Ko-Ko's Kane

Back about 1919, Max and Dave Fleischer came up with a terrific cartoon character, Koko the Clown. Dave would dress up as the character and they would film him doing all sorts of shenanigans....and using their invention, the Rotoscope, Max would draw the character on top of this film. It made animation much easier and allowed for more fluid movements. And, for about a decade, they made a ton of these very entertaining films and audiences loved them. Fortunately, many of the old Koko silent cartoons are available on YouTube. But don't mix him up with the Koko of the sound era, as now Koko was much more conventional and was, briefly, a sidekick for Betty Boop and her boyfriend, Bimbo.

"Koko's Kane" is a most enjoyable outing. Max has invented a combination cane and umbrella. However, as is usually the case, Koko (along with his dog, Fitz) show up and ruin everything. In this case, they climb inside the cane and the results are quite funny.

As you watch this and other Koko films, you can't help but see how the idea for "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" was born. And, despite being made decades earlier, this Fleischer Brothers cartoon holds up well. However, I have no idea if this cartoon originally had sound effects or they were added later into the sound era...something that occurred with many silent cartoons to make them more relevant for audiences now used to sound movies and cartoons.

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. There is far better cartoons in the series than 'Ko-Ko's Kane', that still doesn't stop it from being good fun and a good way to spend six minutes to cheer one up. It has not always been easy for me so seeing any Ko-Ko cartoon (even the lesser ones) is always worth my while.

The cartoon can get a little erratic pace wise and very random in some gag execution (especially a couple of the transformation ones), and it can affect the coherence of the already slight storytelling and make it feel disjointed.

Maybe it could have been a minute or two longer.

The delight of the character interplay and how well the animation and live action is handled so seamlessly for so early on, the wild fun and the live action interplay are just a few things to like.

One expects the animation to be primitive and very low quality, judging by that it's the early 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.

Pacing is generally lively, if not consistently, and the bizarre and wild nature of the humour is generally inventive, even if there are more imaginative Ko-Ko cartoons. The concept is a very interesting one, and one of the series' most inventive, handled nicely if not quite to full potential. Koko as ever is very likeable and amusing. Likewise with Fitz and Max.

In conclusion, good fun but not one of Ko-Ko's best by any stretch. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Max Fleischer may have been an inventor but I am not too impresed by th conertible cane/umbrella. On the other hand Fitz the dog appear s here to invent the frisbee - ten years before its time.

Koko and Fitz want to play, but Max is working on his newest invention -- he actually was an inventor and held patents on rotoscoping -- so he stuffs them in a safe with his convertible cane/umbrella. When they start pushing buttons, things start to happen.

One of the pleasures of the Koko cartoons is the weird self-consistency of the cartoon world and how it extends from the drawn page. Here, however, with the random transformation gags -- the cane becomes a man hole and a bicycle, among other things -- this one loses its internal logic. Still, the nonchalance with which Koko and Fitz deal with the changing threats is, as always, a lot of fun.