Koko the Clown

Koko the Clown was the first designed by Max Fleischer cartoon character. Koko, also spelled Ko-Ko had animated his first appearance in the U.S. cartoon series Out of the Inkwell in 1919 and was made using the developed by Fleischer rotoscoping.

Cinema film series

Max Fleischer had developed the Rotoskopieverfahren 1914. For initial experiments, he filmed his brother Dave in a clown costume and developed from these real recordings the animated film experiment no. 1 When Max and Dave Fleischer received a contract with John R. Bray, they produced from 1919 series Out of the Inkwell, where Koko was interacting with a real environment. Usually, these films began standing at the drawing table with Max Fleischer, who Koko painted on a blank sheet of paper, then Koko then "alive" and was trying to get away from the paper. Mostly Koko then concocted from pranks against his master or exploring the real world.

The success of the Out of the Inkwell cartoons led to the Fleischer brothers became independent and in 1921 her first film studio founded. Koko was the star of the Fleischer Studios, Inkwell Studios at that time, and was the focus of further technical developments of the brothers. In 1924 a new series of Ko-Ko Song Car -tunes that were among the first public pre- led sound films in movie history, three years before The Jazz Singer, and four years before the Mickey Mouse film Steamboat Willie. Since, however, possessed the fewest cinemas on electrical speakers, these films were very unsuccessful and the butcher asked this series of 1926 again.

1927 was Koko the Inkwell Imps a new series and the dog Fitz a partner who under the name Bimbo in other Fleischer cartoons made ​​career later. This series ran until 1929, when the Fleischer Studios once again turned towards the sound film.

In the new Talkartoons Betty Boop became the new star, but in 1931 Koko was reactivated again and came in several films together with Betty Boop on. The most famous film of this period is Snow -White from 1933, in which the jazz singer Cab Calloway Koko lent his voice and the St. James Infirmary Blues sang. The mid- 30s were coconut appearances increasingly rare, and after Paramount Pictures had bought the Fleischer Studios in 1942, 1949, the very last short film Koko was produced for the cinema program.

Television broadcast

In 1955, the charisma of the old Fleischer cartoons in U.S. television, so the interest in Koko rose again and makes that 1961 new episodes Out of the Inkwell were produced for the TV program.