Fleischer Cartoons: Greatest Hits, Volume 1 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.5

Fleischer Cartoons: Greatest Hits, Volume 1 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 25, 2026

The triumphs and tribulations of the Fleischer family would make for an excellent biopic or miniseries, and in that regard, some smart screenwriter might conceivably want to begin what conceivably could be a multi generational tale with the coopting of Fleischer Studios that resulted in both a name change and production ethos in the early forties. That very "evolution" was fairly recently addressed and aggregated by ClassicFlix with their Famous Studios Champion Collection. As is briefly summarized in my Famous Studios Champion Collection Blu- ray review by that point (i.e., the early forties) the hugely ambitious Fleischer Brothers had fallen out with each other, and had also fallen heavily into debt courtesy of features like Mr. Bug Goes to Town (still kind of frustratingly unavailable on Blu-ray despite having been announced at one point). That situation provided a relatively easy "in" for Paramount, already in partnership with the Fleischers for distribution services, to pretty much simply subsume Fleischer Studios and rebrand them Famous Studios, with both the Fleischers either voluntarily or involuntarily sent packing. The actual Fleischer Studios animated output has been reasonably well served in the Blu-ray era, with "official" label releases including Gaiam's Max Fleischer's Superman (a newer and apparently at least somewhat better looking Warner Brothers release has since become available), and a whole series of Blu-rays from Olive Films beginning with Betty Boop: The Essential Collection: Volume 1. Warner Archive's own series beginning with Popeye the Sailor: The 1940s, Volume 1 is understandably from the Famous Studios era, but Steve Stanchfield's "home office" Thunderbean label has released Popeye Original Classics in Technicolor covering the Fleischer years, and Thunderbean also released Fleischer Classics Featuring Gulliver's Travels, which includes the Fleischers' obvious attempt to duplicate the feature film success of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs along with several other charming Fleischer short subjects.

Unlike the Famous Studios collection linked to above, it's quite likely that most people picking up this collection will have much greater familiarity with some of the "stars" of these shorts than they conceivably would have with the (ostensibly?) Famous cohort, and this set includes such legends as Betty Boop (in both her dog and human forms), Popeye and Superman. As alluded to in the above summary of the end of Fleischer and beginning of Famous, these shorts are earlier productions than those found in the Famous collection, and unlike the earlier Blu-ray, the bulk of these cartoons are in black and white, something that perhaps only makes the assorted Technicolor outings included here pop all the more by virtue of comparison. As with the earlier disc, one of the highlights is a series of really fun and informative commentary tracks on almost all of the shorts where a number of experts help to point out the efforts of individual artists assigned to various productions.

This collection includes the following shorts (some of which have had prior 1080 releases on some of the above linked discs):

• 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)

There's some especially interesting material offered in this first volume, with both Fleischer Brothers appearing in some of the charming Out of the Inkwell shorts which combine animation with live action or at least stills that move around, and the Mills Brothers providing a vocalese accompaniment to Dinah.

Fleischer Cartoons: Greatest Hits, Volume 1 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Fleischer Cartoons Greatest Hits Volume 1 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of a consortium including ClassicFlix, Cartoon Logic and Fabulous Fleischer Cartoons Restored with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in a variety of aspect ratios all hovering around Academy Ratio (some of the earliest productions are somewhat narrower, as was the norm at the time). The back cover states these shorts are "restored in 4K, largely from original studio negatives", and the keepcase insert also offers the following information on Fabulous Fleischer Cartoons Restored:

Max Fleischer and his company, Fleischer Studios, made nearly 700 cartoons and shorts between 1919 and 1942. Fleischer created the iconic Betty Boop, and was the first to animate Popeye and Superman. However, there is no comprehensive library of his work.

In 2021, Fleischer's granddaughter, Jane Fleischer Reid, formed Fabulous Fleischer Cartoon restored to create such a library by searching out the best film elements from around the world. To date, with her team and producer Mauricio Alvarado, Jane has restored over 130 cartoon, with many more to come.

A collection like this spanning decades and source elements can't help but have a somewhat heterogeneous appearance at times, but taken as a whole this is another pretty impressive looking set. There are still a number of age related wear and tear blemishes that can be spotted, including nicks, scratches, and even a hair or two, and the black and white features in particular can show occasional variability in clarity and grain structure. Contrast is typically strong and consistent throughout the offerings. The Technicolor shorts are quite expressive, with both Christmas Comes But Once a Year and Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves offering some especially vibrant hues.

Fleischer Cartoons: Greatest Hits, Volume 1 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Fleischer Cartoons Greatest Hits Volume 1 features DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono tracks on all the sound features with their original soundtracks, and newly created piano scores for the silents. There's noticeable fluctuation in how full bodied the tracks sound with regard to the older, archival tracks and the newly (or at least more newly) done tracks for the silents, but all of the sound features offer reasonable fidelity if often a pretty boxy and thin sound, especially in the midrange and low end. A lot of the sound short prominently feature some enjoyable music. Optional English subtitles are available.

Fleischer Cartoons: Greatest Hits, Volume 1 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentaries are offered on almost all of the shorts by a revolving cast of knowledgeable folks, including Paul Dini, Will Friedwald, Bob Jaques, Charlie Judkins, Mark Kausler, Thad Komorowski, Leonard Maltin, Ray Pointer and Rob Waldman.


• Credits (HD; 00:54)

The keepcase insert has an inner print with information on all of the shorts.

Fleischer Cartoons: Greatest Hits, Volume 1 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Could you imagine a deftly written scene in any Fleischer Family biopic or miniseries with an avuncular if dismissive Walt Disney and a compliant if perhaps quietly seething Richard Fleischer having an early meeting about Fleischer fils possibly directing 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea? There's probably no arguing that the Fleischer Brothers gave Disney a definite run for his money (and artistic development), and these early shorts are at times actually a bit more reminiscent of later Warner Brothers efforts in their almost surreal leanings. While this is an incredibly appealing collection, vis a vis the comments above that "there is no comprehensive library" of the Fleischers' work, some fans may have wished for a more organized collection, as in something chronological or character based. Otherwise, though, this first volume offers especially appealing video and decent archival audio and some nicely informative commentaries. Highly recommended.