Ko-Ko's Hot Ink

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 Hot Ink', which put a smile on my face and is very easy to be charmed by.

There may not be much to the story and it's easy to tell where some of the material is going to go, but like most Ko-Ko cartoons there is not much to criticise.

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 funny and suitably wild (not always imaginative, but always well timed and clever) moments and the surreal elements are interesting visually and suitably weird. Koko as ever is very likeable and amusing and Fitz and Max are similarly great.

All in all, another very good Ko-Ko cartoon. 8/10 Bethany Cox