Oddball Fleischer at FILM FORUM - discussion with Bruce Goldstein and Jerry Beck

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]Um, first time. Okay. We're going to start Oh, there we go. They're all sitting sitting sitting already. Okay.

[00:00:06]They're walking out already. We haven't even started the cartoon. [laughter] We're not going to flip the theater over.

[00:00:12]Well, who remembers the great film historian William K. Everson? I guess.

[00:00:17]Yeah. Bill would never say how great a movie was. He would He would always go, "Well, it's not really very good."

[00:00:23]And then you would wind up loving it, right? Yep. The Raven is not really very [cough] good. No. Nor is Gabby.

[00:00:30]>> [laughter] >> Nor is Gabby. But the Stone Age cartoon You liked that one.

[00:00:34]>> I thought it was terrific. So, yeah.

[00:00:36]Take this.

[00:00:37]>> Anybody agree?

[00:00:37]>> [laughter] >> I like it. I love it. It's funnier than any Three Stooges episode.

[00:00:43]>> [laughter] >> It's important these things are preserved and they're, you know, and and they're accessible. That's my personal thing. That's an important film I handed. You know, cuz I I mean, on the case of the Stone Age uh my group was a C of Hollywood. They got a credit on it several of these and uh we have a little bit We're nonprofit organization. We do the Annie Awards.

[00:01:07]Whatever profits we do have, we actually put in the film preservation. We can't really do too many films per year. For many years we were the only people doing it. Um But now there's a There's others.

[00:01:19]But but the thing is And that's the good news is that there's Paramount has opened the vaults to others. Paramount will allow you to give them We'll give the archives money to preserve the movies. Well, that's how That's how They won't do it. Because Jane Fleischer Reed, Max's granddaughter, yeah, had the initiative to restore these films.

[00:01:40]A lot of the films we saw tonight were from the Fleischer Tunes restored collection and the others were over at UCLA.

[00:01:48]Yeah. And the thing is And the thing is I'm glad you said that because I actually on the last few years knowing they're doing that, I I heard about the they found this camera negative for the Stone Age film a film nobody had seen that nobody that I know alive today had seen it. So, I you know, I went to Jane and I said, "Are you guys going to do this? Cuz if you're going to do it, I'm not going to do it." And she said she hates those cartoons.

[00:02:14]I haven't seen that cartoon but I don't want to. I'm not doing it. I'm not kidding. So, I So, I said, "Well, I'm going to do it." So, there you They want to put the Betty Boops in the Color Classics on the background. We are doing a whole show Color Classics this week. You won't be here. No. And we're also going to do a pre-code Betty Boop collection later in the week.

[00:02:33]And what else? A Popeye show. Which we've I've been wanting to do for 40 years. Wow. No one has done a Popeye show. Have you Anybody remember a whole How many minutes? 80 minutes of Popeye?

[00:02:47]With all the same plot but they're still great.

[00:02:49]>> [laughter] [clears throat] >> Well, Bruce, I'd like to come back here every year and show >> Well, I HAVE ON THE SPOT.

[00:02:59]WE'RE [applause] THINKING ABOUT IT.

[00:03:02]OF COURSE. We've known each other since you said since the '70s. I think the early '80s but we really haven't done anything in 40 years. But early on we were at the Thalia together doing cartoon shows with Greg Ford. Um Louis just reminded me Cartoonal Knowledge.

[00:03:19]That was great.

[00:03:21]Great Cartoonal Knowledge. Greg Ford's title for the series was Cartoonal At one point you changed the series to Tuesdays.

[00:03:27]>> No, Cartoon Tuesdays. That was Cartoon Tuesdays. Oh, that was yours. Yeah.

[00:03:31]And I did all the I think that's how I got the job with Warner Brothers doing I was Daffy Duck's publicist and I worked with you with Terry Thoren and Animation Celebration. Yeah. And we were the first to publicize a Pixar film.

[00:03:48]Luxo Jr. Remember that?

[00:03:50]That's how far back we go? And also the California Raisins. Yeah. I had to fight off people.

[00:03:57]You normally you have to beg for publicity with the California Raisins, I had to fight them off. I had to turn down Oprah Winfrey cuz we we accepted the Phil Donahue show for the support.

[00:04:09]But you were part of that. I was part of the thing of yeah, expanded entertainment. We started animation magazine. We did the festival of claymation, the festival of of computer animation, animation celebration. We did all these festivals that went around. We were really doing what I grew up here in New York and I loved the Museum of Modern Art and they used to run the best of Annecy, the best of Zagreb and all that and I so we wanted to bring that uh to the rest of the country. New York kind of didn't need it but uh the rest of the country did so It was the animation celebration that tourney of anime. What was the difference? No, there's no difference. I was the publisher so I didn't know the difference.

[00:04:44]>> The difference was that most people didn't know what the word tourney meant.

[00:04:47]>> [laughter] [clears throat] >> Yeah. And uh we and then through that we were we did a festival in LA and that brought uh the attention to animated features from around the world and then I began to distribute Japanese animation. That's what when we opened this this particular theater, Film Forum was we had another location about a quarter mile down on Canal Street but when we opened this theater in September 1990, which is what 36 years ago, one of the first things we showed on this screen after the Sturgis this festival was Akira which you Yeah. We brought the film We brought the We brought the film making here and because of Jerry, we were the first theater ever to show a Miyazaki movie in this theater, right? Yep. The the Which was the title? You mean Castle in the Sky?

[00:05:38]>> Laputa: Castle in the Yeah. Yeah. And the we also did by the way I I'm not sure what you we would have been in '89 but when we when my book The Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies we did we did a special festival for that. Yeah.

[00:05:51]And we also did thing about Tex Tex Avery and Tex is most sexist.

[00:05:58]And it was very sexist. [clears throat] Very indeed. We're doing the prequel Betty Boop this week. It's kind of the same thing.

[00:06:04]Yeah. So we've gone back we did it once.

[00:06:06]>> we That's because Greg Ford made two two new Daffy Ducks and I got the job.

[00:06:11]>> the Porky Pig remember that the Porky Pig short? Yeah Louie reminded me we did a Porky Pig's 50th birthday in 1986.

[00:06:18]>> Yeah. And I think that's how I got the job at Warner Brothers. We got so much publicity on that. Yeah. But um then Greg Ford made the two new Daffy Ducks and I was involved with that and that's how we got access to the >> [snorts] >> You can't imagine how hard it was to get cartoons in the 80s. You know good prints of cartoons. Yeah. We were depending on you worked at MGM UA or UA Classics. Yeah. You had them in 16 up great prints. They were okay. They were originals and we had we had we had 35 mm on some of them.

[00:06:50]But because of our you know work at Warner Brothers at the studio we knew the archivist and we were able to show brand new 35 which in the 80s was something Yeah. like tonight but it was very rare in those days right?

[00:07:03]>> Right. Yeah.

[00:07:04]Um yeah the Raven. Let's get back to the Fleischer. Oh yeah.

[00:07:09]I wanted to give a little background here. Because you mentioned 35 and and the the Raven print we were just now you may not have known it was a 35 mm print because these [laughter] nobody wants to make a digital copy of it. That's I'm not getting it's like we we had to the trouble of restoring it but they like nobody feels any value of making it. That came from UCLA. They made a photochemical print which is rare and [clears throat] they also did the digital copy of Hold It which is masterpiece.

[00:07:37]>> Yeah.

[00:07:38]That got a good applause. Yes it did.

[00:07:41]Raven got a smattering of applause.

[00:07:42]Smattering got no applause.

[00:07:44]>> [laughter] >> Got his deserved applause. Yeah.

[00:07:47]But you know, I like it that we showed everything. In fact, we didn't show I realized the only series I think we didn't show they made was called Animated Antics. And we just restored one of them. And unfortunately, there is no good episode [laughter] of the Animated Antics. I never heard of it.

[00:08:02]Yeah, it's miscellaneous characters.

[00:08:04]Usually, they're half of them are other [clears throat] characters from the from Gulliver's Travels, supporting characters starring them, like the pigeon.

[00:08:13]It's very weird.

[00:08:15]>> [laughter] >> Don't get me started on that. How many Gabbys were there? Like 12 or something.

[00:08:20]>> kidding?

[00:08:21]>> [laughter] >> A whole year later.

[00:08:23]Pinto Colvig, I have a question about Pinto Colvig. He also gets writing credit on the Raven.

[00:08:29]Okay, how was he able to be goofy in Hollywood and work for Fleischer in New York? Well, he was Fleischer in Miami and and he didn't when he was doing that, he wasn't working for Disney. He moved on. In fact, he after Fleischer, he went to Warner Brothers and did some voices there. Um they had to cajole to get him back, I think. You know, make peace with him. He was one of the writers on Three Little Pigs. That's right.

[00:08:55]>> And and um You know, I think he thought he wasn't valued enough.

[00:08:59]>> one of the voices in Three Little Pigs, yeah.

[00:09:03]Yeah, he was the pig, the practical pig.

[00:09:05]>> okay. That's [laughter] Yeah. You were going You were going to tell I was going to ask you about uh You go back with the Fleischer.

[00:09:11]>> let's talk a little bit We have slides in honor of a picture of Max that Jane His granddaughter, Jane, sent us some stills for opening night.

[00:09:21]Here's the picture A beautiful portrait of Max.

[00:09:25]I would say this is from the early '20s, mid-'20s, yeah, when when the studio is well established.

[00:09:31]Where was the studio in New York originally? We know it was It was at 1600 Broadway. It was I don't have the address in my head. Do you guys know okay? I think it's 120 East 43rd Street.

[00:09:41]Is that it? There's a famous drawing that they did in the movie that has the dates of the addresses on it.

[00:09:47]The next one is next one. This is him Coney Island when they're dating his wife Essie. This is the early teens. By the way, his wife's name is Essie Goldstein. Really?

[00:10:01]But then she told James said, "Well, that was their Ellis Island name." I >> [laughter] >> This is where he's uh he's probably his popular science magazine at this time.

[00:10:11]But here he is in Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Do you know the story about that?

[00:10:16]>> [clears throat] >> Tell me.

[00:10:17]Well, he was a kid and he wanted to be a cartoonist a comic strip artist not an animator. He paid them $2 a week just so he can hang around and then he got a strip.

[00:10:28]He was the youngest according to one source he was the youngest person ever have his own strip comic strip that is.

[00:10:34]People got into animation and again forgive me but I'm Tommy we have an expert in the audience Tommy Stathes by the way. Thanks Tommy.

[00:10:41]The one with the dark glasses he doesn't want to be recognized.

[00:10:45]But it seems to me that a lot of people got into animation in the teens were people who couldn't get new comic strips. They were trying to become similar to what happened with Siegel and Shuster with the comic was you know you know animation was labor intensive and it wasn't really an artistic field and all the early most of the early uh cart animated cartoons were based on comic strips you know. Right. They were the uh internationally first the Hearst uh animation studio which just adapted all their Hearst comic strips. They had quite a few of them Crazy Cats and all that. And and that was the Bray method that early? Uh yeah well was it Tommy Tommy Why don't you come up here and just fill us in? Okay. Bring your video with you and show people.

[00:11:33]Okay, this is very interesting. story.

[00:11:36]Yeah. This is the only time Mark Fleischer was in front of a picture of Disneyland.

[00:11:42]>> [laughter] >> Is is is is there a isn't there a Toontown at Disneyland now? Yes. So, do they have any Fleischer like Betty Boop is she in there? No.

[00:11:53]Well, she was in the movie. No, but they do have a you you go you go into one of the rides it's like a a movie theater and they have like a fake candy stand and they have like Alice in Cartoonland, you know, candies.

[00:12:07]It's very strange.

[00:12:08]>> [laughter] >> The this is a great story. That's Walt Disney Max Fleischer and Richard Fleischer. Max's son. And uh Walt hired Richard to direct 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and the famous story is you know Richard said to Walt when he first asked him to do it, you know my father is he was yes and he goes he goes then that's not a problem for me and you can so let me call my dad and see what he >> [clears throat] >> Can I interject that Max Fleischer was supposedly really mild-mannered man beautiful man but if you mention Disney at the dinner table [snorts] >> [laughter] >> That mouse guy. The um So [snorts] then you know Richard called Max and uh Max said if Disney obviously has great taste in live action directors. He said you'd be crazy not to do it. Because I'd do it. My favorite thing though of this story is that when they were working on the film and and Richard was on the lot every day they organized you know Walt volunteered said let's get all the guys who at the studio the animators who were here who worked for your dad in the 30s or 20s and we'll have a luncheon and they had a private luncheon for all whoever was there that worked with Max Fleischer. It was great with Max there in person which when this photo taken was. Ironically, we're doing a Richard Fleischer festival concurrent with this and I hope you know we're showing in things like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

[00:13:44]Um What was I going to say about that?

[00:13:47]>> I don't know but Richard was the director.

[00:13:49]>> Richard made a lot of his films for 20th Century Fox. Ironically, they're all owned by Disney now.

[00:13:57]Okay, I'm going to tell my personal story now. Yeah, you have a personal story. Why don't you skip two?

[00:14:02]Two two slides, Raymond.

[00:14:05]>> [snorts] >> Can you hear me? Okay. This is That's Max putting a dime in a March of Dimes box.

[00:14:14]You all know what the March of Dimes was. It was a polio charity. It was created during the presidency of of FDR who everyone now knows had polio. So that was a big deal.

[00:14:26]Behind Max is his son-in-law, a name you'll recognize, Seymour Kneitel, who was one of the head animators at at Fleischer, later the head of Famous. He also If you came to the Superman show, he co-wrote the first three Superman cartoons. [clears throat] That was a real surprise.

[00:14:45]He is carrying his son, Kenneth Kenny Kneitel, who became my friend when I was 15 and maybe he was 30. He had a store on 52nd and Lexington called Fandango.

[00:14:58]Does anyone else remember Fandango?

[00:15:01]He was the first person to sell stuff from the '30s as antiques. And I had seen something in New York magazine best bets that told told me about this thing.

[00:15:11]I had to run there and [clears throat] we hit it off and he would give me a little You would plots and some of the stuff again.

[00:15:19]Gave me a Betty Boop patch with the dog ears. I have it still. I might will it to you, but I don't know. [laughter] if you outlive me.

[00:15:27]Anyway, so Kenny and I became friends, and I said when I was about 15, and I said I want to start the Betty Boop fan club.

[00:15:36]He had his his grandfather write me a letter. He sent me the next He sent me this next, Raymond.

[00:15:44]>> [clears throat] >> This is my name and address in Max Fleischer's hand.

[00:15:49]Cool. And this this card, and he actually said authorized me to start the Betty Boop fan club. Next.

[00:15:58]But he was very savvy even at 85. He >> [laughter] >> He said, "Within the limits of the city, but I merchandise Betty Boop after the '30s." I think I was the first one.

[00:16:09]Okay.

[00:16:10]Here's what you don't know about Kenny Night Tail.

[00:16:13]>> [cough] >> He became an enormously successful graphic designer. He did all the graphics for the first few seasons of Saturday Night Live.

[00:16:22]>> That's Kenny Night Tail. Max Fleischer's grandson did the graphics for Saturday Night Live. The last time I saw Kenny was around 1989 when King Features was relaunching Betty Boop. It was at the Rainbow Room, and May Questel was there, too. Wow. Yeah. I I visited the house or his his We Me and Leonard Maltin visited with Kenny the when we were working at My Son Magic. And at one point, I'm looking at his bookcase, and he said, "These are These are books my dad you know left me." And one of the books was like the encyclopedia of puns.

[00:16:55]>> [laughter] >> If you know those old famous studio cartoons, they were reliant on puns. The title, the jokes.

[00:17:02]>> punster, too. Yeah. So, you remember that Kenny also had a very pronounced limp because he had had polio.

[00:17:08]>> [clears throat] >> His mother was Ruth Fleischer, Max's daughter, Richard's sister, who'd been a showgirl. Yeah. And a Rockette. She actually danced at the new Roxie.

[00:17:21]Or [laughter] the That's true. What was her boyfriend? Her boyfriend was Ray Bolger. Oh, yeah.

[00:17:27]Who was on the first bill at Radio City Music Hall. We're really getting into the weeds here.

[00:17:31]>> getting good.

[00:17:32]Let's take questions from the audience about the cartoons or anything.

[00:17:36]Anything. Anything. Anything political situation and AI.

[00:17:41]>> [laughter] >> Sorry.

[00:17:45]Oh, wait, that is my microphone.

[00:17:46]We're going to have somebody run around and give you a microphone.

[00:17:49]And even then I might not hear you, but go on. Uh yes, so they were referencing some prominent entertainer in the Stone Age thing. Oh.

[00:18:00]I'm going to say Ted Lewis. Ted Lewis, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it's Ted Lewis, yeah. If I understand you, they made so many Yeti cartoons because they had all this usable art from Gulliver's Travels. That makes sense, but I think they they repainted it and redrew and made new layouts and things like that.

[00:18:16]They also had the model sheets.

[00:18:17]>> Yeah, that would be That would be the sheet, would be the model sheets of all the characters. They didn't have to create new characters for it. It could be done quicker.

[00:18:27]Here? And actually, one thing I wanted to mention is why they didn't Why use Gabby and not like Steep Dude instead of please find They did, but the thing is those Animated Antics I mentioned, they they made cartoons with Steep uh Steep Steep Stretch and uh the Twinkle Toes, the Pigeon, the Carrier Pigeon and I'm forgetting if there's another one, but they they did do that.

[00:18:47]They did What about Swat and Mr. Bug that No, they didn't do that one. By the time that, you know, that that Mr. Bug came out, they were basically gone. They were The studio was gone. They were doing just Superman and Popeye and then Blackie [clears throat] Sheep and that's about it. Yeah.

[00:19:05]Spunky Hunky They brought Spunky back.

[00:19:08]Hunky and Spunky.

[00:19:10]Are we going to show those next year?

[00:19:12]>> No. I'm good.

[00:19:13]>> [laughter] >> We're going to We're going to go to another subject, I think, next year. All right here in the middle.

[00:19:24]Hey, gentlemen. How did they lay the soundtrack Mhm. for the all the Fleischer How did they make soundtracks?

[00:19:31]>> How did they lay the How did they have the ad-lib soundtrack?

[00:19:34]So much was ad-libbed.

[00:19:36]Oh, yeah.

[00:19:38]Um What's the process? Yeah, the the earlier ones, and again, Tommy, if somebody wants to correct me, please do.

[00:19:43]The the the earlier ones, they post, right? They post up them uh the cartoons. They They roughly knew what they wanted the characters to say.

[00:19:50]Obviously, [clears throat] they something with lip sync, but they were really going to They would pre-record.

[00:19:55]Uh Fleischers I I think they they people knew in general that that's what they did. In terms of the the ad-lib aspect of it, which why the Popeyes um are particularly noted for that, in my opinion, was because of Jack Mercer.

[00:20:10]Mercer was part of the storytelling. And when he's watching the screen, he knows what's going to happen next. So, a lot of times, if you listen to the soundtrack from from that point of view, he's just describing like what's going to happen in the next scene. And it's uh it's it's Anyway, that's it you know, That's one of the things that makes Popeye cartoons Yeah.

[00:20:30]Um Do you really Betty Boops, it looks like Do you remember Clutch Cargo?

[00:20:34]>> [clears throat] [laughter] >> They superimposed the live-action lips.

[00:20:38]These are the worst cartoons ever made.

[00:20:39]They are all cartoons. My show my show, yeah. You show anything, Jerry. Yes, I do.

[00:20:44]>> [laughter] >> But was that what they did with Betty?

[00:20:47]They had live-action lips on her? I mean, no, it's >> [laughter] >> Tommy, My right here. Okay. It looks that way.

[00:20:54]Live-action lips? No, they had live-action performers, you know, like Cab Calloway and things. Well, you know, I'll show you what I mean.

[00:21:00]>> What's interesting is that looking a lot recently at the the '40s and '50s Popeye cartoons, um '50s cartoons are going to be restored if anyone cares. Um, the they actually try to do the the the ad-living thing, kind of. They sort of fake it. They like what they do is they have Jack Mercer say some funny lines and they don't animate it. They they he's just his mouth isn't moving.

[00:21:26]>> [clears throat] >> It's like a fake version of what people remembered that Popeye used to do.

[00:21:31]Anyway.

[00:21:32]You can't fake spontaneity. This is a Greenberg. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, I asked [laughter] Jane Fleischer about that. The words coming out of their mouths they start moving. What did she say? I asked her if they paid by [laughter] the word if he's adding extra words to the to the She She felt that they were thought balloons like in a comic strip.

[00:21:58]Okay. Which is kind of interesting.

[00:22:00]>> Like Snoopy. Yeah. Yeah. So she thought they were thought balloons.

[00:22:04]I don't know if maybe Mercers getting paid by the word so he's adding some words here. That's not Was the ad-libbing accident and something that happened in an early cartoon and then they just kept doing it?

[00:22:14]>> No, I think that the the the the performers are watching the film.

[00:22:17]They're looking at it and you always hear Mae Questel say, "Oh, that's cute or it's adorable." You know, and other and other things. They're like it's almost like they're reacting to it.

[00:22:25]Almost Mystery Science Theater style, you know.

[00:22:29]Anybody else?

[00:22:31]Yeah, we have one back here.

[00:22:37]How How far into the animation world First of all, thank you.

[00:22:42]Did they insert the live action to save on animation time?

[00:22:47]I know they did that early on, but it seemed even some of the later ones there was live action where you wouldn't have expected it. The animation was sophisticated, but there were still live action people in it. Was that just the style or Well, I I mean I'm I'm not sure. I don't think they they inserted live action uh necessarily for economy reasons. I think that was a an entertaining film by doing that. You know, they made the film Well, you know, what would be good entertainment. Um You know, >> thought that they inserted the live action to do less animation with such a heavy schedule. By the way, that's Screen Songs normally Screen Songs have a cartoon then the song and then they go back into a cartoon.

[00:23:29]>> That doesn't go back into a >> back to those title cards.

[00:23:32]>> Oh, that's true, which is funnier than any >> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:23:36]If you didn't enjoy tonight, we don't care. I mean, >> [laughter] >> Screen Songs are definitely in some ways cheaters in their way, you know, but this the ones in the '30s are very very so entertaining that, you know, I mean, I've I Who thinks about that, you know?

[00:23:51]>> They called it the famous bouncing ball.

[00:23:53]How famous was it? When did they start When did How Whenever you've seen anywhere a bouncing ball that isn't from a Paramount thing, they're ripping Paramount off. I don't know if it's a trademark thing. Yeah, it's a trademark thing. It's It was only in the Max Fleischer cartoons. There were many you know, sing-alongs with the bouncing balls.

[00:24:13]>> Right. Yeah. And in fact, they they kept doing it in the '40s. Famous continued >> kept doing it. And they did it in the '50s. They even made one in the 1960s.

[00:24:23]>> [clears throat] >> Which one? Which one? The Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club No, it was What was it called? It's in the Running Out of Me TV tunes now. It's about a hobo. Hobo's Holiday, that's the name of it. Oh, real hit film. It's with the Big Rock Candy Mountain is the song in it.

[00:24:38]Is that too much information?

[00:24:41]>> [laughter] >> A question about something obscure? Big Rock Candy Mountain is the song, not the hobo. Okay. We have a question in the front. Okay, we're going to just Jerry's got an early flight to make it fast.

[00:24:52]>> [laughter] >> I know you guys' opinions on Robert Altman's Popeye and Oh, don't get me started.

[00:24:59]>> [laughter] >> You know, I have a a question about Altman's Popeye.

[00:25:03]>> Oh god, I Which I think is like the worst movie ever made. I [laughter] don't know. Yeah, I actually feel the same way. The thing is Altman's the problem with that film. I Feifer did the script, and he's a major Popeye fan.

[00:25:15]>> Well, I got a He wrote the score for the music, and he's great. And the casting is fantastic. I mean, can you imagine a world with better olive oil?

[00:25:23]>> Yeah. You know. And even in Robin Williams' performance >> Yeah, but it's just God, I think but I actually talked to Fleischer Feifer.

[00:25:31]>> [clears throat] >> Right? Very shortly before he died in Sag Harbor. My friend was showing it at the Sag Harbor Cinema, and and I knew Feifer a little bit, and we were talking about Popeye, and I was talking about the Fleischer. They were terrible, the Fleischer cartoons. Oh, no. I think but Because he's into the comic strips.

[00:25:47]>> No, I think because he's into the comics, I think he might have been thinking of the later Maybe. later. No, he did not like the Fleischer the early Fleischer cartoons.

[00:25:58]Okay.

[00:25:59]We said our piece about Altman's Popeye.

[00:26:02]>> [laughter] >> Anybody like Altman's Popeye? Yes.

[00:26:06]>> [applause] >> All right.

[00:26:08]Sorry. [laughter] What? Ray Walston's great as Pappy.

[00:26:12]Yeah, Ray Walston, yeah. Perfect.

[00:26:14]There's a lot of good elements. The casting is perfect. Yeah. What about It's Altman's Altman's direction is the problem. Yeah. Yeah. I think you kind of felt like you were stoned when you were watching it.

[00:26:23]>> [laughter] >> Well, that's probably I I didn't get stoned at that screening.

[00:26:30]We did a show here in this part called Fleischer Head Cartoons.

[00:26:34]>> Right.

[00:26:35]But we don't allow smoking in the theater, so But we allowed it for that one.

[00:26:42]Anybody One more. How about one more great question?

[00:26:45]>> Let's coax a question out of We got somebody over here.

[00:26:50]Why did they stop doing the 3D effect?

[00:26:54]Uh that as I said earlier that Stone Age cartoon is one of the last uses.

[00:26:59]Um about 1940. It's if you've seen Mr. Bug Goes to Town the opening titles while the credits are on behind it they they did the 3D effect for the New York City uh as a 3D dimensional thing. But they had the patent at the Why did they Why did they stop doing it? I think it was just that was a cost-cutting thing I'm sure.

[00:27:18]But they they actually have the patent at the beginning of all the Supermans but we didn't really get to That's the same thing. I wonder if that opening shot of Mr. Bug was meant to be Metropolis.

[00:27:28]Impossible.

[00:27:31]I've always thought that.

[00:27:33]Well, if you don't know I don't know what [laughter] to do.

[00:27:35]Okay, well thank you Jerry Beck. ALL RIGHT.

[00:27:38]>> [screaming] >> THANK YOU.

[00:27:42]THANK YOU BRUCE.

[00:27:43]>> [applause] >> THANK YOU. SEE YOU NEXT YEAR. NEXT YEAR.