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ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 5.05 - AUGUST 2000
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Alter-Net-ive Worlds "True enough, and your point is well taken. Perhaps Lin Zhao can take the story from there." "Gladly, prof. The first 3D Web cartoon was Ko-Ko's Diner, 1930. Fleischer and Walt Disney Studios were pretty much neck and neck through the early ‘30s, but it was the Fleischers that took advantage of the fact that the Web was not subject to regulation, and that literally any content could be broadcast without the threat of censorship. Max and Dave began to produce two sets of cartoons, one for public consumption in movie theaters, and another for the Fleischer Web site. Those that enjoyed more risqué, surreal, and in some cases graphic content could download the erotic adventures of Betty Boop. Disney chose not to go that route, believing that what Americans really wanted was clean, wholesome entertainment. His brother Roy urged Walt to go a more modern, adult-oriented route but Walt wouldn't play ball.
"By 1935, it was clear who had won that battle: the Fleischer Web site, with millions of hits and subscriptions, financed more advances in software and resulted in better theater-based cartoons for their studio as well. Disney tried to counter by unveiling Mortimer Mouse in 1933, but by the end of the decade this rather tame character was all but defunct. Disney's last gasp came in 1937 when he attempted the first feature-length animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but by then most of his key animators such as Norm Ferguson, Bill Tytla and Grim Natwick had already signed with Fleischer or were freelancing at MGM, Warners or Van Beuren. The film flopped, and the biggest hit of the year turned out to be the Web short Betty's Birthday Bash in which caricatures of the biggest male stars in Hollywood paid...um...tribute to Betty on her fourth anniversary as a star."
"Yes, and that brings us to today's lecture. Class, please turn to page 41. With the Fleischers established as the premier animation studio in America, a position they still hold today, a new trend began to take place. Fleischer and other studios such as Terry, MGM and Mesmer began to offer benefits packages and signing bonuses to independents in order to procure and keep their services. It was a difficult path for the studios; many of these highly eccentric, restlessly creative mavericks either chafed at being under a production system or would attempt to strike it big with an independently produced character they hoped would be their ticket to fame and riches. At times this worked: witness Jack Kinney's independent revival of a then-forgotten character named Goofy following the failure of the first Disney studio in 1940. At other times it failed, as with Isadore Klein's attempt to launch his Super Mouse -- later known as Mighty Mouse -- series after his departure from Terry Studios in 1941. "The battles over creator's rights and studio properties never truly ended, however. One of the few mistakes Max Fleischer made was relinquishing the rights to a minor property. Dave Tendlar and Myron Waldman independently produced a Web-based cartoon named Popeye The Sailor that Fleischer had let go as part of a contract incentive for Waldman. The old sea dog's markedly violent and steamy adventures were soon the hit of the Web, and Max attempted to void the contract. His powerful legal department succeeded in shutting down Waldman and Tendlar's Web site until the decision was overturned in Appeals Court. At times the creators themselves were at odds, as happened after Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera created the highly successful Tom and Jerry series in 1940. Each claimed exclusive credit, and the situation was not helped when producer Fred Quimby, for reasons unknown, paid an exceedingly large bonus to Bill Hanna. The legal battle, highlighted by the infamous ‘missing floppy disks' controversy, ended with Hanna and Barbera never again working with one another. However, no case was more convoluted than that of Bugs Bunny at the Warner Bros. studio. "Independent producer Leon Schlesinger was, along with the Fleishers, the main beneficiary of the collapse of the first Disney Studio. Walt's refusal to market a wilder, more adult product for the World Wide Web sent former Disney animators such as Isadore "Friz" Freleng, Chuck Jones, Fred Moore and Milt Kahl over to Schlesinger's stable, and the crafty producer also signed such independents as Robert Clampett, Tex Avery, Frank Tashlin and Dick Huemer. After contracting with Warner Bros. for a distribution deal, Schlesinger turned the team loose for the first time in 1938. Clampett and Tashlin turned out to be natural partners, creating a risqué couple named Porky and Petunia Pig. The first cartoon in the series, Porky's Hot-Cha Honey, established the studio as a comer. Fred Moore's sensual 3D rendering contrasted brilliantly with Tashlin's rapidly paced direction and quick cuts, not to mention Clampett's twisted gags."
"What about the Jones-Avery-Kahl dispute, Professor?" "Getting to it, Ms. Zhao. Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones and Milt Kahl came up with a rabbit named Bugs Bunny who at first appeared only in theater-based productions. It remained for Tex Avery to add the warped humor and tight pacing that made the hare the new darling of the studio's Web cartoons. Unfortunately, this led to a dispute over the actual ownership of the character, who existed in two distinct mediums. Jones claimed exclusive credit for the character's creation, a story disputed by Kahl, who claimed that he and Huemer developed a similar rabbit named Max at Disney. Jones' story was supported by Clampett, who stated that he was present at the early storyboard and wireframe design sessions before he and Tashlin left to work on Web cartoons featuring the very popular (and now discontinued) sexpot Coal Black. Avery, for his part, claimed that Bugs Bunny was his first effort at motion-capture and that he had the program to prove it. The debate between Avery and Jones developed rancorous overtones, and the two sadly remained at odds throughout their respectively brilliant careers. Avery eventually left studio work altogether and remained an independent until his death despite tempting offers from Walter Lantz and Otto Mesmer. We'll meet him again later in this course."
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