Bosko the Talk-Ink Kid

"Bosko the Talk-Ink Kid" is a rarely seen demo reel that pitched a new character, Bosko and ended up being the basis for Looney Tunes. Considering how wonderful the Looney Tunes films were in the 1940s and 50s with the likes of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Pepe le Pew, it's amazing how rotten their original star, Bosko, was.

The film begins with an unidentified man (Rudolf Ising) sitting at an easel. He draws Bosko and then interacts with him--a style used often before, such as with the Fleischer Brothers Ko-Ko the Clown cartoons. However, when Bosko talked, I was shocked. Instead of the cute voice you'd later hear in the rather saccharine cartoons, he has a VERY stereotypical black voice--and it's NOT a particularly nice one. Today such a voice would probably offend most people and it's obvious that THE joke was that he was a black person. Not a whole lot to base your character on for a series of cartoons! Pretty lame and unfunny to boot.

This rarely seen (and for good reasons)short was originally a test reel for the Warner Brothers upper brass to see Warner's new animation department. Pity 'ol Leon S. didn't have anything better for them. This pathetic exercise in on screen racism lacks any thing resembling humour (at least for these times). It's obvious that Bosko made an impact with the big wheels at Warners (although Bosko would be re-vamped from a shuffling big eyed stereotype to a monkey/boy (take that,creationists). This unfunny short clocks in at a mere 3 minutes,but still seems like 3 hours (or more). Thankfully,Warner Bros. would get a lot better than this as the years went by.

The first Looney Tunes short ever features a blank ink spot that talks in an uneducated way and this is very fortunately NOT a barometer of how that rest of the animated shorts would be. This is painful to watch at times and lacks the humor or wit of later cartoon shorts by the studio, but this is where it all started and I guess one has to give it props for that if nothing else. I don't really recommend this on anything but prosperity's sake. This animated short can be found as an extra in the "From the Vaults" section on disc 4 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 1.

My Grade: D

Aside from the fact that "Bosko the Talk-Ink Kid" has little plot - other than cartoonist Rudolf Ising creating the title character - it should make us cringe in the 21st century, as Bosko looks and sounds like a black-face character. This cartoon is worth watching as a reference point (and I guess that it gets justified by the fact that it indirectly led to the creation of Bugs, Daffy, Porky, etc.), but it's not worth much otherwise. There's a reason that Bosko didn't become as prominent as the most famous Looney Tunes; producer Leon Schlesinger knew the better ideas when he saw them later. Available on Disc 4 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 1.

Everything the previous commenter said was correct with the exception that Harman-Ising did not produce this specifically for Leon Schlesinger. They created it to showcase their ability to synchronize speech on their own dime and shopped it around--- Leon was the guy that took the bait. You have to understand that Leon Schlesinger saw his title card business going down the drain in 1929 thanks to talkies. And it must be remembered that while the cartoon contains bad acting, racial stereotypes (not exactly a rare occurrence in pre-1949 cartoons from any studio, not just WB), you have to look at this from the context of both the time and purpose: the damn thing was never meant to be released at all! It's simply a plot-less 3 minute demo reel made to show off synchronized speech. Disney didn't accomplish this with Steamboat Willie! Leon Schlesinger was a hard-nosed businessman without an ounce of artistic creativity... which he made up for by arrogance. The cheap SOB fought continually with the guys over production costs, color, etc.--- all Leon cared about was the net profit, and not one whit about art. To his credit, he seldom interfered with the creative process--- unless it cost him money. It should also be pointed out that Leon was overjoyed when Harman & Ising finally left him--- artists were cheap and he had learned the business end of the cartoon business. Like it or not, this is a monumentally important cartoon from a purely technical perspective--- but you were never meant to see it! As a result, I would argue this is one of those rare instances where ratings shouldn't apply.