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. Or at least most of the time. Unfortunately 'Ko'Ko Trains Em', while far from a bad cartoon, is an exception, and also something of a disappointment. As noted, it went from very good, with a strong first half, to just above average with a wanting second.
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.
'Ko-Ko Trains Em' is lively and great fun to begin with, with very funny, the best of them hilarious, and inventively timed gags with a sharp and wonderfully bizarre humour style. Ko-Ko himself is likeable and amusing, but the dog with some ingenious imitations (indeed the Roosevelt one is a scream) steals the show from under him.
Which is why it is such a shame that the second half is nowhere near as good. The pacing loses its liveliness and the cartoon drags. There is a real sense that there was a running out of ideas because 'Ko-Ko Trains Em' really struggles to fill over ten minutes worth of story, which was formulaic and fairly thin to begin with but completely neglected later.
The material is nowhere near as imaginative or as funny, gags similarly fewer, and the second half is too heavy in repetition, making the cartoon feel very disjointed. 'Ko-Ko Trains Em' could easily have just had the first half and finished at the half-way point with a more rounded ending, because the second half felt too much like tacked on and unneeded material there for padding the length out purposes. That might not have been the intention but that is how it came across as.
Overall, above average but a disappointment. 6/10 Bethany Cox