'Cartoon Factory' shatters the fourth wall

The Cartoon Factory (1924/1930)
Starring: Max Fleischer
Directors: Max Fleischer and Dave Fleischer
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

An animator (Fleischer) invents a way to automate the creation of cartoons. This, in turn, leads the animated character Koko the Clown to create a cartoon version of the animator. 

"The Cartoon Factory" doesn't just break the fourth wall--it turns it to dust. Several times over. Not only does Ko-Ko the Clown know that he's a drawing--he's a drawing who understands drawings are just lines that can be put on paper or erased as the creator chooses. And that Ko-Ko can create and erase those lines. It's fascinating to watch Koko go about trying (intentionally or not) to corrupt the animated world he lives in by creating a version of the person who originally animated HIM... and then to watch this creation turn on him, because the creation can never fully become the creator and fiction can never fully escape into reality, nor can reality ever fully merge with fiction. (That's at least the message I took away from this... even if I may be overthinking things.)

I've mentioned before my fondness for cartoons and movies that break the fourth wall in other reviews on this blog, so I enjoyed "The Cartoon Factory" quite a bit. I've seen at least one commentator state that he felt the ending is a result of Fleischers not knowing how to bring the story to a close, but it seems to me that it's simply following the format of the series: Most (if not all) episodes open with Ko-Ko emerging from the animator's inkwell in some fashion, and then returning to it at the end. 

But how about you take a look for yourself, and perhaps let me know your take on this fun fusion of live- and animated-action? You can watch it from this very post, and then use the comments section at the very bottom to sound off.

Trivia: The original version of "The Cartoon Factory" was first released into theaters on Feburary 21, 1924. It was one of roughly 130 silent "Out of the Inkwell" series, all of which combined some degree of live-action footage with animation. (The version embedded in this post, and that forms the basis for this review, was released in 1930 with the soundtrack added.)