How a Latino is protecting Gumby, Koko the Clown and Betty Boop

Mauricio Alvarado is making sure Koko the Clown, Betty Boop and Gumby don’t disappear.

He’s on a mission to restore classic animations by Max Fleischer, who started Fleischer Studios with his brother Dave in 1929, with the help of Fleischer’s granddaughter Jane Fleischer Reid. 

The two of them have worked on restorations since 2021 and have given over 120 cartoons a new life in 4K. There is still more work to be done to bring back 700 Fleischer cartoons for audiences to enjoy. 

Alvarado started protecting the love for classic cartoon characters by selling merchandise and establishing his small business Rockin Pins in 2017. 

The business sells licensed merchandise for various classic pop culture characters, music acts, bands, shows, and other fun interests.

King of the Hill merchandise was the most popular, but that spot was taken over by Koko the Clown. 

“It used to be the King of the Hill stuff, it might come back with the new series. But lately, it's all the Koko stuff; it's still going strong. As I keep showing new cartoons to people, I'm reintroducing them to new scenes or new characters, and then I'll make merch out of that,” Alvarado said. 

Over the last few years, clowns have become popular, thanks to with the “Terrifier” films, the new “It” movies, and other media that have been released. Nonetheless, the vintage clown look is back. 

If there’s one place that’s always had a love for clowns, that would be at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater, which just celebrated its 11th Bob Baker Day on Saturday, April 13, at Los Angeles State Historic Park.

Alvarado had a Rockin Pins booth at the event where he sold merch and met cool people who have a love for nostalgic cartoons. Some even had their own Gumby tattoos. 

Once Alvarado noticed Koko the Clown’s popularity was rising, he contacted Jane Fleischer Reid about where he could find more Koko cartoons for him and others to watch. After learning that the cartoons weren’t distributed and some were lost, the two partnered to bring them back for the public. 

The restoration project 

The Fleischers worked throughout the 1920s. They made silent cartoons and brought jazz to their cartoons, making. 

The animators made history multiple times. They were the first to make Superman fly in a short movie, which was even nominated for ​​the Short Subject (Cartoon) Oscar at the 14th Academy Awards in 1942. 

The studio was acquired by Paramount Pictures in the 1940s to distribute Fleischer films. 

The cartoons and films owned by Paramount are kept in a film vault at UCLA and are stored in a temperature-controlled climate storage facility. 

Alvarado explains the best case scenario for restorations as, “It's essentially asking them, ‘Hey, we want to restore these five films’. They send somebody to go pick them up and send them to their scanning facility. And then once they get them scanned, they send us the file, which is this huge file, a 4K file of the negative. What we do is essentially a sort of Photoshop. Each frame of the cartoon is being looked at and reviewed for dirt, for scratches, etc.”

“Once it's all cleaned up, they'll crop it so you don't see the outer edges or the peg bars. That's the cool thing about the raw scans, you see the full image of the original camera. They'll format that, they'll color, balance it, and then they'll make a 4K file, and that's pretty much it, but that's the best case scenario,” Alvarado continued. 

One of the worst case scenarios would be something like finding a Koko the Clown cartoon, not owned by Paramount, that isn’t properly preserved. If there’s nitrate deterioration, it can be difficult to restore it. 

“Maybe some frames are fully there. Some frames are not. What do we do? Do we patch it up? Sometimes we have to patch in some frames for this one, connected with this other one. But thankfully, that's been rare,” he said. Those are mostly with the Kokos, but all the ones that we're doing with Betty, or the color classics… those are, thankfully, at Paramount, they look gorgeous. And those we just easily format, color balance, we're good to go.,” Alvarado said. 

One of Alvarado’s favorite restorations is “Greedy Humpty Dumpty” (1936). He was able to view it at the UCLA Hammer Museum earlier this month as part of the UCLA Film & Television Archive screening series “Archive Treasures”. 

Out of the 12 restorations screened, nine were Fleischers. 

These restorations were funded by “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane, partnering with Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation and working with UCLA. 

Alvarado reached out to MacFarlane’s manager with the idea of bringing these animations back to life after seeing a picture of MacFarlane with the “Johnny Bravo” team from Cartoon Network, and saw a photo of Betty Boop in the background.  

That made Alvarado realize that if MacFarlane’s a fan of Betty Boop, he might be on board.

The screening of the restorations throughout the last few years have brought popularity and interest in the restorations. 

They have been shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, outside screenings and at events. Various Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas around the country will have showings at the end of April, including Los Angeles. Art Theater of Long Beach will be showing new 4K Betty Boop restorations on April 26 and 27. 

“It's not like we're just showing the same stuff over and over. Because we have so much material, we're able to do as many screenings as we can,” Alvarado said. 

There are plans to release a Blu-ray of the cartoons for people to own them in a physical copy and for those who wish to pass them down. 

Apart from working on Fleischer restorations, Alvarado also works for Gumby Central and is restoring Gumby cartoons also in 4K. 

“Like any cool thing, you just want to pass it along to the next person and show them how cool something is. Just to see what their reaction would be. It's all love for the people who care enough to share it with somebody else,” Alvarado said. 

He added, “Support the restoration or preservation of old media, because, you know, we wouldn't be where we are now if it weren't for all these great pioneers. And if we don't know our history, then we don't know how to move forward.”

To attend screenings or to attend events, follow Alvarado via Instagram on @rockinpins, @fleischertoons, and @GumbyCentral. 

“Support the restoration or preservation of old media, because, you know, we wouldn't be where we are now if it weren't for all these great pioneers. And if we don't know our history, then we don't know how to move forward,” Alvarado said.