Ray Pointer, an animation enthusiast of the medium’s early days who turned his passion into a personal crusade to restore and present the work of such animation pioneers and innovators as Max Fleischer, Pat Sullivan, Otto Messmer and the young Walt Disney, has finally delivered on his promise to make his VHS anthology programs available on the DVD format. Having seen these great discs, it’s simple to easily recommend them, being as professionally produced as any recent compliation from Disney or Warner Brothers. Exclusively available (and shipped worldwide) from his online Inkwell Images site, Ray’s Out Of The Inkwell, Volumes 1 & 2 disc has been joined by a longer Volumes 3 & 4 combination, as well as a new Ko-Ko’s Song Car-tunes disc in the Fleischer Brothers section, while you’ll find an hour’s worth of Alice In Cartoonland shorts and others from the time, as well as some from when Before Walt was top of the cartoon heap, in the Walt Disney section.

As animation historian Jerry Beck says: “The print quality is the best…the transfers are excellent”, and it’s certainly easy to agree with him. Ray has meticulously cut various print sources together, reproduced title cards and, in some cases, matched up rare re-issue original soundtracks as they were originally intended, for the best-yet presentation of these films on any format. Ray reveals the lengths he went to in bringing these classics back from the past with his informative and entertaining Finding Ko-Ko essay – well worth checking out, and well worth all that effort, so that we may now enjoy these cartoons again. More please!