Ko-Ko's Harem Scarem (1929) Online

In Ko-Ko's Harem Scarem in the live-action portion, a man dressed in an ancient Middle Eastern outfit is waiting for his treasure. His assistant brings the chest and as it is opened, the ME man finds an inkwell inside. As he opens it, Ko-Ko and his dog Fitz come out. The man chops their heads as he exits and laughs. Feet appear under the clown and his dog's heads as the bodies get reattached. They enter the drawing above them that depicts Arabian backgrounds where they encounter a magician who makes Fitz disappear and points a palace to Ko-Ko as the dog's whereabouts. Ko-Ko goes there to retrieve him and sees through a keyhole a female dancer before getting interrupted by a black servant. He chases Ko-Ko until the clown challenges him to dice and wins. The servant points to where the palace head is as Ko-Ko disguises himself as a woman to get in. The head is fooled by the disguise so much he kisses Ko-Ko who spits the other way in disgust! Fitz reappears at this point as he and the clown hug! The head and another black servant (who also shines shoes) with a giant switch blade give chase as the leading duo go back to their inkwell leaving the others behind...While a pretty amusing entry in the Inkwell Imps series of Max Fleischer cartoons, there are some unfortunate stereotype characterizations that are deemed unacceptable today like the bug-eyes of the black servant when he sees dice or the other one who shoe shines, when he's sweating, has black sweats which he uses to polish a man's shoes! Then there's a gag of when Ko-Ko's watching the female dancer through a keyhole as he's swinging his butt up and down and back and forth that almost suggests a sexual connotation that definitely wouldn't make it on Saturday morning television! Still, worth viewing for any Fleischer enthusiasts out there.

Dave Fleischer is dressed as some kind of sultan. A man brings a "treasure" that he has searched far and wide for. When it's opened, it contains a bottle of ink which contains Ko-Ko and Fitz. He immediately cuts off their heads, but remember they are just ink figures. They go on an adventure in a kind of Arabian Nights sort of setting. Other than being chased around, nothing much takes place. Fitz is dognapped and Ko-Ko looks for him. There is the usual racist portrayal of a subservient black man.

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. There are certainly far better Ko-Ko cartoons than 'Ko-Ko's Harem Scarem'. Having said that, it's still an enjoyable enough effort.

Like all Ko-Ko cartoons, there is not much special or anything much for that matter to the story, although the idea is fun if not the most creative. Other cartoons before and since are livelier in pace too, momentum is not always consistent it felt here.

A couple of the gags could have been more inventive and wild, a couple on the tasteless side too even for the fairly risqué setting (especially the looking through the keyhole one), the stereotypes don't hold up, far from subtle and not for the easily offended (especially the drawing).

Having said that, there is a good deal to like here. It is amusing, with delightful character interplay and the animation and the live action, together and individually, are handled very well.

One expects the animation to be primitive and very low quality, judging by that it's the early 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 is nicely shot.

Most of the pacing is breezy enough and most of the gags are very amusing, clever and well timed, increasingly so when Ko-Ko's antics get wilder. Koko as ever is very likeable and fun to watch. Like Fitz a lot too.

Overall, decent though Ko-Ko and Fleischer have done far better. 6/10 Bethany Cox