The Cartoon Factory

When Max Fleischer animates the production of cartoons using an electromechanical set-up, Koko retaliates by using a similar device to produce an endless supply of Maxes in this mind-bending cartoon.

That was the charm of the Fleischers' silent cartoons, existing half in the real world, where Max would draw Koko the clown, and half in the cartoon world, which would extend, as the demands of the cartoon dictated, in a dream logic of its own. Without the grounding of sound and voices, silent comedies could do this, both live and animated.

I watched this Max Fleischer/Out of the Inkwell short starring Koko the Clown on the "Saved from the Flames" DVD collection. In this one, Max has Koko literally wired to do his will. Then, using an ink machine, Koko draws a chicken and a woman but the machine erases them both before he eats and kisses them, respectively. So he then goes to a factory and has a large soldier built that looks like Max inhabit his drawn-on-the-outside but photographed-on-the-inside house hoping to control him. But this "Max" then draws-via stop-motion-various soldiers to go after his creation...And so on, pretty amusing and the synchronization of the music and voices are almost perfect. Well worth a look for anyone curious about these silent films that happen to still exist despite the nitrate materials that the movies were printed on then.

Max 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. 'The Cartoon Factory' is still great though and for me one of the best Ko-Ko cartoons.

Sure, there is not much special or anything much for that matter to the story, which is generally best to be forgotten.

Everything else though is done so brilliantly that any issues had with the story don't stay for long.

One expects the animation to be primitive and very low quality. While Fleischer became more refined and inventive later certainly, the animation is surprisingly pretty good with some nice visual wackiness and wit.

'The Cartoon Factory' is lively in pace and the bizarre and wild nature of the humour is done very imaginatively and never less than fun to watch. The interplay with Max is a delight, the crew were clearly having a ball doing this, and Ko-Ko as always is amiable and amusing.

Altogether, great and one of Ko-Ko's best. 9/10 Bethany Cox

This was the first Koko the Clown cartoon I had seen, and I was mightily impressed. The Fleischers had a fairly wild imagination and put it to good use in films such as these in which Max Fleischer interacts with his creation. Their relationship seems to be an adversarial one, for no sooner has Max drawn Koko than he is tormenting him by wiring him to an electrical cable and zapping him with a few volts to make him run. The tables turn, however, when Koko stumbles upon the titular cartoon factory, and it's at this point that things start to get a little surreal. Koko uses the machine to create a toy soldier real-life version of Max and a house - so that, in effect, the cartoons are creating the real world. Koko bombards the toy soldier Max with cartoon cannonballs that become real when they hit their target, and Max responds by drawing an army of cartoon soldiers. The film grows increasingly insane - and more enjoyable - as it moves along, and leaves you wanting more because you feel as if these guys would never run out of wild ideas.

The version I saw was on a Retour de Flamme DVD and featured a synchronised soundtrack.

Cartoonist Max Fleischer uses electricity to create his drawings of Koko the Clown. This one has a bit of sound which is recorded afterwards. The sound quality is relatively poor but it exists nevertheless. The voices are mumbly at times. As for the real world soldier, I think it would be more cartoonish to have a cartoon soldier. It should be that or Koko could enter the real world. It's a little odd to have a real world soldier in the cartoon world.