Ko-Ko's Earth Control. (1928)

Halloween festivities continue with a weirdly scary one...

The Fleischers got their start by developing rotoscoping, an ancestor of today's motion-capture animation. To demonstrate it, they created Ko-Ko the Clown. Ko-Ko went on to be their primary cartoon star in the silent era. He was given a semi-anthropomorphic dog sidekick named Fitz. Fitz would evolve through various forms into the fully-anthropomorphic (which is to say essentially a vaguely dog-shaped, functionally human character) Bimbo, who was the studio's lead star going into the sound era. Bimbo would get a girlfriend who would evolve to become completely human as the Fleischers' biggest original star, Betty Boop. By that point, Ko-Ko was reduced to cameos and supporting roles in Betty Boop shorts. But he did make a brief comeback on syndicated TV in the early 1960s, voiced by Larry Storch. Often featured on your local hosted kiddie shows.

Beyond the usual creepiness of silent-era cartoons and the nightmare fuel common to early Fleischer work, this short qualifies for a Halloween showing by featuring the Devil himself, a Tree Monster, and the most evil character of them all: Fitz the Dog, who is literally hellbent to pull the Destroy The World lever.

What idiot keeps installing "Blow Us All To Atoms" levers in the first place?! (See the end of BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN)!

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