Big Chief Koko (1925) User Reviews

I'd love to sit down and watch this with a group of American Indians.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 12 May 2020]

"Big Chief Koko" is a cartoon from the long-running Out of the Inkwell series from the Fleischer Brothers. It's a bit unusual because of its content...and I am sure that in 2020 a lot of folks would be enraged by its depiction of American Indians. I would really love to know how various American Indians think about this cartoon.

The story begins with Max drawing Koko and Koko finishing up with the details...such as inking himself in more completely. Soon, a ridiculously stereotypical American Indian (in full headdress) arrives...wanting to sell Max his drawings. Koko is curious and hops onto one of the pictures and he and Fitz soon have an encounter with a jerky Indian cartoon.

The style of the cartoon is clever and well made. I just didn't think, however, that the content was as funny as many of the other Koko cartoons. And, the American Indian humor seemed a bit forced.

Big Chief Koko is another amusing Out of the Inkwell entry

[tavm · 7/10 · 6 January 2007]

Once again, Koko comes out of the inkwell to cause havoc wherever he goes. This time, an American Indian sells Max Fleischer some background drawings of a reservation (the Indian kind, of course). Koko kicks a drawn Indian out of one taking his place beside the dog in it. This leads to many gags involving arrows, b-b guns shooting target carnival Indians, and a comic battle between the live-action Indian and the drawn Koko. Max doesn't do much here but sit on the sidelines to observe the action. Pretty amusing cartoon and if you don't think too much about possible racial stereotyping being depicted here you may feel guilt-free watching it. I saw this on Google Video with a score and some sound effects that matched the picture perfectly. Recommended to any fan of Max Fleischer animation.

Ko-Ko and the Indian

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 14 February 2018]

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. As said a couple of times before with other Ko-Ko cartoons, Fleischer may not be at his very finest with 'Big Chief Ko-Ko' and 'Big Chief Ko-Ko' may not be quite one of his gems. For so early on though, like most Ko-Ko cartoons, it is mighty impressive and one doesn't expect material this wild and entertaining at this stage in animation history when much later cartoons didn't do it as well, with a fair share of obvious exceptions.

'Big Chief Ko-Ko' is formulaic and Max is side-lined somewhat too much. Personally didn't have that much of a problem with the stereotyping and didn't find that objectionable.

There is very little to criticise with 'Big Chief Ko-Ko' and as has been said for other Ko-Ko cartoons everything else is done very much right and extremely well indeed.

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. Much of 'Big Chief Ko-Ko' is lively and with a wonderfully bizarre and sharp sense of humour, even for early Fleischer, and inventiveness.

Everything here is a lot of fun and imaginatively done, while the logic is not hard at all to take at face value. Ko-Ko as always is amiable and amusing.

In summary, very nicely done yet again. 8/10 Bethany Cox