Jumping Beans

"Jumping Beans" is one of the best Koko shorts I have seen. It's clever, funny and well worth your time. And, like the rest, it consists of Max Fleischer's creation being put through torment by Max...and Koko naturally becoming quite angry.

When the story begins, Max gives Koko some Mexican Jumping Beans*. Soon, they get planted and a HUGE beanstalk quickly grows into outer space. Naturally, Koko is curious and climbs the stalk. But his adventures don't stop here. After Max annoys Koko, Koko creates an army of Kokos and they attack...much like then the Lilliputians attacked Gulliver.

There is so much to like about this cartoon. And, like a great silent, it holds up really well nearly 100 years later--still cute, clever and captivating. Very well done.

*If you are curious, Mexican Jumping Beans are not beans at all but a cocoon in which a larval moth lives until it eventually breaks its way free. It jumps as it's warmed...meaning if you hold these 'beans' in your hand, it heats up and begins bouncing.

This is a long cartoon: almost 11 minutes, which can seem longer when there is absolute silence including sound-effects noises. However, because it's Max Fleischer and his animated "invention," "Koko The Clown," there is usually enough entertaining material to keep to interested.

I never cease to marvel at the ingenuity of these old silent cartoons. Fleischer, and his brother Dave, who directed these cartoons, must have simply stunned the movie audiences back in the early '20s with this material. Some 85 years later, I think it holds up well, except for the lack of sound.

The Fleischer's mixed real-life characters (usually himself) with the animated Koko and you'd see some unique results. For instance, after throwing Mexican jumping beans on the canvas and having Koko go crazy trying to catch them, Max gets an eye dropper and puts a few drops of water on the drawing board. Suddenly, a huge bean stalk starts growing and growing, and growing right out of the canvas to the sky and Koko starts climbing it. It's really clever stuff with a few signs that are still funny today as the clown climbs into outer space past various planets. This is pretty wild material.

What's unusual, even for a totally silent animated effort like this, is that you don't get a title card or comic-strip bubble until after five minutes. In other words: no written dialog of any kind until then. In all, there were only three or four of them so there is almost entirely silent visuals. Yet the sights are so bizarre it hooks you in, wondering what crazy thing you'll see next.

Without giving away too much, suffice to say it ends with a "Gulliver's Travels" twist.

Kudos to the people who produced the "Popeye The Sailor Man Volume One DVD set for including these wonderful classic cartoons. This one can be seen on disc three from the "From the vault" extra features.

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.

Koko similarly was an always amiable character to watch and among the better recurring characters in Fleischer's early work. Fleischer may not be at his very finest with 'Jumping Beans' and 'Jumping Beans' may not be quite one of his gems. For so early on though and without sound, 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.

'Jumping Beans' is pretty light on plot and it takes a little too much time to get going. Other than those, there is nothing else to complain about with everything else done very 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 'Jumping Beans' is lively and with a wonderfully bizarre sense of humour, even for early Fleischer, and inventiveness.

The involvement of the creator was great fun and Koko is as amiable and amusing as ever.

In conclusion, impressive early effort for Fleischer while not a career high point. 8/10 Bethany Cox