The Clown's Pups

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 'The Clown's Pups', 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 as a result of being far too short.

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 surprisingly well done 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, considering that it is very early animation 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 drawing is very nicely done.

It all goes at a bright and breezy pace, while there are a fair share of amusing moments, a lot of charm and some nice wild atmosphere. Ko-Ko, here known as The Clown before he became Ko-Ko in the 20s, is likeable and fun to watch. Have always liked Max's involvement in the Ko-Ko cartoons and this isn't an exception.

To conclude, good but not great. 7/10 Bethany Cox

The Rotoscope is arguably the most important invention in film animation history. The device, patented in 1917 by Max Fleischer and its use introduced in 1919 by a series of breathtaking (at the time) cartoons demonstrating its practicality, transformed animation to a level never seen before.

Fleischer, a newspaper cartoonist, felt film animation could provide both educational and entertainment benefits like no other medium. But he thought previous efforts in animation were laborious and especially unrealistic in its movements of characters and objects. He and his brother, Dave, took the basic idea of projecting a movie onto a glass panel and tracing the outlines of each frame. Each drawn panel would then be filmed in sequence, duplicating human-like action unlike anything seen in cartoons before.

The two created three experimental cartoons before their first released film, 1919's "The Clown's Pup" which introduced KoKo the Clown. Dave had donned a clown costume that he used during his part-time job at Coney Island and was filmed in it performing the movements scripted for the cartoon. Then the brothers traced each frame of Dave's movements, and through a combination of animation and live action (where both appeared in), "The Clown's Pup" became film legend. KoKo the Clown was one of the longest original animated cartoon characters in early cinematic history, lasting from 1919 until 1929. He evolved into Bimbo in the Betty Boop series.

A follow-up cartoon was the Fleischer's 1919 "The Tantalizing Fly." Again, KoKo was featured in the animation, where he's chasing a fly throughout the artist's canvass.

Because of his talent, Max was employed by John R. Bray's Studio, the leading cartoon production company, as production manager. His rotoscope proved to be the leading component for the company's vast output of cartoons. He became responsible for a series of highly popular cartoons, including Betty Boop, Popeye the Sailor Man, and Superman.

As for the rotoscope, the invention made Fleischer a very rich man. Walt Disney among others paid him royalties for the use of the machine, including implementing it for his 1937 classic "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." With the modernization of animation technology, rotoscoping remained as a mainstay for delivering spectacular special effects, such as the multiple birds in Alfred Hitchcock's 1962 "The Birds," the cartoons within live action in 1964's "Mary Poppins," and the lasers in 1977's "Star Wars." The basic principle of rotoscoping still exists today with the computer generated images (CGI) in film, reflecting Fleischers' invention is acklowledged as one of the most important devices in cinematic history.

Max is wrangling with the Clown -- he would not be known as KoKo until the 1920s. This time it's about who's the better draftsman. The clown doesn't like the way he is drawn and demonstrates his own artistic abilities.

This is still very early in the evolution of the Fleischers' cartoons. Not only is this very short by later standards, less than three minutes, but the Clown is clearly a purely rotoscoped character -- brother Dave was the life model he was based on.

Still, this is a startlingly lively cartoon for the period, with the interaction between Max and the Clown simultaneously confrontational and close.