The Genius of Max Fleischer

The PopCulteer
June 12, 2026

FLEISCHER CARTOONS GREATEST HITS VOL 1
Blu Ray release
Approved and authorized by Fleischer Studios
Available in various packages from Rockin Pins
$27.99 – $34.99

I have been a fan of, and enthralled by, the animation produced by Max Fleischer since before I could walk. The incredible and innovative technical quality of the animation, combined with the boldly surreal sense of fun danger mixed with whimsy have stuck with me for my entire life, and played a big part in shaping my artistic sensibilities.

A little less than four years ago, The Alban Arts Center brought in The Fabulous Fleischer Cartoons Restored touring package of newly-restored Max Fleischer classics, and this was where I learned about the extensive restoration project that’s been going on for a few years now, where The Fleischer family and their renewed Fleischer Studios have teamed up with Rockin’ Pins to find and restore the best quality prints of these classic cartoons and bring them to a new audience.

It’s seriously mind-blowing that many of the dozens of cartoons that they’ve restored are over 100 years old. They hold up amazingly well. The cartoons blend influences as disparate as Harlem Jazz and Swing, European Dada and Surrealism, classic Screwball comic strips, Vaudeville, dance and post-industrial age science and engineering. The resulting cartoons are like nothing ever seen before or since.

Of course, Fleischer also brought Betty Boop, Popeye, Superman and Koko and Bimbo to the big screen.

After years of touring with collections of these beautifully-restored cartoons, Fleischer Studios has finally made them available to the buying public. For the first time on home video comes 20 restored cartoons from legendary animation pioneer Max Fleischer in Fleischer Cartoons – Greatest Hits, Volume 1.

I actually got my copy almost a month ago, but I was saving it until Mel and I had a free night to set aside to sit in a dark room and immerse ourselves in the delightful insanity of the Fleischer classics.

While we only get 20 of the restored cartoons (so far), there’s so much fantastic stuff here that I’d be glad to subscribe to future volumes in advance, just to make sure I get them. I know that several cartoons that were screened in Saint Albans are not on this disc. The 20 cartoons included are all gems.

This is a goldmine of the best animation that Hollywood ever produced. We get the first two (and the fourth) appearance of Betty Boop, along with three of her later cartoons. Plus we get several Out of the Inkwell cartoons with Koko The Clown, including the spectacularly disturbing “Koko’s Earth Control.”

Also included are one cartoon each starring Popeye and Superman, and the collection wraps up with Bimbo in “Swing You Sinners,” which is often in my personal top five of the greatest artistic achievements in the history of man.

Many of these cartoons are in the public domain, or will be in a year or two, and you can see heavily-edited really bad prints of some of them on YouTube, but this Blu Ray presents them fully restored in 4K, largely from the original studio negatives

Fleischer Cartoons – Greatest Hits, Volume 1 is a must-have for any true animation fan. Part of the proceeds will go to fund further restorations of these pioneering feats of animation.

The cartoons included on this disc are:

• Barnacle Bill (1930)
• Betty Boop and Grampy (1935)
• Betty Boop’s Crazy Inventions (1933)
• Betty in Blunderland (1934)
• Cartoon Factory (1924)
• Christmas Comes But Once a Year (1936)
• Dinah (1933)
• Dizzy Dishes (1930)
• The Fortune Teller (1923)
• Hot Dog (1930)
• Ko-Ko at the Circus (1926)
• Ko-Ko’s Earth Control (1928)
• Ko-Ko’s Haunted House (1928)
• A Language All My Own (1935)
• The Mechanical Monsters (1941)
• Mysterious Mose (1930)
• Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves (1937)
• Small Fry (1939)
• Somewhere In Dreamland (1936)
• Swing You Sinners! (1930)

Bonus material includes audio commentary by a roundtable of Fleischer experts: Paul Dini, Will Friedwald, Bob Jaques, Charlie Judkins, Mark Kausler, Thad Komorowski, Leonard Maltin, Ray Pointer and Rob Waldman.

“Christmas Comes But Once a Year,” part of which turned up (from a beat-up print) in the first RFC Christmas show in 2006

Longtime fans of PopCult and Radio Free Charleston are probably aware of my intense respect and admiration for these cartoons. Brief clips from at least two of the cartoons in this collection were seen in the RFC video show.

You should go buy your copy now. Remember, physical media is forever, but streaming can always dry up. You can get it at THIS LINK!

Check out this short documentary on the restoration process…

And that is this week’s PopCulteer. Check back for fresh content every day, and all our regular features.