There's a quote dating back to the '40s attributed to Alfred Hitchcock: "Walt Disney has the best approach to casting. If he doesn't like an actor he just tears him up." Initially that would seem to say more about Hitchcock's own infamous love-hate relationship with actors than it does about Disney and his cartoons, but on a deeper level the remark also suggests a dark, tangled relationship between directors and actors that applies even more strongly to animators and their drawings. A movie director may be the unquestioned monarch of his set, but an animator is a truly god-like figure who creates not only characters but the worlds they inhabit, all from scratch. I think of Hitchcock's quip whenever I see one of Max Fleischer's Out of the Inkwell cartoons. This fascinating series features Max himself, filmed in live action, sitting at a drawing board and concocting adventures for his star performer Ko-Ko the Clown. Max is supposedly the guy in charge, and he takes sadistic glee in putting Ko-Ko through various forms of hell, but the clown usually fights back and sometimes gets the best of his Uncle Max. 'Fadeaway' elevates this charged relationship to new heights (or depths?) of nightmarish surrealism; it's also one of the most enjoyable Inkwell cartoons I've seen to date, packing lots of imaginative, unpredictable twists and turns into an eight minute running time.
The action begins on a familiar note, as Max yanks Ko-Ko out of his inkwell and plops him down on the drawing board. Max draws a bathtub and urges Ko-Ko to hop in, but when the impulsive clown starts to doff his drawers (a semi-nude Pre-Code moment) Max reacts with horror and compels him to bathe fully dressed. Things get crazy almost immediately, when Ko-Ko dries his face with a towel and his features (nose, mouth, eyes) are temporarily obliterated. Soon Ko-Ko is joined by his dog Fitz, though Uncle Max impishly transforms the dog into a pig, just for fun. When Ko-Ko angrily turns the pig back into a dog we recognize that the animator and his creations are locked in an antagonistic relationship, in a universe where anything can happen.
Things really get rolling when Max produces a container of "Fade-out Powder," and uses it to torture the little clown. After mixing the powder into his ink Max draws a sexy lady and a sporty roadster. Ko-Ko is instantly attracted to the woman and invites her to go for a drive, but within seconds the woman and the car fade into nothingness. (Have you ever had a dream like that?) Next Max draws a big bag of gold coins, and Ko-Ko starts counting them happily, but the money vanishes. (Have you ever had a year like that?) Warming to his task, Max draws a door labeled "Fade Away Land," and pushes the reluctant clown and his dog through the doorway. Henceforth the pair race from one frustrating misadventure to another, trying to make sense of a world where nothing is real and everything is a mirage. Ko-Ko and Fitz swim in a lake, soar into the sky in the basket of a balloon, plummet to earth and land on a runaway roller-coaster, but each time they adjust to new circumstances everything around them vanishes. At last Ko-Ko manages to turn the tables on his tormentor when he seizes control of the fade-out powder and flings it at Max's pen, causing it to disappear. Then Ko-Ko and Fitz escape from the drawing board and enter the "real" world of live action, where they excitedly experiment with making very large things disappear: houses, trains, ships, etc. Chaos ensues.
Cartoon buffs will recognize source material here for later classics by Tex Avery and Chuck Jones, among others; Jones's immortal Duck Amuck, in which Daffy is tormented by an animator who turns out to be Bugs Bunny, seems to have been inspired by the Inkwell series in a general sense. In any case, 'Fadeaway' is a great cartoon in its own right, one that ranks with the Fleischer Studio's best. It's a must-see for animation fans, and anyone else who wants to leave reality behind for a few minutes.
The action begins on a familiar note, as Max yanks Ko-Ko out of his inkwell and plops him down on the drawing board. Max draws a bathtub and urges Ko-Ko to hop in, but when the impulsive clown starts to doff his drawers (a semi-nude Pre-Code moment) Max reacts with horror and compels him to bathe fully dressed. Things get crazy almost immediately, when Ko-Ko dries his face with a towel and his features (nose, mouth, eyes) are temporarily obliterated. Soon Ko-Ko is joined by his dog Fitz, though Uncle Max impishly transforms the dog into a pig, just for fun. When Ko-Ko angrily turns the pig back into a dog we recognize that the animator and his creations are locked in an antagonistic relationship, in a universe where anything can happen.
Things really get rolling when Max produces a container of "Fade-out Powder," and uses it to torture the little clown. After mixing the powder into his ink Max draws a sexy lady and a sporty roadster. Ko-Ko is instantly attracted to the woman and invites her to go for a drive, but within seconds the woman and the car fade into nothingness. (Have you ever had a dream like that?) Next Max draws a big bag of gold coins, and Ko-Ko starts counting them happily, but the money vanishes. (Have you ever had a year like that?) Warming to his task, Max draws a door labeled "Fade Away Land," and pushes the reluctant clown and his dog through the doorway. Henceforth the pair race from one frustrating misadventure to another, trying to make sense of a world where nothing is real and everything is a mirage. Ko-Ko and Fitz swim in a lake, soar into the sky in the basket of a balloon, plummet to earth and land on a runaway roller-coaster, but each time they adjust to new circumstances everything around them vanishes. At last Ko-Ko manages to turn the tables on his tormentor when he seizes control of the fade-out powder and flings it at Max's pen, causing it to disappear. Then Ko-Ko and Fitz escape from the drawing board and enter the "real" world of live action, where they excitedly experiment with making very large things disappear: houses, trains, ships, etc. Chaos ensues.
Cartoon buffs will recognize source material here for later classics by Tex Avery and Chuck Jones, among others; Jones's immortal Duck Amuck, in which Daffy is tormented by an animator who turns out to be Bugs Bunny, seems to have been inspired by the Inkwell series in a general sense. In any case, 'Fadeaway' is a great cartoon in its own right, one that ranks with the Fleischer Studio's best. It's a must-see for animation fans, and anyone else who wants to leave reality behind for a few minutes.