Wordiezett So much average

NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

TheLittleSongbird Max Fleischer was responsible for many gems. Ones that were amusing and charming, though over-cuteness did come through in some efforts and the stories were always pretty thin, with appealing characters, outstanding music and visuals that were inventive and with innovative animation techniques. Ko-Ko similarly was an always amiable character to watch and among the better recurring characters in Fleischer's early work. Likewise, his series of Out of the Inkwell cartoons were among the best early efforts of Fleischer and silent cartoons in general. Fleischer may not be at his very finest and there are other cartoons of his that fit the word gem more. 'The Cartoon Factory' is still great though and for me one of the best Ko-Ko cartoons.Sure, there is not much special or anything much for that matter to the story, which is generally best to be forgotten. Everything else though is done so brilliantly that any issues had with the story don't stay for long.One expects the animation to be primitive and very low quality. While Fleischer became more refined and inventive later certainly, the animation is surprisingly pretty good with some nice visual wackiness and wit.'The Cartoon Factory' is lively in pace and the bizarre and wild nature of the humour is done very imaginatively and never less than fun to watch. The interplay with Max is a delight, the crew were clearly having a ball doing this, and Ko-Ko as always is amiable and amusing.Altogether, great and one of Ko-Ko's best. 9/10 Bethany Cox

tavm I watched this Max Fleischer/Out of the Inkwell short starring Koko the Clown on the "Saved from the Flames" DVD collection. In this one, Max has Koko literally wired to do his will. Then, using an ink machine, Koko draws a chicken and a woman but the machine erases them both before he eats and kisses them, respectively. So he then goes to a factory and has a large soldier built that looks like Max inhabit his drawn-on-the-outside but photographed-on-the-inside house hoping to control him. But this "Max" then draws-via stop-motion-various soldiers to go after his creation...And so on, pretty amusing and the synchronization of the music and voices are almost perfect. Well worth a look for anyone curious about these silent films that happen to still exist despite the nitrate materials that the movies were printed on then.

JoeytheBrit This was the first Koko the Clown cartoon I had seen, and I was mightily impressed. The Fleischers had a fairly wild imagination and put it to good use in films such as these in which Max Fleischer interacts with his creation. Their relationship seems to be an adversarial one, for no sooner has Max drawn Koko than he is tormenting him by wiring him to an electrical cable and zapping him with a few volts to make him run. The tables turn, however, when Koko stumbles upon the titular cartoon factory, and it's at this point that things start to get a little surreal. Koko uses the machine to create a toy soldier real-life version of Max and a house - so that, in effect, the cartoons are creating the real world. Koko bombards the toy soldier Max with cartoon cannonballs that become real when they hit their target, and Max responds by drawing an army of cartoon soldiers. The film grows increasingly insane - and more enjoyable - as it moves along, and leaves you wanting more because you feel as if these guys would never run out of wild ideas.The version I saw was on a Retour de Flamme DVD and featured a synchronised soundtrack.

Cineanalyst Juxtaposing live action with animation is nearly as old as film animation itself. Emile Cohl and Winsor McCay interweaved live-action narratives about the animator with the animated cartoon. The next step was taken by John Randolph Bray, Walt Disney with his Alice's Wonderland series and the Fleischer Brothers, among others; they created films where the real, live-action world and the cartoon world interact. This particular Fleischer Brothers short, part of their Out of the Inkwell series, is notable for its play on the notion of creators and creations and for an exceptionally well executed version of the battle between creator and creation that usually occurred in the series."The Cartoon Factory" begins, as usual in the series, with Max Fleischer drawing Koko the Clown, who instantly comes to life. Max arbitrarily torments his creation for a while, but then Koko happens upon a drawing machine and shop--a cartoon factory--within the cartoon world, all of which can create live-action within the cartoon world (sometimes merely still photographs). In the Out of Inkwell series, it was the cartoon that usually entered the real universe. But no, here, Koko, who was originally modeled on Max (via Max's invention, the rotoscope, which was abandoned for a more cartoony Koko this episode), eventually creates a toy soldier, which comes to life as the live-action Max. Max sets about drawing subordinate toy soldiers, whom he orders to attack Koko.This animation short features an especially clever exploration of the interactions between the universe of the creator and that of the creation. Koko the Clown was the Fleisher's first popular character, who in his later incarnations was often accompanied by Fitz the Dog, such as in the very inventive, apocalyptic "Ko-Ko's Earth Control" (1928). Koko isn't as well remembered as the Fleisher's later creations Betty Boop and Popeye, but with Felix the Cat and Mickey Mouse, he was one of the first popular and sustained cartoon characters in film history. The interaction between creators and creations, however, were the lasting importance of the Out of the Inkwell series featuring Koko.