Out of the Inkwell Films

“Tramp, Tramp, Tramp the Boys Are Marching” features a song that dates back to the Civil War, one which was still familiar to audiences of the 1920s. The cartoon begins as Koko the Clown emerges from an inkwell-- an iconic image for animation buffs --and then steps over to a chalkboard to draw an orchestra. The band, “Koko's Glee Club,” marches to a nearby cinema (accompanied by a dog who beats cymbals with his tail) where they lead the audience in the title song. (IMDb)

A man with a huge hooked nose enters the Fleischer studios to have his bust sculpted. Meanwhile, across the studio, Max is animating Koko. When he's called over to consult on the too-accurate bust, Koko gets mischievous and creates his own drawings. He then escapes and crawls inside the clay bust, eventually wriggling off like an inchworm. He gets into a fight with the man being modelled, both of them flinging wads of clay.

Koko The Clown continually interrupts an animator, who turns his attention to trapping the clown.

In 'Trapped', we see the cartoonist's hands as still photograph cut-outs, manipulated in front of the camera to look like live-action movie footage. The hands sketch a small black dot and ink it in. Then the dot proceeds to bounce across the cartoonist's easel, until the hands finally catch it and unfold it into Ko-Ko the Clown. There's a mouse in Max's studio, and Ko-Ko wants to catch him.

Max and Dave Fliescher are eating hot dogs in their animation studio and begin drawing. The hot dog becomes a "real" dog, and it and Ko-Ko the Clown alarmingly end up inside a Gas Chamber.

First, Max, in his pyjamas, gets back up and draws an isolated mountain area and puts Koko on top of a steep mountain. "That will keep you busy for the night," says the real-life somewhat nasty cartoonist to his subject. The cartoon really gets wild from that point with guest appearances from Mutt and Jeff, and other "stars" of the day as Koko experiences one adventure after another from the "Cave Of The Winds" to Goliath chasing him all over.

Max Fleischer and his wife or girlfriend have a cute little dog with them at the studio. Max decides to draw the dog but every time he does, the drawing changes into Koko the Clown. Finally, Max decides to give Koko a whip and an assignment: "Here's a dog (of your own) to train," he says.

Max and Koko The Clown bet who can blow the biggest soap bubble.

In this one, Max has run low on ink, so Ko-Ko finishes drawing himself and then heads over to the camera room, where he creates his own characters, a mechanical dancing Dresden doll with whom he falls in love and a couple of automaton musicians. He gets rid of the musicians, but, alas, the projectionist gets oil onto Ko-Ko's soon-to-be bride, melting her.

An "Out of the Inkwell" short featuring Ko-Ko the Clown, this time as a fireman.

Koko the Clown discovers a machine that can make cartoons.

"The Einstein Theory of Relativity" is the short version (587 m) of the lost American long version (1219 m) of Hanns Walter Kornblum's original German feature "Die Grundlagen der Einsteinschen Relativitäts-Theorie" from 1922 that is also lost.

Max has a toothache, and it's up to The Clown and a bespectacled rabbit to pull out the aching tooth.

Ko-Ko Song Car-Tunes, Song Car-Tunes, or (some sources erroneously say) Sound Car-Tunes, is a series of short three-minute animated films produced by Max Fleischer and Dave Fleischer between May 1924 and September 1927, pioneering the use of the "Follow the Bouncing Ball" device used to lead audiences in theater sing-alongs. The Song Car-Tunes also pioneered the application of sound film to animation.

Koko the clown is sent to the nut house by Max.

Follow the bouncing ball sing-along

This fascinating series features Max himself, filmed in live action, sitting at a drawing board and concocting adventures for his star performer Ko-Ko the Clown. Max is supposedly the guy in charge, and he takes sadistic glee in putting Ko-Ko through various forms of hell, but the clown usually fights back and sometimes gets the best of his Uncle Max. FADEAWAY elevates this charged relationship to new heights (or depths?) of nightmarish surrealism; it's also one of the most enjoyable Inkwell cartoons I've seen to date, packing lots of imaginative, unpredictable twists and turns into an eight minute running time.

Dave Fleischer sends Koko to Mars.

Lighting Sketches of US Presidents and world locations.