Sick Product of a Sick System

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

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. While 'Ko-Ko Back Tracks' is nowhere near Fleischer's, or Ko-Ko's for that matter, best, it's still pretty entertaining. One can definitely see with 'Ko-Ko Back Tracks' what the appeal is. Like all Ko-Ko cartoons, there is not much special or anything much for that matter to the story, which is generally best to be forgotten. Other cartoons before and since are livelier in pace too, momentum is not always consistent it felt here. Would have liked a little more animation and while the material and gags are certainly amusing they are not as inventive or as wild as most Ko-Ko cartoons.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, if perhaps not as seamlessly as other Ko-Ko cartoons.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.Mostly 'Ko-Ko Back Tracks' has a liveliness and none of the gags misfire really, though generally most could have been more inspired. Koko as ever is very likeable and amusing and the rest of the characters support him just as much. Overall, decent cartoon but there are far better Ko-Ko cartoons around. 6/10 Bethany Cox

This was one of those cartoons that amused audiences a lot more 80 years ago than it does today. Oddly, I found that the Koko The Clown cartoons earlier in the decade a lot more clever than this late silent-film entry. Maybe Max and Dave had run out of ideas on how to make Koko and the "Out of the Inkwell" material entertaining as much as they were in the previous years. Who knows. However, it wasn't long after the "talkies" began that these guys hit it big with Popeye The Sailor Man, beginning in 1933.Most of this story is simply about Koko and some other little creature - kind of strange- looking pup - going backwards and then making time actually go backwards for everyone else, animated or real! It sounds better than it played. (Showing slow scenes of everyday life: smoke going into a chimney, traffic going backwards, people walking backwards, etc., really isn't humorous....at least not in 2007. Hey, you can't win 'em all. Most of these Koko cartoons I've watched have been super.