Sigmund Floyd

Sigmund Floyd (1899 - 2007), was an American film producer, director, and animator who worked on The Wackytoons series of short films.

Wackytoons and Rat Animation Inc.
In 1930 Floyd moved to Hollywood to work at Rat Animation Inc. on their Wackytoons series of cartoons but in 1933 he became a Part-Time Director starting with "Three Little Katz" which was co-directed by Art Davis. throughout the 1930's Floyd would be an animator and director for The Wackytoons series and by 1936 he became a Producer and in 1938 he would win an academy award for The Wackytoons short "The Hole" reaching an all-time high.

Sigmund Floyd and Hank Ketcham
In 1939, Floyd met Hank Ketcham who had moved to Rat Animation Inc. as an animator, Ketcham met Floyd while Floyd was in a room with Dick Huemer over the Production over Huemer's short "Back In The Bell" Huemer showed Floyd the animators and Floyd saw Ketcham animating a scene. The two became very good friends almost Immediately and by October of 1939 Floyd and Ketcham started directing a short called "The Kuckoo Clock" which was released in 1940. two years after the release of "The Kuckoo Clock" Floyd gave Ketcham a chance to direct on his own the result was 1942's "Victory for the Allies" from that point onward Ketcham would direct 90% percent of shorts on his own while on the latter 10% percent he would co-direct with Floyd.

The 90's, The Kuckoo Kat Show, The Kuckoo Kat Movie
During The 90's Rat Animation Inc. was not in a good position to be in, they had just gotten out of the 80's with abysmal shorts and the ones that weren't abysmal would rather times be mediocre or OK, the directors knew this and started retiring, Art Davis would direct his last short in 1995 "Sleep-Deprived Kat" a short were Kuckoo Kat is just going through the motions, despite all the troubles Sigmund Floyd still continued to work at Rat Animation Inc. overseeing the production of The Kuckoo Kat Movie (Released In 1998 and directed by John Musker) and animating a few episodes of The Kuckoo Kat Show all while still directing and animating Wackytoons shorts for theaters and even despite his old age.

The 2000's, The Mark Kausler-Jerry Beck Era
By The 2000's Rat Animation Inc's staff from the last eight decades was gone due to retirement or death, Sigmund Floyd still stayed around as the head of the studio, but he wasn't Directing, Animating or Producing anymore that went to Mark Kausler, Jerry Beck and Eric Goldberg who were now making the wackytoons shorts, though Floyd still animated on The Kuckoo Kat Show.

Final Years
By 2006, Rat Animation Inc. was very unstable despite the great animation that Mark Kausler and Eric Goldberg would do, they would only get on good gag and laugh per, cartoon, on January 29, 2007 Sigmund Floyd announced his retirement and would officially retire on April 30, 2007, and on December 30, 2007, Sigmund Floyd passed away.

The Final Years of Wackytoons
Jerry Beck the new head of staff along with his two directors/animators would try their best to keep the Spirit of Wackytoons alive but it just wasn't the same all the old staff was dead and all classic characters had been retired, Wackytoons had just become a series of one-off shorts with nothing to them in 2008 Rat Films Inc. decided to slash the budget of the Wackytoons shorts and move to flash a cheaper way to make cartoons than hand-drawn this would make nothing better as the shorts began getting negative reviews as the lavish rubbery animation by Mark Kausler and Eric Goldberg became very stiff and jerky. Finally in 2009 Rat Films Inc. decided to end the Wackytoons shorts and told Jerry Beck and his staff to complete the Wackytoons shorts they still had left in production the last four shorts they completed were "The Flying Car" "Rooster Duel", "Noodle Poodle" and "Future Fights" and after Future Fights Wackytoons was over.

After Wackytoons and The Last Few Months of Rat Animation Inc.
Though Wackytoons had ended doesn't mean Rat Animation Inc. would be closed yet Rat Films Inc. ordered the studio to do commercials for Pizza-Hut (not sponsored) Mark Kausler decided to leave after completing the first commercial in April 2009 Kausler was replaced by Bruce W. Smith. Eric Goldberg would do 5 and the get bored and leave in May 2009, he was replaced by Kirt Wise. Jerry Beck additionally hired 2 more animators Ron Clements and Glen Keane. Here was the staff of Rat Animation Inc. by August 2009 the Head of Staff and Producer/Director: Jerry Beck Animators: Bruce W. Smith, Kirt Wise, Ron Clements, Glen Keane. By March 2010 Rat Films Inc. decided they didn't need an Animation Studio anymore and told Jerry Beck to lay everyone off, but Rat Films Inc. kept the studio opened until spring of 2010. Jerry Beck would spend two months completing unfinished commercials left by the animators and after completing all of them on May 21, 2010, Rat Animation Inc. would shut down and Jerry had left the building in the afternoon and left a note saying "Please bulldoze I hated the last few months here" today the building stands abandoned with the things that are in the building are some model sheets, some cels and the note. Jerry Beck recalled in an interview that "That with Sigmund we at least turning out funny animation and one gag but when he retired all hell broke loose"

Aftermath, Rat Animation Plus (2010 - present)
After the closure of Rat Animation Inc. Rat Films Inc. decided to get rid of the Wackytoons shorts, they sold 50% of the shorts to Universal Pictures, 20% to Columbia Pictures, 30% to Paramount Pictures and Rat Films Inc. would keep the rest until 2017.

In 2013 Rat Films Inc. was bought out by Peterson Pictures and was renamed Peterson Television Inc. doing TV shows, in 2019 Peterson Television Inc. merged with the animation studio Peek! Animation and became Peek! Television Animation Inc.

In 2021, Universal Pictures, Columbia Pictures, and Paramount Pictures started a streaming service called Rat Animation Plus which had the Wackytoons shorts they owned, in 2022 Rat Animation Plus was renamed Sica Animation Plus.

On June 12, 2022 "Wackytoons: The Sigmund Floyd Collection" was released on DVD and Blu-Ray.