The Tantalizing Fly

Director: Max Fleischer
Release date: October 14, 1919
Stars: Max Fleischer, Koko the Clown
Rating: ★★★
Review:

Max en Dave Fleischer were two true animation pioneers. In 1915 they invented the rotoscope, which they patented that year. With rotoscope they could capture live action movement as drawings on paper. Their first rotoscope tests featured Dave Fleischer in a clown suit, and these were the origin of Koko the Clown, star of ‘Out of the Inkwell’ series.

The two brothers started to make these shorts for J.R. Bray from 1919 on, but they only became a real series in 1920, and Koko got his name much later, in 1923. ‘The Tantalizing Fly’ is but the second ‘Out of the Inkwell’ short, yet it already shows the merit of rotoscope and the brothers’ imaginative way of storytelling.

In ‘The Tantalizing Fly’ Max Fleischer is hindered by a fly while drawing Koko. He tries to swat it, but hits Koko instead. Then it’s Koko’s turn. He tries to lure the fly by drawing a bald sitting man, but only manages in hitting the man instead of the fly.

The idea of an animator drawing a character is as old as animation itself, and clocking less than four minutes ‘The Tantalizing Fly’ is frustratingly short, leaving room for just a few gags, but Fleischer’s mix of animation, rotoscope and live action is fun to watch, and shows that the two brothers were among the most interesting animation film makers of their time.

Watch ‘The Tantalizing Fly’ yourself and tell me what you think:

‘The Tantalizing Fly’ is available on the Blu-Ray ‘Cartoon Roots: The Bray Studios Animation Pioneers’ and on the DVD-set ‘Popeye the Sailor 1933-1938’