The Seth MacFarlane Foundation, established by the creator of primetime animation hits Family Guy and American Dad!, is partnering with Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation to fund the latter org’s first-ever restoration of animated films. The project will tackle a curated selection of historically significant animated shorts from the 1920s-1940s.
The collection will include nine works by Max and Dave Fleischer, creators of Betty Boop and Koko the Clown — picked as much for their incorporation of early 20th century jazz tunes by the likes of Cab Calloway and Louis Armstrong as for their humor, distinctive style and popularity with moviegoers of the age. The project will also restore two stop-motion shorts by Puppetoons creator George Pal, as well as a Terrytoon produced by Paul Terry.
The films were selected and restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive and The Film Foundation, in collaboration with Paramount Pictures Archives. The 12 restorations funded by MacFarlane were completed using unique original pre-print elements and/or print sources, mostly nitrate, held at UCLA Film & Television Archive.
A program of nine restorations, Back From the Ink: Restored Animated Shorts, will premiere at the 2024 TCM Classic Film Festival on Saturday, April 20 at 6:30 p.m., with an in-person introduction by MacFarlane. The program will include seven shorts by Dave Fleischer: Koko’s Tattoo (1928), Little Nobody (1935), The Little Stranger (1936), Greedy Humpty Dumpty (1936), Peeping Penguins (1937), The Fresh Vegetable Mystery (1939) and So Does An Automobile (1939); the Terrytoon The Three Bears (1939) by Mannie Davis; and the Puppetoon Two-Gun Rusty (1944) by George Pal.
[Source: Deadline]
