Ko-Ko's Courtship

Max is in a rush today. He draws Ko-Ko's feet, pulls the rest of him from the inkwell, and tells the office boy to rush him to the studio. Then he tells Fitz to follow and make sure he doesn't dally. But the boy does dally, with a young girl with an ice cream cone, and Ko-Ko decides to show him how to court in the park. Fitz, of course, interferes.

Others have spoken of the slight plot, but that's true of most of the Ko-Ko cartoons. Their charms lay in the odd ways that reality shifts and bends to the cartoonist's will, whether it's Ko-Ko creating a girl for him to woo in a Chaplinesque manner, using a picture of an alarm clock, or Fitz foiling him by creating train tracks and a trolley car out of things he pulls from offscreen. The result is a typically fine cartoon.

Dave Fleischer was responsible for many gems. Ones that were amusing and charming, though over-cuteness did come through in some efforts and the stories were always pretty thin, with appealing characters, outstanding music and visuals that were inventive and with innovative animation techniques.

Ko-Ko similarly was an always amiable character to watch and among the better recurring characters in Fleischer's early work. Likewise, his series of Out of the Inkwell cartoons were among the best early efforts of Fleischer and silent cartoons in general. Fleischer may not be at his very finest and there are other cartoons of his that fit the word gem more. It is impossible to dislike 'Ko-Ko's Courtship', which put a smile on my face and is very easy to be charmed by.

There is not a lot to fault here. As said many times in other Ko-Ko cartoons, the story is slight and it can get slightly erratic on occasions.

Other Ko-Ko cartoons also are consistently funnier and more imaginative, as well as wilder.

A lot is done very well to brilliantly however. The seamless blend of animation and live action and the delightful interplay are obvious good things, but they're not the only ones.

One expects the animation to be primitive and very low quality, judging by that it's the 20s when animation techniques were not as many, as refined, as ambitious and in their infancy. While Fleischer became more refined and inventive later certainly, the animation is surprisingly good with some nice visual wackiness and wit.

It all goes at a bright and breezy pace, while there are a fair share of amusing moments and the courting element is immensely sweet and charming without over-loading that it becomes sugary. Koko as ever is very likeable and amusing.

To conclude, pretty good though not one of my favourite Ko-Ko cartoons. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Max sends a runner, a chubby boy, to deliver a drawing. Because he believes this kid is undependable, he sends Ko-Ko's dog to keep an eye on things. Of course, the boy gets sidetracked, falling for a pretty young girl. Ko-Ko has his own ideas. He is distracted by a beautiful fashion model type who is actually an automaton. Eventually, nothing much takes place other than some random actions.

Of all the silent cartoons, I think the Ko-Ko the Clown shorts are among the very best if not the best. They also hold up very well today...mostly because they were genuinely funny AND the technology still impresses.

When the story begins, Max Fleischer makes a drawing of Ko-Ko and givies it to his very young delivery boy to take to some other location. However, Max knows the boy...and knows he'll dawdle...so he then draws Ko-Ko's pup and gives him instructions to follow the kid. So, you see the pup do what fans love--he enters the real world and follows the boy down the street.

When the boy sees a cute girl eating an ice cream cone, he stops. Instead of encouraging the kid to keep going on his way, Ko-Ko himself leaves the paper and tries to give the kid advice on how to capture the girl's heart. His advice stinks and soon the Pup begins harassing Ko-Ko,...which is a bit unusual because usually the dog and Ko-Ko are buddies. What's next? See the film.

To make Ko-Ko's movements look so fluid, Max actually had his brother, Dave, dress up like Ko-Ko and move about...and this was then traced and made into the animated character. But the animation isn't just the nice part....so is the writing and style, which was sweet and funny. Well worth seeing.