Seth MacFarlane to join hands with Scorcese to restore early 20th century animated films

Seth MacFarlane's Seth MacFarlane Foundation will partner with filmmaker Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation to restore animated short films from the 1920s to 1940s

The Family Guy maker, who is an alumni of animation of Rhode Island School of Design, says he is fascinated by animation as a child when he started to make drawings.

Lauding efforts of MacFarlane, Scorsese says he is grateful to his enthusiasm and support on these restorations. Scorsese describes it an "astonishing experience" to bring back the "remarkable pictures" to full glory that he experienced as a child.

Expressing his excitement over how children of today will react to these pictures, Scorsese said the films are fresh as though they were newly made.

Nine restoration shorts which will premiere at the 2024 TCM Classic Film Festival on April 20 are titled Back From the Ink: Restored Animated Shorts. Apart from two stop-motion animation shorts Puppetoons by George Pal and Terrytoon by Paul Terry, seven shorts directed by Dave Fleischer will be screened. The seven shorts by David Fleischer are: Koko’s Tattoo (1928), Little Nobody (1935), The Little Stranger (1936), Greedy Humpty Dumpty (1936), Peeping Penguins (1937), The Fresh Vegetable Mystery (1939), and So Does An Automobile (1939)