Artist Max Fleischer draws a spool of thread and a needle. The needle then penetrates a blank canvas and, stitch by stitch, we see Koko the Clown being "drawn." Very clever. There is always a new and innovative and method of introducing Koko in these old Fleischer brother Koko The Clown "Out of the Inkwell' silent animated shorts.
Koko the Clown discovers a machine that can make cartoons.
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.
Follow the bouncing ball sing-along
Ko-Ko the Inkwell Clown and a baby get caught in a hurricane.
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.
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.
Max helps the Inkwell Clown prepare for a family reunion.
Koko The Clown continually interrupts an animator, who turns his attention to trapping the clown.
Neighborhood cats come to the tiny Ko-Ko Theatre to watch Ko-Ko and Fitz stage a variety of entertaining acts, from acrobatics to high-diving to statuelike tableaux vivants.
The Fleischer Studio's ever popular Follow-the-Bouncing-Ball series began in the early 1920s when studio boss Max Fleischer was approached by songwriter Charles K. Harris (best known for "After the Ball") who wondered whether audiences could be inspired to sing along with an animated cartoon.
Koko the clown is sent to the nut house by Max.
Max and Koko The Clown bet who can blow the biggest soap bubble.
In this Christmas season release, Max assembles a toy train track while Ko-Ko the Clown visits a cartoon toyland, playing cops and robbers and rescuing a doll in distress.
Koko is trying to rescue his sweetheart, who is trapped atop a rugged mountain. However, when Max Fleischer runs out of ink, how will he draw the ladder for Koko to climb?
“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.
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 Koko get mixed up with a live action gypsy fortune teller and then caught up with ghosts and monsters in this, as usual, delightful OUT OF THE INKWELL offering.
The Inkwell Clown goes for a balloon ride. Later, Max's studio is filled with so many balloons that it floats away.
