Koko the clown
Koko the clown was the first cartoon character designed by Max Fleischer . Koko, also written Ko-Ko , had its first appearance in the American cartoon series Out of the Inkwell in 1919 and was animated with the help of the rotoscopy developed by Fleischer .
Motion picture series
Max Fleischer developed the rotoscopy method in 1914. For his first experiments he filmed his brother Dave in a clown costume and developed the animated film Experiment No. from these real recordings . 1 . When Max and Dave Fleischer got a contract with John R. Bray, they produced the series Out of the Inkwell from 1919 , in which Koko interacted with a real environment. Usually these films started with Max Fleischer standing at the drawing table, who drew Koko on a blank sheet of paper, whereupon Koko then came "to life" and tried to escape from the paper. Mostly Koko then hatched pranks against his master or explored the real world.
The success of the Out of the Inkwell cartoons led the Fleischer brothers to set up their own business and to found their first film studio in 1921. Koko remained the star of Fleischer Studios, then Inkwell Studios , and was the focus of further technical developments by the brothers. In 1924 a new series of Ko-Ko Song Car-tunes began , which were among the first publicly screened sound films in film history, three years before The Jazz Singer and four years before the Mickey Mouse film Steamboat Willie . But since very few cinemas had electric loudspeakers, these films were quite unsuccessful and the Fleischers discontinued this series in 1926.
In 1927 Koko received a new series with the Inkwell Imps and a partner with the dog Fitz, who later made a career in other butcher cartoons under the name Bimbo. This series ran until 1929 when the Fleischer Studios turned back to talkies.
Betty Boop developed into the new star in the new talk cartoons , but in 1931 Koko was reactivated and appeared in some films with Betty Boop. The best-known film from this period is Snow-White from 1933, in which the jazz singer Cab Calloway Koko lent his voice and sang the St. James Infirmary Blues . In the mid-1930s, Koko's appearances became increasingly rare, and after Paramount Pictures bought Fleischer Studios in 1942, the final short film with Koko was produced for the cinema program in 1949.
Broadcast on television
In 1955, the old Fleischer cartoons began to be broadcast on American television, as a result of which interest in Koko rose again and led to new episodes Out of the Inkwell being produced for the television program in 1961 .
literature
- Leslie Cabarga: The Fleischer Story . DaCapo Press, 1988.
- Donald Crafton: Before Mickey: The Animated Film, 1898–1928 . University of Chicago Press, 1993.
- Leonard Maltin : Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons . Penguin Books, 1987.