Koko's Earth Control (1928) Max Fleischer

Koko's Earth Control was released in 1928 by Max Fleischer who had invented the Rotoscope, a device that by tracing motion picture footage of human movement allowed for animation to be more lifelike. This led to Koko's animations be far ahead of their time in fluidity an realism. Koko's Earth Control also experimented with lighting effects quickly switching between an image of lightning and it's negative to simulate the cartoon apocalypse Koko's dog Fitz triggered by pulling the lever to destroy the world. Many of the elements of the story are common tropes today but were rather innovative and novel at their time. The animation also used live action shots showing the real world's reaction to the apocalypse. Koko and his dog Fitz were highly polished character at this point and were proving quite popular with audiences. 

This animation used a lot of key frames and repeated movements back and forth in a sort of simulated "double take" much like Winsor McCay's use in Gertie the Dinosaur. One should compare the fluidity and style of Koko's Earth Control with Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie which was released the same year.


A lot of fluidity was thanks to a more polished and finalized Rotoscope and streamlining of the character Koko to allow him to more easily animated. Max had developed a prototype of the Rotoscope and was trying to get investors when he ran into J.R Bray of Bray Studios. The two had previously worked together as cartoonists with the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and was hiared to work at Bray Studios while he continued to test and improve his Rotoscope.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950) UPA (Robert Cannon)

Image
Gerald McBoing-Boing was released in 1950 by United Productions of America (UPA) and was produced by Robert Cannon and was adapted from a story by Dr. Seuss. The artistic style is much simpler and more sketch like than the realistic far more detailed animation that the Walt Disney studios were creating. Walt Disney had the multi plane camera and in order to compete and be profitable UPA had been experimenting with different styles.  What the animation lacks in color and details are more than offset by the rhythmic prose of Dr. Seuss, cute word play and intriguing story line whose ending is not so readily apparent. This makes for an animation that is entertaining and cute while not as cinematically beautiful as one of Disney's animated features. I found it to be quite good and accomplishing in it's goal to entertain.  This new look they created would become widely copied and utilized in the coming years. UPA had been founding by former Walt Disney staff members who left Dis
Read more

Bimbo’s Initiation (1931) Talkertoons (Max Fleischer)

Image
Bimbo’s Initiation released by Talkertoons (Max Fleischer) was rather unique in that it had a more spooky and ominous theme to the animation. Bimbo (the term Bimbo in the 1920s was mostly associated with men who liked to fight) is walking down the street when he falls into a manhole and into a secret society where one of the members ask if he want to be a member. An interesting side note is that as he falls into the manhole his main animation rival, Mickey Mouse makes a cameo from Walt Disney studios appears to lock the manhole in an attempt to eliminate his rival (it sure looks like Mickey Mouse, curious if there is a back story about that). Bimbo refuses the bearded Society member's offer and then journeys through rooms and dangers (not unlike an Indiana Jones movie) until finally at the end the bearded member takes off its disguise to reveal it's actually Bimbo's love interest Betty Boop. Bimbo then agrees to join and dance with the Secret Society of Betty Boop clones.
Read more

Abandoned Little Cat Tora (1947) Kenzo Masaoka

Image
Abandoned Little Cat Tora released in 1947 by Kenzo Masaoka is a wonderfully cute animation that foreshadows and potentially inspired Hello Kitty. I've never quite understood the Japanese fascination with cats, but I've always liked it. I'm sure there is a reason for it, I'm just not aware of what it is. This animation is very much like the chibi (small body) style and very much kawaii (cute). Although there are parts that are a little disturbing like when the mother cat person pulls the canteen off the child almost breaking it's need until the canteen come free and the cat child drops to the ground. The singing is some what operatic in quality and the animation as whole has a stylistic component very much like the musical movies of Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye. The version was not in English but the story is easy enough to follow through the actions of the various cats, an abandoned cat is found by a mother cat with three kittens, taking home, where one of the
Read more