Max and Dave: 1931 – More Bouncing Balls
One of the things most attractive about old cartoons is their music. The orchestra heard on Fleischer shorts during this period features some of New York’s finest studio musicians
One of the things most attractive about old cartoons is their music. The orchestra heard on Fleischer shorts during this period features some of New York’s finest studio musicians
Despite the fact the public’s tastes for musicals had waned, the Fleischer’s kept up with what they had done in the previous season.
The “Talkartoons” featured Bimbo, who went through much tweaking and development, changing his appearance markedly from cartoon to cartoon.
Even though many businesses were realizing that times were getting hard, this may not have been the case at the Max Fleischer studio.
Nobody knew how deep the depression would get – but in keeping spirits up, the Screen Songs continued and the ball kept bouncing.
This nice original NTA TV print is courtesy of Mark Kausler.
Max’s early talkie efforts concentrated upon a return to the “follow the bouncing ball” format, now referred to as “Screen Songs”.
Many of the films in today’s post continue to remain silent – until the 1929 output when Walt Disney took a giant leap forward against all of his competitors.
Most of the songs in this week’s post are either old standard favorites or popular songs of the ‘aughts or ‘teens, with something of a plurality of Irving Berlin songs.
During this period Fleischer was working to develop sound cartoons, which didn’t need to depend on dialogue, but to rely upon music and sound effects.