Additional Information about the Theatrical Cartoon My Old Kentucky Home

Contains animation (themes, sequences or characters) which modern audiences may consider derogatory toward certain ethnic or religious groups. Additionally, this cartoon contains the original lyrics of "My Old Kentucky Home," by Stephen Collins Foster (1853) which some consider offensive in modern times.

This short used an early DeForest sound system for sound. Animation Historian Ray Pointer further comments:

My Old Kentucky Home appears to be the first attempt at animated dialogue, as the dog mouths, "Follow the ball, and join in, everybody" in remarkable synchronization. This comes two years before Disney's Steamboat Willie where the parrot squawks, and Mickey Mouse did not even speak until two years after that.

The Song Car-tunes were only three to four minutes in length. The sound versions consisted of stock animation footage of Ko-Ko jumping out of the ink bottle and going to a black board, where he drew the Ko-Ko Kwartet in chalk line. The Kwartet then became animated and entered a theater, where Ko-Ko would appear at a lectern on stage, holding up a sign. The new footage for the individual cartoon would begin with a pun or description pertaining to the featured song. These cartoons then featured the song lyrics on the screen, highlighted with a bouncing white ball. In addition to the ball bouncing over the lyrics, the repeated chorus would have words animated, or characters would animate over the words as puns. Various Fleischer characters (such as Ko-Ko the Clown or Fitz the Dog) would make an appearance.

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