Cartooning America: The Fleischer Brothers Story

FAIN: TD-256096-17

Filmmakers Collaborative, Inc. (Melrose, MA 02176-3933)
Kathryn P. Dietz (Project Director: January 2017 to October 2025)

Development of a script for a feature-length documentary on the Fleischer brothers, a family of artists and producers who transformed the aesthetics and business of animation.

Cartooning America: The Fleischer Brothers Story is a feature documentary about a remarkable family of artists and inventors who revolutionized animation and brought us some of the most beloved cartoon characters of all time. Their cartoons were funny, sometimes surreal, and pure joy, with characters like Betty Boop, Popeye, and Superman who have become household names. But the Fleischers themselves are less known, and our documentary will change this, introducing a wide national audience to Max, Dave, Lou, Charlie, and Joe Fleischer, who created Fleischer Studios and a roster of characters who reflected the rough and tumble sensibilities of their own Jewish immigrant neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY. Their films were urban, modern, chaotic, and rude, and they painted a picture of what it meant to be American at the beginning of the 20th century.