Archive for the 'Cartoon Clowns' Category
Cartoon Clowns
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- KoKo the Clown
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- Bozo the Clown
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- Krusty the Clown
While most of us are only old enough to remember cartoon clowns as being colorful characters that did whacky stuff on the morning cartoons we all sat through faithfully for hours each Saturday, cartoon clowns have been around since even before the days of Disney.
Koko the Clown
The first fully animated series of a cartoon clown was created by Max Fleischer, who, along with his Brother, Dave, opened an animation studio called “Out of the Inkwell Studios” and later named it “Fleischer Studios.” In the early 1900’s, Max invented a machine called the rotoscope which allowed him to mix live action films with animation to make some unique animated cartoons. Koko the Clown was one of the first Out of the Inkwell Cartoon characters.
One of the earliest cartoons titled “The Cure,” featured the live-action cartoonist (Max Fleischer) interacting with the cartoon clown, Koko, switching back and forth between animation and live action. See videos below. Fleischer Studios was purchased by Paramount Studios in 1941 and MaxFleischer continued to make Koko the Clown cartoons through the 1950’s.
Bozo the Clown
Bozo the Clown came about as the result of a series of read-along books developed by Alan Livingston in 1946, whereby children could listen to an album narrated by the character Bozo, while simultaneously reading a book and turning the pages as prompted. The first book was entitled “Bozo at the Circus,” and was picked up by Capitol Records. Bozo became the record company mascot, and several actors in different cities were hired to portray Bozo to meet the demands of the character’s ever-increasing popularity.
One of those actors, Larry Harmon, ended up buying the rights to the character name, and re-naming him “Bozo, The Most Famous Clown.” With the rights to the character, Harmon opened an animation studio and began producing a series of “Bozo the Clown” cartoons, but the cartoons never became as famous as the live Bozo character. See video below. Does the video make you more scared of clowns?
Crusty the Clown
Sometimes spelled with a “K”, Krusty the Clown is the brilliant creation of artist Matt Groening. Krusty first appeared as a cartoon short on the Tracy Ulmann Show, along with other shorts of the now-famous Simpsons. When the Simpsons moved into its own regular television time slot, Krusty the Clown became a regular fixture on the show, hosting his own television show within the Simpson’s show, and is characterized as Lisa and Bart Simpson’s most beloved cartoon clown. With his bad attitude, coupled with his bad habits of drinking and smoking, Krusty the Clown epitomizes everything a children’s cartoon clown shouldn’t be, in some of the best comedic situations on television today.
There you have it, how three totally different cartoon clowns came to life to entertain multiple generations of the young and the young-at-heart.
Clown Killer game