https://www.fleischerstudios.com/ray.htm
Few people, very few people, can approach this book as an informed critic.
I can.
Why?
Because in my archive at The CineForum in Toronto is just about every film produced by Max and Dave Fleischer.
Their films lie scattered today. Most will probably not get a proper restoration unless more is known about them.
Words on paper are important but nothing equals seeing the films themselves with a paying audience not of academics and scholars but by ordinary folks.
Why ordinary folks?
Because they are the people these films were made for.
The best books I read make me more interested in their subject.
They make me want to know more.
This book does that.
The worst book bar none on the Max Fleischer Studio is that of G. Michael Dobbs.
I’m not saying don’t read it.
I am saying that this book I have only been able to read with great difficulty.
Dobbs writes that as he was unable to interest a publisher he at last published the book himself.
As I struggle with his book it is easy to see why why he was turned down.
This is a slapdash work desperately in need of a proof reader.
At first glance it looks good but when I try to read it I have to work overtime to correct in my mind the errors on the page.
Dobbs has published a second volume which is now available in The United States but not in Canada. A friend in the U.S. is getting it for me.
Leslie Carbaga’s THE FLEISCHER STORY is a wonderful intro to both books.
Dobb’s book is a terrible disservice to its subject and to its readers.
Why? Because it takes a very forgiving and patient reader to read it.
No one should have to put this much work into reading anything.
Ray Pointer is aptly named. He points the way.
Come by The CineForum in Toronto to see the films you can’t see on a BIG screen elsewhere.
The really good news is that Jane Fleischer, Mauricio Alvardo and Ray Pointer are working to restore the Fleischer films.
I am told one animation historian said of this news, “Bullshit.”
That’s a shame.
That is really the crux of the problem. Too many “respected authorities” say, “Bullshit.”
The best fertilizer is made from bullshit.
“Thad Komorowski informs me he is the supervisor of the restoration on these films”
No bullshit, Thad’s the best. Those films are in good hands.
From the get-go the Max Fleischer films fertilized the imaginations of those who saw them.
Don’t take my word for it.
Come by The CineForum in Toronto and see for yourself.
A classroom is the worst place to learn.
“Film students should stay as far away as possible from film schools and film teachers. The only school for the cinema is the cinema. The best cinema is the Paris Cinemathque. The best teacher is Henri Langlois.”-Bernardo Bertolucci.
My work in Toronto was inspired by the student riots protesting the removal of Henri Langlois from the Paris Cinematheque in 1968.
I thought I could go there or do what he is doing there in Toronto.
For more on that Read David Mamet’s books TRUE AND FALSE and BAMBI VS. GODZILLA.
-Reg Hartt 2024–05–13.
lhttps://academymuseumstore.org/products/the-art-and-inventions-of-max-fleischer
Animation Historian Ray Pointer Discusses His Book “The Art and Inventions Of Max Fleischer”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CnDA3EpPsh-/
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