Friday, May 13, 2022

Ko-Ko the Clown goes dancing with spooks!

In observance of Friday the 13th, we bring you a haunting cartoon!

Ko-Ko Sees Spooks (aka "Ko-Ko's Haunted Hat") (1925, 1950)
Starring: Max Fleischer
Director: Dave Fleischer
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

Ko-Ko and his pet dog enter a mysterious house where they alternately fight and party with ghosts.


As with most cartoons starring Ko-Ko the Clown, this is another fun mix of live-action footage and animation--although less than in others and the live action portions aren't central to the going-ons beyond Ko-Ko initially forming from several 13s doodled by Max the Cartoonist. (That opening sequence, plus the head-scratcher, completely random climax are almost entirely disconnected from anything that happens in the main body of the cartoon--except perhaps as a way to logically explain how Ko-Ko at one point is able to make a dozen or more copies of himself.)

The bulk of the cartoon takes place inside a haunted house where Ko-Ko ends up in a number of situations that you'd expect in a place like that. My personal favorite moments is Ko-Ko convincing his dog to go into the haunted house, and then later when Ko-Ko is making time with a female ghost (who is a hottie in his imagination). There really isn't anything here that isn't goofy, nonsensical fun, and I am sure you'll enjoy this spooky little film from beginning to end.

(The version embedded in this post is the 1950 re-release where it was retitled "Ko-Ko's Haunted Hat". It's the best version of this great short film that we could find on YouTube.)


No comments:

Post a Comment