Inklings, Issue 12

Dave Fleischer: Inklings, Issue 12, last item: The House That Jack Built. My screenshot from YouTube.

Dave Fleischer: Inklings, Issue 12, last item: The House That Jack Built. The house is seen to come apart in silhouette animation: "This is the horse and the hound and the horn / That belonged to the farmer sowing his corn / That kept the rooster that crowed in the morn / That woke the judge all shaven and shorn / That married the man all tattered and torn / That kissed the maiden all forlorn / That milked the cow with the crumpled horn / That tossed the dog that worried the cat / That killed the rat that ate the malt / That lay in the house that Jack built." My screenshot from YouTube.

Dave Fleischer: Inklings, Issue 12, last item: The House That Jack Built. In the end, the elements merge and the house comes together again. My screenshot from YouTube.

INKLINGS, ISSUE 12 (Inkwell Studios / Red Seal Pictures Corp., US, 1925). Director / Animator: Dave Fleischer. 35 mm, 6 min (24 fps). Preserved by the Museum of Modern Art.
    English intertitles.
    In the presence of Annette Melville.
    Grand piano: David Drazin.
    Viewed at Teatro Zancanaro, Sacile, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM): Treasures from American Archives

Scott Simmon (GCM): "The pun in the title Inklings – suggesting both simple drawings and emerging ideas – matches the witty optical illusions in the films themselves. The director and lead animator of the series, Dave Fleischer, had a contentious relationship with his older brother Max, who received more credit for their celebrated Out of the Inkwell collaborations. Inklings was an effort by Dave to go it alone. Only three issues of this forgotten but brilliantly inventive series are known to survive, all preserved by the Museum of Modern Art."

"In this twelfth issue, a painting of a bearded man inverts into the then-familiar image of Rin-Tin-Tin, ink drawings of children grow into unexpected adults, and a black panel is cut by knife to discover the characters literally within “The House That Jack Built”—a favorite children’s rhyme since the eighteenth century. The segments are introduced by the artist’s hand, animating and itself animated.
This Inklings screening will also feature a performance of the new score created by celebrated film and television composer Fred Steiner especially for the More Treasures from American Film Archives DVD set." – Scott Simmon (GCM)

AA: An assured touch in a simple and basic but well-made animation with three items: 1) the head of a man turns around and becomes Rin-Tin-Tin, 2) the faces of children change completely when they grow up, 3) the nursery rhyme "The House That Jack Built" is illustrated in silhouette animation. A good print.