Although there are still a few exceptions and holdouts, the vast majority of movies, cartoons and other cinema and broadcast content today is shot digitally. In the 20th century, though, digital wasn’t really much of a thing. At least, not until we got right to the very end of the century. Most movies and even cartoons back then were created on film or later recorded to film for use in movie theatres.

The problem with film, though, is that it degrades over time. Depending on the material the film’s made of, that degradation can happen quite quickly, too, causing many films to become quite rare. In this video, Norm from Tested takes a visit to see Steve Stanchfield at Blackhawk Films to see how old films – in this case, cartoons by Max Fleischer, animator of Superman, Popeye, Betty Boop and more – are cleaned and restored.

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