''Color Classics'' are a series of

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

s produced by Fleischer Studios for Paramount Pictures from 1934 to 1941 as a competitor to

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

's ''

Silly Symphonies ''Silly Symphony'' is an American animated series of 75 musical short films produced by Walt Disney Productions from 1929 to 1939. As the series name implies, the ''Silly Symphonies'' were originally intended as whimsical accompaniments to pieces ...

''. As the name implies, all of the shorts were made in

color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are assoc ...

format, with the first entry of the series, ''

Poor Cinderella ''Poor Cinderella'' (original title as ''Betty Boop in Poor Cinderella'') is a 1934 Fleischer Studios animated short film featuring Betty Boop. ''Poor Cinderella'' was Fleischer Studios' first color film, and the only appearance of Betty Boop in ...

'' (1934), being the first color cartoon produced by the Fleischer studio. There were 36 shorts produced in this series.

History

The first ''Color Classic'' was photographed with the two-color Cinecolor process. The rest of the 1934 and 1935 cartoons were filmed in two-color

Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...

, because the Disney studio had an exclusive agreement with Technicolor that prevented other studios from using the lucrative three-strip process. That exclusive contract expired during September 1935, and the 1936 ''Color Classic'' cartoon ''

Somewhere in Dreamland ''Somewhere in Dreamland'' is a 1936 animated short in Max Fleischer's Color Classics series. The film was produced by Max Fleischer, directed by Dave Fleischer, co-directed by Dawn Fleischer, and was animated by Fleischer veterans Seymour Kneite ...

'' (1936) became the first Fleischer cartoon produced with three-strip Technicolor.Maltin, Leonard. ''Of Mice and Magic'', p. 114 The first cartoon in the series, ''

'', featured Betty Boop (with

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

hair and

turquoise Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula . It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gemstone and ornamental stone for thousands of year ...

eyes); future shorts usually did not have familiar or recurring characters. Many of the ''Color Classics'' entries make prominent use of

Max Fleischer Max Fleischer (born Majer Fleischer ; July 19, 1883 – September 25, 1972) was an American animator, inventor, film director and producer, and studio founder and owner. Born in Kraków, Fleischer immigrated to the United States where he became ...

's Stereoptical process, a device which allowed animation cels to be photographed against actual 3 dimensional background sets instead of the traditional paintings. ''Poor Cinderella'', ''Somewhere in Dreamland'', and '' Christmas Comes But Once a Year'' all make prominent use of the technique. Disney's competing apparatus, the

multiplane camera The multiplane camera is a motion-picture camera that was used in the traditional animation process that moves a number of pieces of artwork past the camera at various speeds and at various distances from one another. This creates a sense of par ...

, would not be completed until 1937, three years after the Stereoptical Process's first use. The ''Color Classics'' series ended in 1941 with ''Vitamin Hay'', featuring characters Hunky and Spunky. A similar series would be started by Fleischer's successor Famous Studios during 1943, with the name '' Noveltoons''.

Later statuses

During 1955, Paramount sold all rights to the ''Color Classics'' cartoons to television distributor U.M. & M. TV Corporation U.M. & M. altered the original beginning credits sequences for some of the shorts, to remove all references to the names "Paramount Pictures" and "Technicolor", and to add their own copyright notices. Before the retitling could be finished, U.M. & M. was bought by National Telefilm Associates (NTA). Instead of refilming the openings, NTA obscured the references to the Paramount and Technicolor names by placing black bars over the original title cards and copyright notices. Only a few ''Color Classics'' had their title cards redone by U.M. & M., among them ''Greedy Humpty Dumpty'', ''Play Safe'', ''Christmas Comes But Once a Year'', ''Bunny Mooning'', ''Little Lambkins'', and ''Vitamin Hay''. NTA distributed the ''Color Classics'' to television, yet allowed the copyrights on all of the shorts to lapse except ''The Tears of an Onion''. Many

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

video distributors have released television prints of ''Color Classics'' shorts for home video. The UCLA Film and Television Archive has, through the assistance of Republic Pictures (successor company to U.M. & M. and NTA), retained original theatrical copies of all of the shorts, which have periodically been shown in revival movie houses and by cable television. Ironically, original distributor Paramount has, through their 1999 acquisition of Republic, regained ownership of the ''Color Classics'', including the original elements. Olive Films (current licensee for Republic, and which currently has home video rights) has, to date. not announced any plans to release the ''Color Classics'' officially to DVD or Blu-Ray. During 2003, animation archivist

Jerry Beck Jerry Beck (born February 9, 1955, in New York City) is an American animation historian, author, blogger, and video producer. Beck wrote or edited several books on classic American animation and classic characters, including '' The 50 Greates ...

conceived a definitive DVD box set of all the ''Color Classics'', excluding ''The Tears of an Onion'', and tried to enlist Republic Pictures' help in releasing this set. After being refused, Kit Parker Films (in association with VCI Entertainment) offered to provide the best available 35mm and 16mm prints of the ''Color Classics'' from Parker's archives to create the box set ''Somewhere in Dreamland: The Max Fleischer Color Classics''. These "interim restored versions" contain digitally recreated Paramount titles; the U.M. & M.-modified prints had to have their title cards as well as their animator credits redone. ''The Tears of an Onion'' was not included in the set, as it remains copyrighted by Republic successor Melange Pictures. Finally, in 2021, after decades of being shown in altered, worn, and “beet-red” prints, the Fleischer estate (in co-operation with Paramount Pictures) launched an initiative to formally restore the entire classic animation library from the surviving original negatives, beginning with ''Somewhere In Dreamland'', which has had its restored World Premiere on the

MeTV MeTV, an acronym for Memorable Entertainment Television, is an American broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Marketed as "The Definitive Destination for Classic TV", the network airs a variety of classic television program ...

network in December of said year as part of the '' Toon In With Me'' Christmas special, presented uncut with its original front-and-end Paramount titles.

Filmography

Many of the cartoons do not have recurring characters, but ''Poor Cinderella'' featured Betty Boop, and some featured Newlyweds, and Tommy Cod. Towards the end

Hunky and Spunky ''Hunky and Spunky'' were fictional characters, appearing in the series of animated short subjects produced by Fleischer Studios for Paramount Pictures from 1938 to 1941. Filmed in Technicolor (three-strip), the series revolves around a mother bur ...

were featured characters. All cartoons released during 1934 and 1935 were produced in two-strip

, except for ''Poor Cinderella'' which was produced in Cinecolor. All shorts from 1936 and onward were produced in three-strip Technicolor.

Notes

References

;General * Barrier, Michael (1999). ''Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. . * Maltin, Leonard (1980, rev. 1987). ''Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons''. Penguin Books. .

External links