Ko-Ko and Cat Videos -- 1926 style!

It's the Cats (1926/1927)

Starring: Anonymous Voice Actor

Directors: Dave Fleischer and Max Fleisher

Rating: Five of Ten Stars

After the animation studio is closed for the night, Ko-Ko the Clown and his sidekick escape from an ink bottle to put on a variety show for local kittens.

"It's the Cats" is one of many short films from the Fleischer brothers that combines live action footage with animation that starred Ko-Ko the Clown. They were always framed with Ko-Ko emerging from an ink bottle and then eventually returning back to it. The series, and for a brief time the company that produced them, were known as Out of the Inkwell. 

The typical "Out of the Inkwell" short had Ko-Ko bringing the laws of the animated world into the real one, often while interacting with his animator. Here, the only interaction between film and animation happens at the very end when Ko-Ko and his puppy assistant let mice loose for the kittens to chase as the grand finale to their show. Otherwise, all we get are shots of kittens looking at cartoon posters and sitting in chairs, supposedly watching the escaped animations performing on stage. (The kittens do cross over from the real world into the animated ones, as Ko-Ko's theatre--except for the seating--is entirely animated.)

"It's the Cats" is the most disappointing Max Fleischer cartoon from the 1920s/early 1930s that I've watched so far. It opens with a series of repetitive gags involving Ko-Ko putting up posters advertising his show to the kittens. It the proceeds with a series of so-so animated vaudeville style performances, one of which drags on for too entirely too long--a hi-dive act with some amusing visuals but that manages to overstay its welcome--and another very short bit that still manages to grow unfunny due to some looped animation. If I understand the timeline of Max Fleischer's business correctly, this cartoon was made as it was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and had to be saved by an "angel investor" with whom neither Max or his brother Dave got along. The level of creative effort that went into making this one was probably not as high as the "Out of the Inkwell" installments the preceded it, so the overall outcome is a little lackluster. It's not bad exactly... it just pales in comparison to what came before, as well as much of what would follow in the early 1930s. (Oh... one nitpicky thing that bothered me were to toy cats used to fill chairs in the theatre. Did the Fleischers think the audience wouldn't notice?)

But you can watch "It's the Cats" below and form your own opinion--and I hope you'll share it if it's different than mine!

Trivia: There were two different versions of "It's the Cats" released. First, was a silent version in 1926. It was re-released the following year with a new title card (where the "savior" of Fleisher's operation got top billing) and synchronized music and sound. (Ko-Ko engages in some muttering that could charitably be described as spoken lines.)