formulaic and largely oriented towards a children's audience, with none of the artistic ambition or sophistication that the previous management strove for.

Later period and sales of cartoon libraries
Sam Buchwald died of a heart attack in 1951. Seymour Kneitel and Isadore Sparber became the production heads of the studio shortly afterward, and Dave Tendlar was promoted to director in 1953.

The mid and late-1950s brought a number of significant changes for Famous Studios. In 1955, Paramount sold most of their pre-October 1950 shorts and cartoons, except for the Popeye and Superman shorts, to U.M. & M. TV Corporation for television distribution. The Popeye cartoons were acquired by Associated Artists Productions, and the Superman cartoons had already reverted to Superman's owners DC Comics after the studio's film rights to the character had expired. In October 1956, Famous Studios was downsized and reorganized. Paramount assumed full control of the studio, renaming it Paramount Cartoon Studios. Around the same time, Isadore Sparber was fired, leaving Seymour Kneitel alone in charge of the studio. In addition, budget cutting became a huge problem for the studio at this time, the animation quality of the shorts started to drop severely and by 1959 everything that the studio was turning out began to look bizarrely cheap and limited. Paramount also ceased using Technicolor by this time in favor for cheaper color processes as well. The last Paramount Cartoon Studios short to use Technicolor was Katnip's Big Day, the finale of the Herman and Katnip cartoon series.

Paramount sold their remaining cartoon film library and the rights to their established characters to Harvey Comics in 1959; however, the final theatrical cartoon to have any of their established characters already acquired by Harvey Comics since was Turtle Scoop featuring Tommy Tortoise and Moe Hare (both uncredited and redrawn) in 1961. Paramount's attempts at creating replacement characters, among them Jeepers and Creepers and The Cat, proved unsuccessful. Nonetheless, television animation production outsourced from King Features and Harvey Films brought the company additional income. Ironically, these arrangements had Paramount working on new television cartoons starring Casper the Friendly Ghost, whom they had originally created, and Popeye and Little Lulu, characters they had previously licensed for theatrical cartoons. In the case of King Features' Popeye and King Features Cartoons TV cartoons, Paramount was one of several animation studios, among them Jack Kinney Productions and Rembrandt Films, to which King Features subcontracted production. The first of 12 all-new Little Lulu cartoons after the character's 16-year hiatus off-screen, Alvin's Solo Flight, was released as part of the Noveltoons series in 1961, while twelve of the King Features Cartoons cartoons starring characters such as Popeye the Sailor, Krazy Kat, Beetle Bailey, and Snuffy Smith, as well as the other 11 Little Lulu cartoons, were released theatrically by Paramount in 1962 under the title Comic Kings.

Seymour Kneitel died of a heart attack in 1964, and Paramount brought in comic book veteran Howard Post to run the cartoon studio. Under Post's supervision, Paramount began new cartoon series and characters such as Swifty and Shorty and Honey Halfwitch (the latter having originated from the Modern Madcaps series in the 1965 short Poor Little Witch Girl), and allowed comic strip artist Jack Mendelsohn to direct two well-received cartoons based upon children's imaginations and drawing styles: The Story of George Washington and A Leak in the Dike (both 1965).

However, Post left the studio due internal conflicts with the Paramount staff. His replacement was Shamus Culhane, a veteran of the Fleischer Studios. Culhane completed a few films that Post started and then ignored the rule book and made films that were very different from the previous regime. In 1966, the studio subcontracted The Mighty Thor cartoons from Grantray-Lawrence Animation, producers of the animated television series The Marvel Super Heroes. In 1967, Culhane directed another short based upon children's art, My Daddy, the Astronaut, which became Paramount's first film to be shown at an animation festival. However, when Paramount's board of directors rejected a proposal to produce episodes for a second Grantray-Lawrence series, Spider-Man, Culhane quit the studio, and was succeeded by former Terrytoons animator Ralph Bakshi in mid-1967.

Paramount Animation era
In 1967, Paramount Cartoon Studios was renamed to Paramount Animation Studios (1967-2010), alongside with a name for the television division Paramount Television Animation (1967-present) and several names for feature films such as Paramount Full-Length Animations (1967-1987) and Paramount Feature Animation (1988-2010).

TBD

Aftermath of the classic characters
Years later, Marvel Comics would start an imprint that published comics adapted from Paramount films and TV series, Paramount Comics.

In 1980, Paramount had co-produced and released a live-action feature film adaptation of Popeye the Sailor, titled simply Popeye, with Walt Disney Productions. The live-action film ended Paramount's involvement in the Popeye franchise.

In 1986, both the Fleischer and Famous Popeye cartoons, along with the MGM cartoon library and the pre-1948 Warner Bros. color cartoons, were bought by Turner Entertainment after their purchase of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (months later, Turner would sell the MGM studio while keeping its pre-1986 library). This library of cartoons, along with the Hanna-Barbera library, which Turner bought in 1991, would become the initial programming for Cartoon Network when it launched in 1992. Under the hands of Turner, many of the mid-40's Popeye cartoons have had their original titles restored, while "interim" logos were placed on those whose titles could not be found at the time. At the same time, in 1986, many of the B&W Famous Popeye cartoons were redrawn in color in South Korea, despite the availability of computer colorization, and as of 2012, were still seen on Cartoon Network's sister channel, Boomerang.

Productions
Notes: ^ = Not produced but labeled by Paramount Animation. S = Sold from Paramount