Paul Dini

Joe Gall

Rick Gehr

Michael Brosnan

Documentary profiling the life and career of Filmation Studios founder Lou Scheimer. As told by Lou himself, his daughter and his colleagues, we learn how he pioneered the animation industry in the &apos;70s and &apos;80s, for better or wor...

&quot;Animation Maverick: The Lou Scheimer Story&quot; (2008) is a 40-minute documentary recounting the history of Filmation, the Los Angeles-based animation production company run by Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott that revolutionized Saturday morning cartoon programming from 1965-1987. They were the first to produce animated television versions of the DC superheroes after they were awarded the contract to do &quot;Superman&quot; in 1965 and went on to do many more superhero cartoons as well as adaptations of Tarzan, the Lone Ranger, Zorro, Flash Gordon, Archie, Fat Albert and Star Trek. Scheimer and his daughter, Erika, who also worked at the company, are interviewed extensively as are numerous writers, animators and directors who worked at Filmation. Some of the names, like Paul Dini, will be familiar to longtime fans of animated versions of comic books. The chief director at Filmation, Hal Sutherland, is also interviewed extensively. Many of these personnel went on to work at other key animation companies (Warner, Marvel, DIC, etc.) in the years since Filmation was disbanded.

Filmation was the last American TV animation company to do its entire production at its own studio-in-house in one building-rather than outsource the animation to cheaper overseas companies. What&apos;s stressed here is the family atmosphere that producer Lou Scheimer encouraged and the collaborative rather than competitive nature of their working style. Different departments freely consulted each other and shared ideas. At one point, 875 people were employed there. There is some discussion of the animation techniques employed to be able to maintain an intense production schedule of so many weekly TV shows over 20 years.

There are brief clips from some of the DC superhero shows, but none from &quot;Star Trek&quot; or any of the other non-DC productions, since this was produced by Warner Bros. Entertainment, which owns DC. The cost of licensing clips from King Features (Flash Gordon) or Paramount (Star Trek) would have been prohibitive. This piece was evidently produced as an extra for one of the Filmation DVD releases around 2008, although I don&apos;t know which one.

Since this chapter of TV animation history was little-known to me, I found this story quite a revelation and was pleased to discover another, similarly- themed DVD extra, &quot;The Magic of Filmation,&quot; directed by Andy Mangels, a 33-minute documentary with even more former personnel interviewed, that doesn&apos;t appear to be listed anywhere on IMDB.

"Animation Maverick: The Lou Scheimer Story" (2008) is a 40-minute documentary recounting the history of Filmation, the Los Angeles-based animation production company run by Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott that revolutionized Saturday morning cartoon programming from 1965-1987. They were the first to produce animated television versions of the DC superheroes after they were awarded the contract to do "Superman" in 1965 and went on to do many more superhero cartoons as well as adaptations of Tarzan, the Lone Ranger, Zorro, Flash Gordon, Archie, Fat Albert and Star Trek. Scheimer and his daughter, Erika, who also worked at the company, are interviewed extensively as are numerous writers, animators and directors who worked at Filmation. Some of the names, like Paul Dini, will be familiar to longtime fans of animated versions of comic books. The chief director at Filmation, Hal Sutherland, is also interviewed extensively. Many of these personnel went on to work at other key animation companies (Warner, Marvel, DIC, etc.) in the years since Filmation was disbanded.

Filmation was the last American TV animation company to do its entire production at its own studio-in-house in one building-rather than outsource the animation to cheaper overseas companies. What's stressed here is the family atmosphere that producer Lou Scheimer encouraged and the collaborative rather than competitive nature of their working style. Different departments freely consulted each other and shared ideas. At one point, 875 people were employed there. There is some discussion of the animation techniques employed to be able to maintain an intense production schedule of so many weekly TV shows over 20 years.

There are brief clips from some of the DC superhero shows, but none from "Star Trek" or any of the other non-DC productions, since this was produced by Warner Bros. Entertainment, which owns DC. The cost of licensing clips from King Features (Flash Gordon) or Paramount (Star Trek) would have been prohibitive. This piece was evidently produced as an extra for one of the Filmation DVD releases around 2008, although I don't know which one.

Since this chapter of TV animation history was little-known to me, I found this story quite a revelation and was pleased to discover another, similarly- themed DVD extra, "The Magic of Filmation," directed by Andy Mangels, a 33-minute documentary with even more former personnel interviewed, that doesn't appear to be listed anywhere on IMDB.

Documentary profiling the life and career of Filmation Studios founder Lou Scheimer. As told by Lou himself, his daughter and his colleagues, we learn how he pioneered the animation industry in the '70s and '80s, for better or worse, based on his responsibilities to himself, his employees, the audience and the future of television animation.

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Animation Maverick: The Lou Scheimer Story

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