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'Talkartoons' is the name of a series of 42 animated cartoons produced by the Fleischer Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures between 1929 and 1932.

Contents

History

Filmography

1929-30

1931

1932

References

See also

External links

History

For the Fleischer brothers, the transition to sound was relatively easy. With the new contract with Paramount Pictures, and without the burden of Red Seal Pictures and Alfred Weiss, Max Fleischer was free to experiment with new, bold ideas. First he changed the name of the ''Ko-Ko Song Cartunes'' series to ''Screen Songs''. Although the ''Screen Songs'' were successful, Fleischer felt that it wasn't enough; Walt Disney also seemed to gain a great amount of fame through his sound cartoons as well. He decided to work with his brother, Dave on a new series of cartoons where the characters did more than just simply dance to the music of the "bouncing ball". The name for the new series was to be ''Talkartoons''. When the idea was pitched to Paramount, they leaped at the opportunity.
The Talkartoons started out as one-shot cartoons (with the exception of ''Accordion Joe'' featuring Fitz the Dog of the earlier ''Inkwell Imps''). The first entry in the series was ''Noah's Lark'', released on October 25, 1929. Although a Fleischer cartoon, it appeared to be patterned after the ''Aesop's Film Fables'' of Paul Terry. In it, a Farmer Al Falfa-esque Noah allows the animals of his ark to visit Luna Park. When he brings them back into the ship, the weight is so heavy that it sinks. In the end, Noah chases topless mermaids throughout the ocean waters. ''Lark'' has very few gray tones, very much like the ''Screen Songs'' produced during the same time and the earlier Fleischer silent works. It also included copyright-free songs, mostly utilized from old 78-rpm's.
The series began to take a new direction, however, with the arrival of Max and Dave's brother, Lou Fleischer, whose skills in music and mathematics made a great impact the studio. Fitz evolved into a character named Bimbo, named so for his foolishness. The first cartoon that featured Bimbo was ''Hot Dog'' (1930), the first entry in the series and the first Fleischer cartoon to use a full-range of greys. New animators such as Grim Natwick, Shamus Culhane, and Rudy Zamora began entering the Fleischer Studio, with new ideas that pushed the ''Talkartoons'' into a league of their own. Natwick especially had an off-beat style of animating that helped give the shorts more of a surreal quality. Perhaps his greatest contribution to the Talkartoons series and the Fleischer Studio was the creation of Betty Boop with ''Dizzy Dishes'' in 1930.
By late-1931, Betty Boop dominated the series. Koko the Clown was brought out of retirement from the silent days as a third character to Betty and Bimbo. By 1932, the series was at an inevitable end and instead, Betty Boop would be given her own series, with Bimbo and Koko as secondary characters.

Filmography

1929-30

Film	Characters	Original release date
''Noah's Lark''	One-shot	October 25, 1929
''Accordion Joe''	Fitz the Dog	December 12
''Marriage Wows''	One-shot	January 8, 1930
''Radio Riot''	One-shot	February 13
''Hot Dog''	Bimbo	March 29
''Fire Bugs''	Bimbo	May 9
''Wise Flies''	One-shot	July 18
''Dizzy Dishes''	Bimbo and Betty Boop	August 9
''Barnacle Bill''	Bimbo and Betty Boop	August 31
''Swing You Sinners!''	Bimbo	September 24
''The Grand Uproar''	Bimbo	October 3
''Sky Scraping''	Bimbo	November 1
''Up To Mars''	Bimbo	November 20
''Mysterious Mose''	Bimbo and Betty Boop	December 26

1931

Film	Characters	Original release date
''The Ace of Spades''	Bimbo	January 16, 1931
''Tree Saps''	Bimbo	February 3
''Teacher's Pest''	Bimbo	February 7
''The Cow's Husband''	Bimbo	March 13
''The Bum Bandit''	Bimbo and Betty Boop	April 3
''The Male Man''	Bimbo	April 24
''Twenty Legs Under the Sea''	Bimbo	May 5
''Silly Scandals''	Bimbo and Betty Boop	May 23
''The Herring Murder Case''	Bimbo and Koko the Clown	June 26
''Bimbo's Initiation''	Bimbo and Betty Boop	July 24
''Bimbo's Express''	Bimbo and Betty Boop	August 22
''Minding the Baby''	Bimbo and Betty Boop	September 26
''In the Shade of the Old Apple Sauce''	Bimbo	October 16
''Mask-A-Raid''	Bimbo and Betty Boop	November 7
''Jack and the Beanstalk''	Bimbo and Betty Boop	November 21
''Dizzy Red Riding Hood''	Bimbo and Betty Boop	December 12

1932

Film	Characters	Original release date
''Any Rags?''	Betty Boop, Bimbo and Koko	January 2, 1932
''Boop-Oop-a-Doop''	Betty Boop, Bimbo and Koko	January 16
''The Robot''	Bimbo	February 5
''Minnie the Moocher''	Betty Boop and Bimbo	February 26
''Swim Or Sink (S.O.S.)''	Betty Boop, Bimbo and Koko	March 11
''Crazy Town''	Betty Boop, Bimbo and Koko	March 25
''The Dancing Fool''	Betty Boop, Bimbo and Koko	April 8
''Chess-Nuts''	Betty Boop, Bimbo and Koko	April 13
''A Hunting We Will Go''	Betty Boop, Bimbo and Koko	April 29
''Hide and Seek''	Bimbo	May 26
''Admission Free''	Betty Boop, Bimbo and Koko	June 10
''The Betty Boop Limited''	Betty Boop, Bimbo and Koko	July 1

References

★ Cabarga, Leslie (1988): ''The Fleischer Story''. Da Capo Press.

★ Fleischer, Richard (2005): ''Out of the Inkwell: Max Fleisher and the Animation Revloution''. University Press of Kentucky.

★ Maltin, Leonard (1987): ''Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons''. Penguin Books.

See also

★ Fleischer Studios

★ The Golden Age of American animation

External links

★ Fleischer Sound Cartoons Filmography

★ - List of Talkartoons