Our favorite Studios

[Duck Dodgers]

Which are your favorite Cartoon Studios ? And in what order? I'll give you my list with explanations later----

[Sogturtle]

Favorite cartoon studios, theatrical ones that is... From tip-top downwards...

Warner Bros.
MGM
DePatie-Freleng
Ub Iwerks
Walter Lantz
Columbia-Mintz-Screen Gems
Max Fleischer/Terrytoons [tied due to Max's short period in sound]
Disney
Van Beuren [ooooops forgot them:o ]
Famous
UPA
Hanna-Barbera (Loopy de Loop)

U.S. non-theatrical but foreign theatrical
Bob Clampett--Beany And Cecil

Every studio had strengths, and some had marked weaknesses as well.:)

[FleischerFan]

Fleischer (yeah, not too tough to guess based on my user name) - Popeye & Betty Boop remain my favorite cartoon series. The Superman series remains the best adaptation of that character to film.

Disney - Of course, the classic features as well as the early Mickey Mouse, Silly Symphonies, & Goofy cartoons.

Warner Brothers - Daffy Duck, the great Cartoon-American. All those characters, all those great shorts. Avery, Clampett, Jones & Freleng - The Beatles of American cartoon directors.

M-G-M - Where Avery did his best work. Early Tom & Jerry. Beautiful and underrated cartoons from Harman-Ising.

Pixar - Yet to make a bad movie

Van Bueren - As close to the Fleischer style without being the Fleischer Studios.

[Thad]

The top 5 are...

Warners
MGM
Disney
Lantz
Fleischer

I'm basing it on hit-and-miss factor with me. Warners obviously is indisputable as the top of them. MGM proved it's possible to only have one regular character series be your bread-and-butter, and when you have Tex Avery in the director's chair as well, your cartoons can give the Warner guys a run for their money.

Disney takes third place because of its '[Insert preferred character here] versus cute mammal/insect' formula being the norm for about a decade. Their 1930s shorts are the most entertaining all around, Dick Kinney's scripts are usually hilarious, and all of the animated features Walt was involved with have something of merit, and the whole, are arguably a better representation of the studio than the shorts are.

Lantz probably would have beat out Disney on my list if it hadn't been for Paul Smith being in the director's chair for so long. But their 1940s shorts are the some of the best ever done, and Avery, Don Patterson, Alex Lovy, Jack Hannah, and Sid Marcus' shorts are all highly entertaining as well.

Fleischer takes fifth because of them ruining a great thing by replacing Betty Boop with Pudgy. The pre-code Talkartoons and Boop shorts I've seen though are great. Oh and the sailor shorts are probably the most perfect cartoons ever done.

The rest I guess would go like this...


Screen Gems: A handful of Fox & Crows and their one-shots are better than anything coming from the East Coast.

Famous: Their 40s shorts are pretty innovative, and I've always had a soft spot for Herman & Katnip and Baby Huey.

Terrytoons: People say there's more to them than Heckle & Jeckle... But if that's all they did, history would sure as hell be kinder on the studio!

UPA: Sorry, but I don't go for the artsy-fartsy stuff... Their Fox & Crows and early Magoos are great though.

DePatie-Freleng: They arguably had the best theatrical shorts of the 1960s. But they just plain stink compared to anything done in the 40s or 50s!

[Ray Pointer]

While the studios on my list have already been mendioned, I'm sure it should come as no surprise which one is my number one favorite.:tweety:

[ohmahaaha]

My favorites are in order:

1) Walt Disney
2) Warner Brothers
3) Pixar
4) MGM
5) Fleischer

I love all 5 but to me Disney is far and away in it's # 1 position for sheer volume of both shorts AND features, and with consistent high quality for many many years. "You can't touch this."

[Jack G.]

I'm generally thinking in the short subject category during cartoons golden age here. Disney was pretty much the only one that did feature films that succeeded.

OK, let's go-

Warner - Their at the top for me. Lots of great talent, characters, and a style of humor that still holds up.

MGM - The best series that relied on a formula (cat chases mouse). And they've got the best cartoon gag director of all time.

Fleischer - This is the studio with the best stuff that was an alternative to the Disney thing (before Warner got their direction). Love the surreal elements and those rubbery drawings. Unfortunatly the Disney influence began to creep in later years and you can't beat someone else at their own game.

Disney - Their thirties efforts, when Walt kept pushing his artists for more and to experiment was their best period for me. Walt pushed animation higher and as a result, other studios had to push too.

UPA - These guys were very influential on all cartoons in the 50's. Artsy Fartsy? Well, I guess I really like the experimentation that went on. As long as it's not pretentious.

DePatie-Freleng - The 1960s Pink Panthers were great. Love the post UPA backgrounds. Love the surreal elements.

The silent years: I put Felix the Cat on top for this period. Loved the surreal elements (notice a pattern here?:D ). What was the studio's official name? Pat Sullivan Studio?

Lantz - The 1940's Woody Woodpecker are great.

[frizfrelengfan]

Favorite three:

WB - the greatest cartoon studio ever!
Fleischer - Pioneers and experimenters
MGM - Beautiful productions, and Tex Avery's best work
Not a big fan of the Disney shorts (love their animated features). I like what I've seen of Ub Iwerks, Van Beuren, and Scrappy, but not enough to list them as favorites.

[Jack G.]

I like what I've seen of Ub Iwerks, Van Beuren, and Scrappy, but not enough to list them as favorites.
Yeah there's a few special cartoons at Van Beuren and Irwerks. And the Little Match Girl at Mintz/Screen Gems. But on the whole most of the work needs, well... work!:D

[MF TOON]

Fleischer
Disney
Lantz
Warner
MGM
UPA
Celebrity Productions
Van Beuren
Terrytoons
Columbia
Paramount

[Sultan]

3rd place goes to Fleischer studios. Most Fleischer 'toons I have watched have been Popeye, but I have also seen and somewhat enjoyed Betty Boop cartoons, and other scattered Fleisccher cartoons. During the thirties they were Disney's main competitor. While they did not have the budget or prestige as Disney did, they still consistently churned out amazingly entertaining and well-crafted cartoons. The studio was also very experimental, they originated rotoscoping and setback backgrounds, and the first to convincingly mix the animation and live action world in their Out of the Inkwell series. But Popeye cartoons are by far their greatest achievement. What's good about Popeye is that all the Fleischer Popeye's are all equally great. Whenever it's title card says a Max Fleischer Cartoon and Popeye the Sailor, you know you are in for a good time.


4th place goes to Walt Disney Studios. This is the studio that popularized talking cartoons, animated features, created the most poular cartoon characters ever including Mickey Mouse, who went on to be a cultural symbol of the United States, Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto, Chip and Dale and others. WDS is probably the most important cartoon studio in the history of animation (if Mickey Mouse hadn't been created, American cartoons, and even American culture would probably be very different today), and even the world today in general would be different. Thr golden age of Disney short subjects cartoons was by far the thirties, when it completely dominated the market. Every cartoon Academy Award for Best Cartoon in the decade (including the first ever award for Best Cartoon which went to Flowers and Trees, in 1932 also the first ever three strip technicolor cartoon to my knowledge.), Disney also created the wildly popular three little pigs which greatly affected American culture during the Great Depression and made people feel better about themselves and there dire situation. Disney was then the "prestige" studio and everyone was imitating them to some degree. The popularity (not to say they weren't popular during that time period, they still had a great amount of influence in American culture, and characters like Donald Duck were still very populat) and quality of their theatrical short subjects later waned when they put more energy into their animated features, and when edgier more wacky cartoons were becoming in vogue. Also Donald Duck and Goofy became bigger stars than Mickey Mouse. Occasionally they attempted to imitate the edgier style but to me it didn't really work. Also during that time Disney comics seemed to make the characters more interesting than in the theatrical cartoons. To me in the fourties, the non-Donald cartoons seemed to be somewhat boring and bland at times, but they did have their moments. Also, unlike other studios they gave up making theatrical short subjects a good time earlier than other studios. Towards the end of Disney's short subject theatrical run the cartoons were becoming more avant garde and UPA-ish, and also Mickey Mouse cartoons were not even being made. During that time even his pal Pluto was more popular than him. But they still were very well respected, and their Humphrey the Bear series was later ripped of by Hannah Barbera in the much more well known Yogi Bear series. And all through the thirties fourties and fifties, they had a virtual monopoly over the animated feature business, and there was the studios forte. To me, though, the Mickey Mouse black and whites from the twenties and thirties will always be the studios best, and some of the best cartoons ever made.

2nd place goes to MGM. MGM studios was behind the great Tom and Jerry series. While Cat and Mouse cartoons was an old concept, they made a series out of it, not a one shot, so they could do many creative variations on the theme and many hillarious gags. Also, MGM was the home of Tex Avery, who was probably the best animation director. He created characters like Red, Droopy, that Wolf, and Screwy Squirrel. Here is where Avery was at his best.

1st goes to Warner Brothers. The reason I consider them the best is because of the sheer number of consistently great cartoons, over 100 between 1930 and 1969) the very memorable characters, and home to the greatest cartoon directors ever, my favorites being in order Friz Freleng, Bob Clampett, Bob McKimson, Chuck Jones). While they didn't have the budget of studios like Disney and MGM they had brilliant writing, great animation and brilliant timing. They are the epitome of the Hollywood cartoon.

Honorable mention goes to Lantz, who I think have probably the most visually appealing character designs in the business and DePatie Freleng, innovative, well crafted cartoons.

[Toonami]

1. MGM: Tex Avery let loose here, he's my favourite director, and he cahnged history at MGM. #1 for humor.
2. Warner Bros: The best characters and Bob Clampett's run was second only to Tex. Everyone at this stuido was a genius, it's amazing. #1 for characters.
3. Fleischer: I love their Popeye and Superman cartoons! Fleischer was a genius, and not only that, he was also an inventor
4. Walter Lantz: This man knew cartoons! Woody Woodpecker and Andy Panda, along wiht chilly Willy, great characters, great animation, great all around studio!
5. Famous: I love their Popeye and Superman cartoons!

[Cartman]

My top five:

Warner
Disney
Fleischer
MGM
Lantz

[GarudaBoy!]

*Fleischer
*Fleischer
*Fleischer
*Schlesinger (not "Warner Bros.", I feel like the magic was lost after Leon sold the studio. Sure, Chuck Jones made many of his better films after 1944, but the studio's output as a whole became more stiff and not quite as "looney" as those 1938-1944 films)
*MGM, 1940-1955
*Walter Lantz
*Hanna-Barbera, pre-1972 (if TV studios count)
*Famous Studios, pre-1948
*Walt Disney, pre-1942
*(did I mention Fleischer?)

[Duck Dodgers]

WB- I think no explanation is needed here.

MGM- My favorite cartoon series detailing the antics of a certain cat and mouse duo, plus a decade and more of genuine nuttines provided by one of the greatest directors of all times. Also, some enjoyable ( very very rarely)good cartoons by Harman-Ising.

DISNEY- Terrific features, such as PINOCCHIO, DUMBO,THE ADVENTURES OF ICHABOD AND MR. TOAD, ALICE IN WONDERLAND and some of the best animated shorts ever made ( expecially during the Thirties- early Forties and ,most expecially some cartoons with a certain trio and other one-shots), but they also did some great cartoons in the Fifties too!

FLEISCHERS- They killed themselves when they tried to emulate Disney, but during the Thirties they were my favorite studios with Talkartoons, Screen Songs, Betty Boop and Popeye. In the Forties they produced the Superman series and it was their last hit.

LANTZ- Why so low in my list? Only because they did not add any innovation to animation, like Disney or Flesichers did.
However they created some of the funniest cartoons ever made and elevated to stardom some strange and uncommon animals ( like a woodpecker, a panda, a walrus and a buzzard ).

UPA- some of the most innovative cartoons ever made, and the Mr. Magoo series too!

TERRYTOONS- Sometimes they did very great cartoons ( FARMER AL FALFA'S APE GIRL; PINK ELEPHANTS; A BATTLE ROYAL; MIGHTY MOUSE AND THE PIRATES ) but they did mostly repetitive and annoying cartoons.
But certain sequences in some cartoons are wonderfully animated ( like the many dancing female mice in the first Mighty Mouse cartoons, such as KRAKATOA, GYPSY LIFE, THE SULTAN'S BIRTHDAY...)

COLUMBIA/SCREEN GEMS: some good cartoons, a masterpiece, " The Little Match Girl" and, during a short period, some of the funniest cartoons ever made, like " The Tangled Anger", " Wolf Chases Pigs", " The Fox and the Grapes"..... ( thanks, Tish-Tash! )

VAN BEUREN- a cult studio. Some interesting and strange cartoons from here.....

[Larry T]

1. Warner Brothers - timeless humour, fantastic talent, and just plain entertaining cartoons.... and a track record that spanned for years... even when other studios were just testing out the waters, WB's early stuff is funny.

2. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - Mostly for the Tom and Jerry cartoons, again these are timeless and beautiful. Avery coming onboard added icing to the already delicious cake.

3. Universal/Lantz - I don't care what anyone else thinks, I love watching these cartoons. Starting from about 1936, moving consecutively, you never know what you'll get (until about the late 50's/early 60's, and even then, there's a standard of visual quality Lantz cartoons maintained that got left behind by other studios). Their Swing Symphonies are some of the best cartoons ever made. Plus, you also get this animation 'buffet', since Universal was kind of like the 'revolving door' of animation studios, so lots of talent helped to keep the output fresh.

4. Max Fleischer Studios They went the direction that suited them, and the cartoons stand out for that reason. Whenever I want to watch a completely mind-bending cartoon, I pull out one of the Talkartoons from the early 30s. Betty is my favourite female character of all time, and you can't beat the laugh-out-loud violence factor and visual 'punch' of the Popeye cartoons. Plus, even studios of today cannot capture the sheer substance of the Superman cartoons.

5. Paramount/ Famous Studios - Like Thad, I have a soft spot for Baby Huey and Little Audrey. Plus, since I appreciate music so much, I also really like the Screen Songs. Even though the cartoons can get somewhat repetitive and animated violence can be rather tasteless at times, they still end up in my top five.

Honorable Mention: UPA- I like the stylized artsy stuff- plus they ended up getting Bob Cannon from Warners.

Why didn't Disney rate in this list? Sure, they're beautiful to see, and had oodles of talented individuals work on them, but once I'm done watching a Disney cartoon, I pretty much forget about it unless it's one of the features (which I'm kind of leaving out because they're in a class all their own). I find them the kind of cartoons that simply enrapture me with animation awe while it's showing, but once it ends, I'm looking for a good-old WB or Lantz cartoon for a chaser.

[wundermild]

Here's my Top Five:

1. MGM because they had Tex. (And Tom & Jerry, too.)
1a. Warner Bros. because they had Chuck and Bob and Tish.
1b. Disney because they made Fantasia (and they made it all possible).
4. Fleischer because they made Snow-White.
5. UPA because they made Gerald McBoingBoing

[David Gerstein]

In order:

Warner Bros (didn't expect that from me, huh?) for a perfect synthesis of timing, wit, personality, music, and general creativity—not to mention a greater number of truly memorable star characters than any other studio. And with IMHO the singular exception of the Buddy era, the shorts were top class all the way from 1930-1960. Other studios had characters I might like more or equally golden ages, but nobody else's lasted that long.

Disney comes next, though arguably more for grooming talent than for actual quality of finished productions. Their true golden age for shorts, which I'd define as 1927-1942, was relatively brief; as early as 1936, character shorts grew toward an embarrassing reliance on nonverbal conflicts between a frustrated lead and something/someone smaller and/or cuter. No amount of good animation can hide the fact that other studios did conflict better than this, for all kinds of reasons.
Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy are still great characters, but they had (and have) more standout moments in the comics, if only because the form forces the characters to communicate with each other.
As an added note: Walt Disney knew talent when he saw it and assembled the ultimate directorial team—in 1927. Were it not for the famous split with Universal, it's safe to say that the WB, MGM, Lantz, and DePatie-Freleng studios as we know them would most likely not have existed.

I'd put MGM third. Tom and Jerry are a significant improvement on the Disney conflict formula; Tex Avery and Barney Bear had great moments, but there wasn't a lot of innovation or variation over the years, nor was the stable of stars particularly large (Tom, Jerry, Droopy, Barney... anyone else who lasted and wasn't someone else's supporting player?)

Fourth for Fleischer, who had an awesome golden age but didn't understand their strengths, pure and simple. Looking at the output, one finds that the onset of cuddly sweetness actually had very little to do with the Hays Code—though it's always invoked as the catch-all excuse. No dice.

Fifth goes Lantz, where the studio stable included marvelous characters and a number of directors accomplished fine things: Oswalds from 1929-32, Andys and Woodys from 1940-46, Chillys from 1954-56 really are good. But the studio also put out an incredible amount of material that, while not bad, just isn't as much fun to watch as other studios' output.
Extra negative points for Paul J. Smith, who seems to have willfully let many of the studio's great characters go unused for no obvious reason.

Columbia is sixth for me. Early on, their Krazy Kat and Scrappy were genuinely funny—occasionally beating Disney and Fleischer on their own terms. But the slide into mawkish cuteness is more severe than perhaps any other studio, and the attempts to do conflict cartoons in the 1940s rate many more misses than hits (the greatness of several Fox and Crows being the exception to the rule).

I'm fond of Iwerks, Van Beuren, and Sullivan too. But the first two didn't last long and had a rather hit-or-miss output; Sullivan, meanwhile, had the ineffable greatness that is Felix, but loses a lot of points for not producing anything else—and producing very little in the sound era, so I can't compare the product to anything made during animation's true golden age. If I were comparing studios in the 20s, Sullivan would come out first.

Finally Terry... Famous... I don't dislike all of the output (Farmer Al, Heckle and Jeckle, Buzzy the Crow are great), but in general for me they just rank below the others.

[Geezil]

Fleischer/Terrytoons/Lantz (irreversible tie)
Warner Bros.
Disney
MGM
Famous (1942-52)
Van Beuren
Ub Iwerks
UPA
Columbia/Screen Gems
All silent studios combined (another irreversible tie) (sorry, Tom) ;)

[dandu]

Fleisher
Warner Bros
Paramount
Silent Studios
Van Beuren
Disney

[Chow Hound]

Warner Brothers
Disney
MGM
Pixar
Fleischer

If not limited to theatrical cartoons:

Warner Brothers
Disney
MGM
Hanna-Barbera
Pixar
Fleischer

[Der Captain]

"Favorite" and "Best" are tw different things, but if you want favorites, here goes:

MGM: The home of Tom and Jerry, my favorite series. Also a great place for Tex Avery to go nuts in, and I still have a soft spot for several of the Captain and the Kids entries.

WARNERS: Can I say anything that hasn't already been said? It's the studio that needs no intro, so I'll move on.

UPA: It started out so great and then eventually did nothing but shove a very repetitive Magoo down our throats, but the fascination of it's early work (and the early Magoos) cannot be overlooked.

COLUMBIA: Because the films are so rare, and while most misfire, the hits make it all worthwhile, especially during the experimental period of the early 40's.

DISNEY: Another studio that needs no intro.

LANTZ: During the forties, under the control of Culhane and Lundy, Woody was Da Bomb!

FLEISCHER: For Betty and Popeye, and the Koko's I've seen, and plenty of odd films like "The Herring Murder Case." Unfortunately they tried to imitate Disney and went to sludge in the mid-thirties. I can't stand the Color Classics or the Superman shorts, but the Popeye's continued to be fun.

SULLIVAN: Silence is golden.

TERRYTOONS: For Heckle and for Jeckle. For a smattering of pleasant films and for the Gene Deitch work. If only Bill Weiss hadn't shortened his stay.

FAMOUS: Aw, give 'em some credit. They had some fun films in the forties.

UB IWERKS made a few nice flickers, so did VAN BORING, but not enough to make them all that interesting.

[Matt the Y]

My choices...

1) Warner Brothers - What else can I say? Truly the #1 best and most influential animation studio of all time. It was the studio that launched the talent that was Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, Frank Tashlin, Tex Avery, Carl Stalling, Treg Brown, and many others... an unbeatable combination... as well as the studio that launched Bugs Bunny, possibly the greatest cartoon character of any period.

2) Walter Lantz - Yes, I've actually selected Lantz for 2nd place. Why? Mostly because I consider them the most underrated studio of all time, a shame because they produced some truly great work. Woody Woodpecker is a favorite of mine and such cartoons as "Dig That Dog", "Freeloading Feline", "Smoked Hams", "Termites From Mars", and "Syncopated Sioux" are some of my favorite cartoons ever! And while I can admit that Paul J. Smith was not the greatest director, I actually do enjoy some of his work quite a bit (to wit: "Maw and Paw", "A Horse's Tale", "Bunco Busters", "Niagara Fools", "Kiddie League").

3) MGM - The closest WB ever actually come to having a true competitor. Seriously, the T&J shorts are mostly first-rate and Tex Avery, already a cartoon genius, gave us his best work at this studio. Even some of the lesser lights from this studio like Dick Lundy (who directed my favorite Barney Bear short, "The Little Wise Quacker") gave us some outstanding stuff.

4) Walt Disney - While these shorts will never match the hilarity of the WB shorts, I think this is a great studio also. The Disney one-shots were among the best of the business (stuff like "Education for Death", "Chicken Little", "The Pelican and the Snipe", and "Pigs is Pigs") and Jack Kinney, who spent the limelight of his career at this studio, is one of my all-time favorite cartoon directors (his Goofy shorts, particularly "Goofy's Glider", "How to Play Golf", "Hockey Homicide", "Hold That Pose", "How to Be a Detective", and "Father's Day Off" are prime favorites of mine).

5) DePatie-Freleng - As others have said, the best cartoon studio of the 1960's (and, let's face it, the 70's also). The early Pink Panther shorts directed by Freleng ("The Pink Phink", "Dial P For Pink", "Sink Pink", and "Pinkfinger") are instant classics. The other Panther shorts like "Pink Panzer", "Pink Punch", "Smile Pretty, Say Pink", "In the Pink", "Psychedelic Pink", "The Pink Package Plot", and "Pink Pest Control" are some of the funniest shorts I've seen from such a late era. The Inspector cartoons, I think, are also hilarious (particularly "The Great DeGaulle Stone Operation", "Napoleon Blown-Aparte", "Toulouse La Trick", "Les Miserobots", "French Freud", and "Pierre and Cottage Cheese") and other series such as Ant & Aardvark and Roland & Rattfink also have a fairly great track record. I agree that most of the stuff developed in the 1970's was pretty, um, misguided (Hoot Kloot, I agree, is terrible) but you just can't fault the studio for its' earlier work!

6) Famous/Paramount - Well, I am a little unimpressed by this studio to be honest. I've never really cared for Casper, and Herman & Katnip, while entertaining, are sometimes so painful and violent, it truly interferes with the humor. But the studio did some other great work with films such as "Right Off the Bat", "Crazytown", "Sleuth but Sure", and "Feast and Furious". I actually think that the studio's best work was the Popeye shorts which I find to be, by far, the studio's most entertaining films (particularly the early Dan Gordon-directed ones like "Seein' Red, White, 'N' Blue", "The Hungry Goat", and "Happy Birthdaze").

(Be warned... the following three studios I cannot judge as easily as I have hardly seen any of their output.)

7) UPA - I have not seen any of this studio's work with the exception of all of the Magoos, one Fox & Crow ("The Magic Fluke") and the two Pete Hothead cartoons. But I actually consider Mr. Magoo to be one of the most memorable and underrated cartoon characters and the earlier Magoo shorts such as "The Ragtime Bear", "Sloppy Jalopy", "Safety Spin", "Kangaroo Courting", "When Magoo Flew", and "Magoo Express" are the studio's best work, IMO (I also enjoy some of the later Magoo shorts such as "Magoo Goes West", "Bwana Magoo", and "Terror Faces Magoo").

8) Max Fleischer - Haven't seen much of this studio's work but, as with Paramount/Famous, I remember the Popeye shorts being the studio's best.

9) Terrytoons - Have not seen ANY of this studio's work save for a very precious few. Of all the major cartoon studios, the Terrytoons stuff was the hardest for me to access on television and any other medium. So I cannot honestly give this studio a decent assessment.

I apologize of my post sounds a little, well, long-winded but I like to give things a more clear assessment than other folks, I guess;) ...

[cbrubaker]

UB IWERKS made a few nice flickers, so did VAN BORING, but not enough to make them all that interesting.
You mean Van BEUREN?;) "Van Boring" was a comic-strip Frank Tashlin drew for newspapers. (the name was based on Beuren, though)

My list:

1. Warner Bros., of course
2. Tie between MGM and DePatie-Freleng
3. Walter Lantz
4. Fleischer

And these I haven't seen much:

4. UPA/Screen Gems
5. Terrytoons
6. Famous Studios

[Der Captain]

[QUOTE=cbrubaker]You mean Van BEUREN?;) "Van Boring" was a comic-strip Frank Tashlin drew for newspapers. (the name was based on Beuren, though)


I know. Me be humorous.

[Lee Glover]

Here's my top five:

1. Warner Bros (no surprise there! :p )
2. MGM (because of the fantastic Tex Avery & H-B Tom & Jerry cartoons)
3. Fleischer Studios (I love the surrealness of the Talkartoons and the early Betty Boop cartoons, plus the Popeye cartoons were one of the best 1930's cartoon series ever. Also, the studio produced the best animation in the early 30's)
4. Pat Sullivan Studios (The Felix cartoons were IMHO the most inventive in terms of animation metamorphosis and visual gags in the 1920's, and also Felix had a lot more personality than any other character in the same era)
5. Walter Lantz (He proved that a small studio and tiny budgets didn't prevent him coming up with some truly entertaining cartoons, especially the ones he produced in the 1940's)

My other favourites are Screen Gems and Van Beuren.

[Jeff Harris]

1) Schlesinger/Vitaphone/Warner Bros.: I remember reading that whenever Leon Schlesinger screened a new short, he always said "Roll the crap." Ladies and gentlemen, the finest crap ever produced on the face of the Earth, nary a bad one in the bunch. Led by a group of rebellious animators who left the house of mouse, they've made cartoons that still stand the test of time. Too bad their owners don't realize that anymore.

2) Fleischer Studios: Max and Dave ran a great studio that scared the censor boards, made a hard-hitting minor comic strip character into a national icon, and revolutionized the animation industry in ways never seen before. One could only guess if people would remember them if Gulliver's Travels came out months prior to Snow White.

3) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer: Three individuals, William Hanna, Joseph Barbera, and Fred "Tex" Avery, really changed the studio from a cookie-cutter Disneyesque shorts to wild and rambuncious shorts that, like their Warner Bros. counterparts, still make people laugh.

4) Walt Disney: They played it safe and even embraced the medium of television before any other Hollywood studio. By creating characters that have become global icons and setting the tone and templates by which all animated pictures would be made for generations, Disney has a strong animation history behind them.

5) Hanna-Barbera: What started out as a side project from a pair of Oscar-winning animators to produce titles for television has become one of the most recognized animation studios on the planet. By creating new characters inspired by characters in the pop culture, they ruled the television medium with shows like Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, The Flintstones, and Jonny Quest.

6) Jay Ward Productions: Yes, it's limited animation. VERY limited animation. But with the help of talented writers and visual artists, they created some of the smartest, funniest animated characters on the planet.

7) Walter Lantz Productions: Although not the most commercialized animated characters out there, the stable of characters that came out throughout the decades like Andy Panda, Chilly Willy, Maw and Paw, Inspector Willowby, and, of course, Woody Woodpecker have entertained the masses.

8) Depatie-Freleng: Though their work on the Pink Panther and the Inspector shorts was top-notch, the only reason I'm rating them so low is because of the work they did at Warner Bros, especially the very cheap-looking Road Runner shorts.

9) Terrytoons: I've only seen a handful of shorts, but what I've seen, I liked.

10) Famous/Paramount: The reason I ranked them so low is because they sold off a bunch of their characters to a comic book company and then they tried to replace them with carbon copies of them later on.

[gdX]

Hall of Fame

Warners -- go to the head of the class... 'nuff said.

Fleischer -- arguably the cartooniest cartoons ever made... shape-shifting anthropomorphs making their way through magic 3-D backgrounds... with great soundtracks to boot.

MGM -- not so far removed from WB, but a few dozen star characters less.

Lantz -- especially from the late 30s thru early 50s... fun-neee!

Disney -- firstest with the mostest... and those features (OK, not lately.)

Terrytoons -- yes, Terrytoons... maybe short on star power and stories, but these idiosyncratic cartoons look and sound like no other... and that was even before the addition of the subversive Tyer and Deitch.

Columbia -- fit right in with other Hollywood toons, despite scarcity of stars.

Iwerks -- not my fave, but there's nothing bad here.

Van Beuren -- see 'Iwerks'.

Sullivan -- historically important, and fun to watch.

Winsor McCay -- see 'Sullivan', but substitute 'monumental' for 'important'.

Pixar -- Truly great, but will they stand the test of time?


Yeah, but...

UPA -- though they didn't really start the high-art / limited animation trend, they were foremost in this regard... but as entertainment, a little UPA goes a long way.

Famous -- with the lone exception of a handful of Popeyes done early on in the transition (and those were truly great Popeye cartoons), everything else by that studio is unwatchable to me... note to Pixar: see what happens when takeovers occur.


TV, the dead end

If only John K could deliver product, I might have somerthing good to say about TV... as it is, there is only one cartoon that can rise from the putrid sewer that is 21st century television...

The Simpsons -- willya look at all the cheap imitations out there now?... and they'll all be gone and forgotten as Groening and Co. comfortably break the 20-season barrier... on the heels of solid writing.

[cbrubaker]

Depatie-Freleng: Though their work on the Pink Panther and the Inspector shorts was top-notch, the only reason I'm rating them so low is because of the work they did at Warner Bros, especially the very cheap-looking Road Runner shorts.
Well, don't be too hard on the Road Runner shorts. Those were actually done in Format Films (despite David and Friz's names in the producer's credit)

[Nelson]

Here is my favorite toon studios in correct order...

1.Warner Bros.
2.MGM
3.Disney
4.Terrytoons
5.Paramount(Fleischer & Famous)
6.Columbia
7.Lantz/Universal
8.DePatie-Freleng
9.Iwerks Studio
9.Sullivan Studio
10.UPA
11.Van Bueren

[Jeff Harris]

Well, don't be too hard on the Road Runner shorts. Those were actually done in Format Films (despite David and Friz's names in the producer's credit)Ah!

I see. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

Still, it's tantamount to Spielberg producing Baby Geniuses III: The Search For More Diapers.