User Reviews

I love the Koko the Clown cartoons from the Fleischer Brothers...they are most enjoyable and very advanced for their time. They also work really well today and are worth seeing. However, "Koko's Catch" (also called "Ko-Ko's Catch") is one that might irritate folks due to changing sensibilities. This is because Max Fleischer's behaviors in this one are ultra-creepy and inappopriate.

The film begins with Koko and Fitz being ignored by Max instead of their usual interacting. Why? Because Max is too busy sexually harassing his new secretary...and he spends much of the film groping her. He also creates some machines to keep Koko and Fitz busy, but these characters are ticked and decide to derail Max's amorous advances.

Like many of the cartoons of the 1920s, they were originally silent films but music and sound effects were added in the late 20s-early 30s when sound was the norm in American films.

So is this any good? Yes. Despite Max's inappropriate behavior, it is funny...especially since Max IS ultimately punished! Worth seeing and fun.

Max is busy with his pretty new secretary and puts Koko and Bimbo on automatic for the day -- he sets a pantograph to draw a world run by slot machines like mechanical banks. However, is the creator in control of his creation, or is it the other way around? The Fleischer Brothers liked to play with such surrealistic concepts, but they never let it get too serious. The point of the cartoon is to make a joke, not to educate their audience in the theory of dialectics. Really, this typically fine Ko-Ko cartoon -- probably the most popular film cartoon series after Felix the Cat -- is probably more due to the absent-mindedness of the Fleischer Brothers as they planned for their next assault on sound films; the gags are well executed but seem to be inserted in random order, rather than leading up to the final pay off.

There are two things at work here. One is our guy Max putting moves on his pretty young secretary. Ko-Ko and his little dog do what they can to mess things up for him. He is a real masher and in our climate today wouldn't be held in high regard. When we get into the actual cartoon, it involves the regulars dealing with new automated machines that shine shoes, give haircuts, and other such things. It is all sight comedy with little direction. The machines are interesting and it's fun.

Dave 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, but 'Ko-Ko's Catch' is nonetheless a lot of fun and very hard to dislike.

Not all of it surprises and some of it is very random. Like a lot of Ko-Ko cartoons, there is not an awful lot to criticise.

The character interplay is truly delightful and the mix of animation and live action and how they blend is seamless.

One expects the animation to be primitive and very low quality, judging by that it's the 20s when animation techniques were not as many, as refined, as ambitious and in their infancy. While Fleischer became more refined and inventive later certainly, the animation is surprisingly good with some nice visual wackiness and wit. The live action also looks good.

It all goes at a bright and breezy pace, while there are a fair share of funny and suitably wild, well-timed and clever moments, also some of the most imaginative and cleverest of the early Ko-Ko cartoons. The atmosphere is similarly suitably charming and at times entertainingly nuts.

Ko-Ko as ever is very likeable and amusing and support from Max and Bimbo likewise.

In summary, very good. 8/10 Bethany Cox