How a 100-Year-Old Animated Film Is Restored!
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- Опубліковано 14 гру 2022
- In a century of animated cinema, the importance of animator Max Fleischer cannot be overstated. Fleischer created Betty Boop, produced the original Popeye and Superman cartoons, and also invented the Rotoscope. Fabulous Fleischer Cartoons Restored is on a mission to restore the films of Max Fleischer from original prints and negatives. We visited the team and restoration expert Steve Stanchfield at Blackhawk Films, a film scanning facility in Southern California to learn about the restoration process and watch a classic Koko the Clown short brought back to life.
Watch restored Fleischer cartoons at / @fleischertoons
Fleischer Toons - www.fleischertoons.com / @fleischertoons
Steve Stanchfield - Thunderbean Animation thunderbeanshop.com/
Film Preservation Associates, Inc. Blackhawk Films - www.fpa-blackhawk.com
Mauricio Alvarado - www.rockinpins.com / rockinpins
Mark Kausler - www.imdb.com/name/nm0442483/
Shot and edited by Josh Self
Music by Jinglepunks
Additional video courtesy Fabulous Fleischer Cartoons Restored and in public domain
Films seen here
The Mechanical Monsters (1941) - www.imdb.com/title/tt0033888/
The Fortune Teller (1923) - www.imdb.com/title/tt0014057/
The Cartoon Factory (1924) - www.imdb.com/title/tt0014763/
Koko's Earth Control (1928) - www.imdb.com/title/tt0136320/
Christmas Comes but Once a Year (1936) - www.imdb.com/title/tt0027446/
The Birthday (1922) - www.imdb.com/title/tt0012943/
Sinbad the Sailor Dir. Ub Iwerks - www.imdb.com/title/tt0027002/
Cobweb Hotel (1936) - www.imdb.com/title/tt0027453/
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Intro bumper by Abe Dieckman
Thanks for watching!
#animation #cartoon #restoration - Наука та технологія
Watch restored Fleischer cartoons at www.youtube.com/@FleischerToons/
www.fleischertoons.com
Mauricio Alvarado - www.rockinpins.com instagram.com/RockinPins
Steve Stanchfield - Thunderbean Animation thunderbeanshop.com/
Film Preservation Associates, Inc. Blackhawk Films - www.fpa-blackhawk.com
Mark Kausler - www.imdb.com/name/nm0442483/
Awesome video!
I'm curious, would speaking with Kodak like Dustin did at SmarterEveryDay be useful at all with the film restoration process? Kodak knows so much about making film that I'm sure some of their knowledge is invaluable. I'm still watching this entire video but just a thought before I finish watching it in its entirety.
@@dsnitely Obviously, since Kodak essentially invented the medium, beginning with George Eastman's "flexible" celluloid motion picture film, that would be the place to go. If you want the facts, go to the experts. While there is a lot of information on the Internet (some good, a lot not good), it is no substitute for going to the most credible sources. Eastman House is one of them.
thanks for the quick info. :)
now i'm curious about the audio on film after seeing those lines on the side, and wondering how the film projectors back in the day read and played the audio, why audio tape was never invented earlier, or even if people used film projectors for playing music.
I love how, while discussing how rare and fragile the film is, he's just casually unraveling it into a pile.
Haha, reminds me of ua-cam.com/video/pnsizkVjGm8/v-deo.html
hahaha true
Better than folding it
lol
It’s fine to do that if you’re very experienced in film handling. What’s not actually as common is using white gloves.
Thank you for sharing this. My grandmother was one of the ink girls at Fliescher animation in Miami Beach in the 1930s. I’ve been a fan since I was a kid. These restorations are amazing. I love sharing this stuff with my own son. My grandmother passed away at 101 a 2 years ago.
We have a full behind the scenes video of the Florida Fleischer Studios on our channel. Maybe your grandma is there!
@@FleischerToons I’ll take a look. We just made a donation of family photos and documents to the Florida archives. There’s at least one letter which mentions the Fleischer family asking after my grandmother after she married my grandfather. There’s also also a program from an animation showing in Miami, maybe 20 years ago, featuring an interview with my grandmother as one of the last surviving employees of the Miami studio. We also have years of her original artwork.
Thank you very much for the response. I’ll take a look.
@@jonathanlyons1411 let’s connect! We are focused on highlighting all the amazing people who worked at the studio. Would love to let people know about your grandmothers time at the studio! Amazing
@@FleischerToons I’d love that!
@@FleischerToons wow, UA-cam comment sections can actually connect people irl??? Wtf
If you can smile while talking about the monotony of your job, in describing the pain-staking process and minute time-consuming details then this is a job you love!
You can just hear the passion in his voice and see it in his eyes
Dreams are made when one can make a living doing what they love
It's the same working in the animation field. As as was stated here, having an animation background is helpful in doing this work.
Years back I wrote a dissertation about remastering animated films to HD, with a particular focus on how Disney were approaching it. Researching about all their colour correction and digital noise reduction and seeing how much they reselling films where they'd just _butchered_ the picture quality... it was pretty depressing.
Exactly!! Their remaster of Cinderella is especially horrible. It looks so needlessly airbrushed, and it loses all the charm of the original. Plus the recoloring to match modern branding is... eugh
Is there a chance to be able to read your dissertation, please? It sounds fascinating!
I'm not surprised to hear that they screwed that up. They worship the god of shareholder value.
Some of their restorations are really good, which always confuses me why they can't get it right all of the time.
They have black and white tri-chrome backup prints! That's so clever!!!
It still is depressing... Disney is one of the WORST offenders in this regard. And they also trace a lot of their old work and basically revision the living heck out of it, SO MUCH so they are basically entirely new movies that have nothing in common anymore with the original theatrical releases. And they also censor a lot too.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about film collecting is finding any lost material not found in other archives. (Could be original titles, lost scenes, or full lost cartoons even)
That’s what makes this so much fun!
Wow I never knew old cartoons were supposed to look that good, I always just thought the quality we saw was how they were originally drawn. That perspective change of the orphanage at 0:53 is just stunning.
This is the point being driven here. Poor video reproductions from poor 16mm copies are not a true reflection of the original film. The impact of this was always seen during the RARE occasions when Fleischer retrospectives were staged in theaters and real 35mm prints were shown. Unfortunately these screenings were in select cities. So the rest of the country did not have the privilege of seeing the real, or should I say "reel" experience. At the same time, this is a realization of just how much better the technology was than what most people have seen for several decades. So this is the purpose of this mission.
That’s a physical model filmed in stop motion.
It makes it look so modern
it kinda makes sense that it was the reproduction's fault for having bad quality. Only the original tapes should have the best quality, which are most likely gone or too damaged.
@@misham6547 Agree, looks so modern. If you don't know it is old, you'll never think it is.
Thank you Tested team!!!🎞️💜
I'm old enough to remember watching these cartoons on local TV stations, in black and white, back in the 1960s. Then, they were 'only' 40 years old. Even to a little kid, the flow and variety of animation techniques in Fleischer cartoons was mesmerizing to my siblings and I. Even then, the copies that got shown were in rough shape when compared to Warner Brothers and others, but they were somehow more alive. I'm really glad to know they're bring restored, and restored with love.
The Warner brothers cartoons where in horrible condition in the 60s and 70s .The frames where dirty the color was bad
@@nightisright1873 No doubt, but the Fleischer's were, in my recollection, worse. They were typically older, too.
As a kid I didn't like the look of many of the old 30's and 40's cartoons. Now, here, seeing how they look restored, they look great. So much better.
@@dbfry1449 они выглядят слишком резко, компьютерно, безжизненно, по-цифровому. В них нет души.
Wait.. In 60's you have 40??
So.. Now 2023 at least you will have 103 years old??
Steve was one of my animation professors, great guy, loves animation and his passion and energy is infectious haha!
Same, learned so much from him!
I also had him as a professor. His class on the history of animation was unique and was a highlight of my day.
Wow, you are so lucky to have learned from him! Just from watching this, his deep sense of appreciation and care is so inspiring. It's obvious he respects these wonderful artists of the past so much, and also cares tremendously that people in the future don't lose out on the chance to experience it too!
Funny because he reminds me of my animation teacher a lot. Same mannerisms!
Thanks for making the efforts of Steve Stanchfield go viral. He is one of the true heroes of animation history, the guy who’s in the trenches and doing the actual work that should’ve been done years ago. Ditto for Mark Kausler.
And thank you Thad for being part of our restoration team! 🍻
My grandad was a cinema projectionist when he was young. He said that he had to quickly repair film by gluing it back together and keep the film running.
Well, that may have been an exaggeration. I was a Projectionist while going to college in the 1970s. It couldn't happen quite like that. And the film wasn't that fragile. Prints held up for multiple showings and could be circulated to other theaters so long as a qualified Projectionist was handling the films. That's why the Unions trained people.
@@RayPointerChannelMaybe the film was polyester? The wonderful material that when something sticks, ruins the movie and projector.
The clarity and detail difference between the original and the restoration is insane. Looks like new =o
Probably better than new
You're seeing the difference between two different prints: an unrestored 16mm print and a restored 35mm print. A true before-after comparison would show only the 35mm print.
It's insane how detailed each frame was after being cleaned
Yes, it's a meticulous process, requiring one to go through frame-by-frame in the same manner as shooting the cartoon was in a general sense.
It's amazing seeing old films being restored and then being made available for people to watch again.
And the point is to make them enjoyable to watch and appreciate their beauty that is lost in poor reproductions. This applies to both the picture and sound, which done right are remarkably good and a tribute to the state of the technology of the time.
You couldn't know how good the timing of this video is!!!! Some weeks ago, I watched a compilation/pseudo-documentary about early animation my mom had saved on her DVR for me at her house, much of which was about Max Fleischer's early work (Folks, regardless of resolution, some of the work is STUNNING!). Any day now I'll be setting up her new cable box which {fingers crossed} is supposed to enable streaming content, and this will be one of the first videos I'll go to in her training of how to navigate UA-cam.
Blessed be and Happy Yule!
"Accessibility is everything." Really some words to live by.
Around 25 years ago (or maybe longer) a TV station here in the UK showed a lot of the black and white Fleischer Popeye cartoons, and I remember being amazed at the quality of the animation - no shooting on twos like the made for TV stuff. They were also really funny, made before animation became synonymous with children's entertainment, they were aimed at a general audience. I'd like to see them again.
The Internet Archive has tons of the old cartoons and animations. Definately worth a look
Up through the '40s (I think) the Motion Picture Exhibitors Association required studios to supply a minimum-six-minute cartoon with every feature, so cartoons had to be made to entertain the whole audience, not just kids. This is per Chuck Jones' book "Chuck Amuck." The result was an amazing body of work in an art form that hadn't existed at all a generation before.
One of the reasons for the fluid animation in Fleischer cartoons is the general policy of animating on ones. But they did use twos and threes at times. Threes and fours were possible as the Inbetweens got closer together. The Production Manual states that as the spacing becomes as close as a pencil line width, increasing exposures to three and four frames could be used to produce an extended "graceful" Cushion to a Hold Pose.
These animators ought to be preserved in the highest regard. They brought entertainment through a painstaking art.
Yes, that is one the the major reasons for this.
Mark Kausler, the guy with long hair there, is a pretty incredible animator in his own right
Those restos look so great, they deserve broadcast on TV because they completely overturn the assumption that old toons were fuzzy and rough things. The public needs to know.
I love the fleischer stuff. I stumbled upon a superman dvd on a discount bin in my early 20s while working at an hmv and was instantly hooked. I grew up seeing Popeye and Betty book but had no idea of the history and the other things they did. The youtube channel has great stuff including educational stuff on physics and relativity as it was understood at the time. Amazing to watch.
It's a fascinating history. In fact it's been written about. Check UA-cam.
I've only ever done audio restoration (lot of fun), so seeing the tools and techniques used to restore video is just incredible. Archivists are the best, I love every second of everything you do guys.
Norm asked great questions, and Steve gave thoughtful answers. Very cool.
Very interesting video! I'd love to see more of these sorts of "industry visits" type videos on the channel.
the work done by this company is truly special, for me the history of film is very important.
I love how they're scanning the film on a $1M+ scanner, and then fixing dust and scratches on a 10-year old iMac.
Business on the front, budget cuts on the back
Not good.
Always enjoyable to see someone so passionate about what they do.
This is awesome! So interesting. I had no idea they could look this good again. 👏👏👏
They can if you can access original printing elements.
This reminds me of the "how people make things" videos that Mister Rogers used to show on Picture Picture
i grew up watching fleischer's Superman and popeye cartoons on DVDs! crazy to finally learn where they came from!
You grew up with DVDs? You must be young.
@@uncled39 i’m 21!
Seeing old toons like this restored brings a tear of joy to this lady’s eye.
i just finished a great semester with steve, and i will tell you all he is exactly like this in class! laidback and enthusiastic about animation, it's really cool seeing him talk about this!
Media archival is such an artsy industry. Specialty Archivists like these really are passionate about their craft.
This is awesome, and it’s so great to see Norm in front of the camera after a few weeks!
Absolutely amazing! Who could believe that they get something so great out of poor copies of old films? I grew up watching those junky copies, and now I’m looking forward to viewing them as they were meant to be seen.
Thank goodness for people like this.
Awesome look at old film restoration and digitization.
Shoutouts to Fleischer restorations! 🎉
Nice Video thanks for sharing norm sir and very happy christmas.
Steve Stanchfield is truly the patron saint of lost cartoons.
Absolutely the best segment I saw on this channel in a long time! Thank you
Just amazing! Thanks for sharing this video!
What a treat it is to see this restoration process. I love to see old and rare films get new life like this. Everyone go check out your local arthouse theater!
Wow I love these old cartoons, it’s amazing to see them so crisp and vibrant!
awwwww yisss, PLEASE make more "How it's done" sorts of vids! Showing off how unusual arts are pulled off! Restoration is SUPER interesting to me, and I know so little about it. Similarly to the 3D scan of Adam's compact manual computer, there MUST be people out there doing jobs that would be super interesting to investigate and bring to a wider audience. This is just such a great thing - it's Cinema Magic! And what could be more on-brand for Adam and Tested?? :)
This was really insightful. I'm a big fan of the Fleischers cartoons and I feel good knowing that their legacy is in safe hands with your responsible restoration efforts
The fact that you guys are covering this is so kind and appreciated! Animation deserves more love and so do these amazing ppl who work so hard to preserve its history
I have no doubt whatsoever that Nicolas was thrilled to have his work shown, appreciated, and recognized. But I also have a feeling he would have been happier if people were watching and talking over his shoulder for so long while he was (presumably actually) working.
All of that aside, this is a beautifully constructed look at the detailed work these art restorers.
That is amazing! Thank you, Norm and crew for a real joy!
I always wanted to learn how to clean films so much history watching these films being watched and now they're learning to preserve them for years to come.
In the mid 70s, I worked for an exhibitor.
He had connections to a much more connected gentleman who lent him several Russian Epics and cartoons.
He had me cleaning and repairing them just like the man inspecting and repairing the film in the video.
All the films were on metal reels. If I came to a section that had all the sprocket holes torn off, I would cut the damaged ares out and splice it back together. If sprocket holes had a split on the outside edge, I'd trim it like he did cutting two 45 deg angles so it wouldn't catch on the sprocket wheels. Very tedious work, and the cleaning fluid required ventilation.
He never did let me sit and watch them though. They looked interesting with casts of literally hundreds or thousands of extras.
Thanks for sharing this, Norm. This was fabulous.
Not just film, but so much TV has been lost to time after original broadcast. The World's longest running sci-fi show - DOCTOR WHO - is missing 96 x 25 minute episodes from the 1960s. The BBC used 16mm prints to distribute the show around the world. Some may still be out there in private collectors hands, or possibly in tv archives, but fewer and fewer discoveries are happening now we're so far removed from those broadcasts. Bringing this to the public's attention is great news for all.
I LOVE Max Flesicher cartoons
So the soundtrack was originally a physical track added to a film reel 🤯 Etymology is fascinating
Yes, it was a 1930 reissue by Alfred Weiss, who took over Fleischer's Out of the Inkwell Films, Inc. company when it was in financial trouble in 1927 and gained ownership of the films held at the lab. These included a number of OUT OF THE INKWELL and Bouncing Ball Song Films from the silent era.
It still is. The "barcode" style seen here is the Western Electric variable density type. RCA had a competing style called variable area with a clear stripe that varied in width, looking like the top edges of a phonograph groove. There was a 3rd system from a German company. Eventually they ironed out their differences and cross licensed patents - then developed projectors that could decode sound from all three styles. Eventually the RCA system became THE system. When stereo sound came to film, it was easy to put two RCA stripes into the same area used by the single stripe for mono.
Then in the 1950's magnetic recording came to film with a magnetic strip along with the optical tracks, which were kept for theaters that hadn't upgraded their projection equipment for the magnetic audio.
@@greggv8 The German system had a kind of noise gate, so the frequency response was up to 9 or 10 kHz, so the advantages of magnetic sound weren't so extremely.
@@greggv8 When the Variable Area and Variable Density methods were in competing use, there was no need for develop equipment for their playback. They both could be run on optical sound heads since they both were based on the same principle of photographed sound waves shown into a photo electric cell connected to an amplifier. One (Western Electric) was similar the the concept of FM (frequency modulation), the other (RCA Photophone) AM(amplitude modulation). The RCA method was more critical in its playback in that the scanning had to be more precise in its horizontal positioning. If not, distortion would occur due to being "off asmuth."
Really enjoyed the video. I just watched one of the restorations and was blown away by not just the quality of the animation but also the sound. Wish you'd gotten more into that side but wow.
One of the pleasures of this channel is meeting people who express such passion in what they do. Always inspiring to watch!
I've always loved the Fleischer Superman and Popeye cartoons, they just have such beautiful color and animation styles to them that you don't see today. I grew up watching reruns of them in the 80s and its a joy to see them being restored so lovingly and preserved for future generations to enjoy.
Wow! I started scanning films earlier this year with a scanner built with 3D printed parts. This video is inspiring because handling film is real. It’s a physical thing that turns into something visual. Amazing to see top end equipment being used and the amazing results you’re getting. Thank you for saving these classics. What is interesting to me is that people watch scanned films and have no idea how those images came to be a video. And tp the commenter who said he was casually unrolling the film onto a table, the table was clean, he was wearing gloves, and when you roll it back onto the reel it never gets tangled. It’s experience in play. Incidentally, early projectors took film off of a reel and dropped it into a large can that looked like a trash can. It was then rewound back onto the reel.
This would be one of the few things I'd pay a slight premium on. Obviously a ton of work goes into this and the content is something I want to see in its original state.
Wow, what a great insight! Love seeing Steve's enthusiasm and passion for the restroom process, including the way that modern technology is helping to preserve things that would otherwise be lost to time. And the fact that he practically smiles all the time he's speaking - it's infectious!
Thanks for making this video! So cool to see passionate people caring about old animation restoration.
I enjoy watching Film Restorations as much as I enjoy watching the Films. Thank you for this video.
@4:00 "look at this damaged film" *throws the film all over the metal case*
That's leader film, meant to be handled unravelled for threading and checking the beginning of the real footage. It's not the cartoon footage further into the roll. These are professionals handling the material.
I had a VHS copy of this growing, up. The nostalgia hit hard just now!
Now THIS is good content. Lovely work being done over at Blackhawk. Thanks for covering it, Tested and Norm!
first thing this reminded me of was the team that scanned the previously unseen apollo 11 65-70mm film footage for use in the 50th anniversary documentary. I have huge respect for the people who are able to restore these old film reels for public to enjoy before they're lost.
Good to see Mark Kausler. I’ve worked with him on several animation projects throughout the years. He was an old timer when I started in animation.
Now I’m an old timer.
Maybe I should bring them our family’s original 16mm Mickey Mouse film from 1932, The Grocery Boy to have them restore.
That's incredible! This is a very important thing to preserve film history. Beautiful
I remember seeing those Superman cartoons from the 40's on VHS when I was a kid, the restoration of that cartoon in particular was outstanding.
I just love the sound of that Superman intro. That 1940s stuff always has a thing
You can see the love they have for film. Love it!!! Great little video!
Those superman films are amazing!
This is great for many reasons. But I think best reason is that these creators from years ago who wrote and had passion for their work isn't lost media and can continue to get the love it deserves. Cool video. ^_^
This kind of stuff is totally my jam! More film restoration videos please!
I love this video so much. Seeing physical media come to life again is wonderful.
Super interesting! Would love to watch more of this project
Check out our channel for more Fleischer cartoons!
Adam, I really appreciated this video as a look into the Lasergraphic scanning process. Several years ago, I connected with a lab that takes amateur films for my family’s 16mm home movies and my wife’s family 8mm films, both going back to the early 50’s. The lab uses a Lasergraphics scanner, and the resulting 2K files, once I learned rudimentary color grading in Final Cut Pro, were amazing. This video was a neat look for us behind the scenes, and I wish the folks involved in the Max Fleischer restoration all the best in their efforts.
Kudos to the people who help preserve past history.
That crispness and stability brings the animation to a new level. I couldn't believe how it looked.
I first herd about film restoration and salvation in the documentary WHEN COMEDY WAS KING. That was about 1959. It's good to know that somebody is out there trying to save the old stuff.
Absolutely amazing! I love that these guys are caring for the old Fleischer cartoons.
I grew up with one of the Superman cartoons on DVD, and I loved every frame of them! I probably still have that DVD somewhere...
Great guy he really likes showing films to everyone that is awesome
LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS! Especially how they discuss not cleaning it up too much. They could vectorize it and add extra frames and blah blah blah, but it would lose the character of what it is.
I would absolutely love a job restoring old cartoons.
It's fascinating, painstaking, and exciting process that results in great satisfaction. And because of that, you want to share your efforts with the world, not just because you did it, but because of what has been restored for all to enjoy. THAT is, or should be the reason why we do this. It's not just about ourselves.
I like how in true Mythbusters fashion, it took a while but eventually the main show included co-hosts. I know Norman's been in it for a while but it's great that Adam can still keep the episodes coming without needing to worry if it is being properly shot. Great autonomy in the cast.
Awesome work these people do. Thank you.
I grew up watching Popeye (my favorite) and watching the Superman cartoon and listening to the Superman old time radio program. Even though they were from a generation or two before me, even at a young age I had an appreciation for old school media. Even today I watch old movies and listen to old time radio on my phone and on 88.5 WAMU every Sunday night.
Fleischer was as big a genius as Disney, maybe bigger. I remember seeing as a child his take on Gulliver's travels and being completely enraptured by it.
Hey guys, mr. Stanchfield just happens to be my elder cousin an he's always been someone who I looked up to. His mannerisms an his wealth of information when it comes to film comes from a life long passion that he has for it. I remember being at our Cottage when I was very little, and my big cousin Steve would bring his projector and all his cool cartoons and we would spend the evenings watching old Popeye cartoons. I think my favorite was the pincushion man, a horrifying cartoon at today's standards but it was pretty cool when I was a kid
I loved those years and still think about running all those old movies!
Loved seeing and hearing about this 👍🏼 thank you 🤘🏼🇺🇲
Those restored films are amazing. In addition to clean up of dust and dirt there is colour correction. I'm amazed by how crisp are the cleaned up images.
The look in Stanchfield's eyes when he's talking speaks volumes
This guy looks so passionate about his job. I love it. You can see that he really loves this stuff
I was so afraid by the title and the first few frames this would be one it those poppy clout chasing animation history videos, but instead this is a caring and amazing look at restoration that is saving American cultural history and a brilliant industry look at the process of saving an actual 100 year old film. So glad I clicked. This is what fantastic content is.
Thanks sir Max Fleischer for pioneering animation and thus paving the way for Astro Boy and the first anime.
God bless.
This was awesome! I’d love to see the process for digitizing and restoring the optical soundtrack band.
Excellent thanks for this insightful presentation
I had noticed that the that some of the old cartoons were quite dark as a child. I am glad to see that they can be restored so that we can see what the animators had actually intended to show us.