Out of the Inkwell

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Out of the Inkwell

Out of the Inkwell was the title of a short experimental film that Max Fleischer independently produced in about 1915-1916 to demonstrate his invention of the rotoscope as a means for achieving realistic movement by animated characters. His younger brother Dave Fleischer dressed in a clown costume to provide the model for an animated clown.

Out of the Inkwell was also the title of a series of 13 silent animated short films produced by Max Fleischer for the Bray Studio between 1919 and 1921. They featured The Clown (later known as Koko the Clown) and a little dog named Fitz (later known as Bimbo), and were notable for their use of combined live action and animation.

Typically, the cartoons start out with live film action where the cartoonist begins his day, the camera pans across the desk. The cartoonist begins sketching images on paper among previously drawn cartoon characters. The cartoon characters become animated and interact with both animated and live action subjects.

Fleisher continued the series after starting his own studio Out of the Inkwell Films and by 1929, had produced 65 more Out of the Inkwell films and 29 Inkwell Imps films.

KoKo the Clown and Bimbo continued on as regular characters in Talkartoon and Betty Boop series of films later produced by Fleischer Studios. One of the Betty Boop films produced in 1938 had the title Out of the Inkwell and followed the same concept of a pen and ink figure being drawn and becoming animated.

The KoKo cartoons, along with many of the other old Paramount cartoons were sold into syndication in the early days of television.

In 1962,Out Of The Inkwell was once more brought to life in a new syndicated series of 100 five minute cartoons. In the new series, KoKo had a pretty clown girlfriend named KoKette and a villain named Mean Moe. Larry Storch provided the voice for KoKo. This series was produced by Hal Seeger Productions, with permission from Max Fleischer.