Bosko, the Talk-Ink Kid

Bosko, the Talk-Ink Kid is a 1929 live-action/animated short film produced to sell a series of Bosko cartoons. The film was never released to theaters, and therefore not seen by a wide audience until 2000 (71 years later) on Cartoon Network's television special Toonheads: The Lost Cartoons. The film was produced in May 1929, directed by Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising, together with the Warner Brothers.

Plot

Rudolf Ising is thinking of ideas for a new character, until he draws a blackfaced person, who comes to life. The new character introduces himself as Bosko, and he speaks, sings, dances and plays the piano before Ising sucks him into his ink pen and pours him back into the inkwell. Bosko pops out of the bottle and promises to return.

Home video

Bosko, the Talk-Ink Kid on Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1, Disc 4, also available on disc 3 as part of Toonheads: The Lost Cartoons, and Disc 3 of the Blu-ray version only on Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 2.

Preservation

The short was considered lost for many decades, with only the film's Vitaphone soundtrack still in existence. By the late 1950s, when the film was being sold in a package on television, it was transferred into 16mm film by Associated Artists Productions in 1956 and was shown on television. Turner Entertainment had a 35mm, but did not acknowledge it's existence until 1999. The short was later restored on DVD.

External links

• Bosko, the Talk-Ink Kid at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Bosko, the Talk-Ink Kid at IMDb
• Bosko the Talk Ink Kid (Restored) on YouTube