The March 1, 1930, issue of the trade paper Exhibitors Herald-World contained an announcement that began: “A new star of the pen and ink is about to make his hop into public notice.”
This announcement was referring to Flip the Frog, a brand-new animated character who debuted ninety-five years ago this month. He was created by Ub Iwerks, who, of course, was Walt Disney’s first collaborator, helping to bring both Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Mickey Mouse to the world.
Ub is also well-known for being loyal to Walt when producer Charles Mintz hired away Disney’s staff in 1928. Ub would stay with Walt for a number of years, but would eventually leave, after the two had a few disputes.
Ub would accept an offer from distributor Pat Powers to open his own Studio, dubbed appropriately, Iwerks Studio. Here, Ub would have a chance to make his own cartoons, which would be produced by Powers’ Celebrity Pictures and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
The first of these would feature Iwerks Studio’s new character Flip the Frog (originally named Tony the Frog, until Iwerks changed the name to Flip), in the 1930 cartoon short, entitled Fiddlesticks.
The short opens with Flip hopping and dancing across lily pads in a swamp. After tap dancing atop a turtle shell gets him tossed out of the swamp, he continues his dance on dry land, arriving at an outdoor festivity, where an insect band plays and mice are partying.
Here, he makes his way to the tree stump that serves as a stage and proceeds to perform several dances to the delight of the crowd. Flip then heads over to a piano, where he’s accompanied by a mouse, who bears a striking resemblance to Mickey, and plays the violin. The anthropomorphic piano and piano stool then join the two for a dance. Flip and the mouse go back to playing, and an argument of sorts erupts between Flip and the piano, resulting in Flip punching the piano and knocking out its keys as the short concludes.
Iwerks, who was an ambitious experimenter for his entire career, produced Fiddlesticks in two-strip color (Walt wouldn’t produce his first color cartoon, Flowers and Trees, until 1932, which was made in the three-strip Technicolor process). Additionally, Iwerks created the design of Flip and did most of the animation in Fiddlesticks himself.
In Fiddlesticks, Iwerks showcases the same talents for expressing personality through animation that were on display in Steamboat Willie, just two years prior. There’s no dialogue in Fiddlesticks (Flip simply “honks” a frog-like croak), but plenty of upbeat, mischievous behavior comes across.
There’s also smooth, energetic animation, particularly in the sequence where Flip concentrates on the piano, purposefully moving his flipper across the keys in perfect synch with the music.
As Iwerks Studio grew, the Flip the Frog cartoons would continue (there were a total of 38 produced), but Flip’s design would shift from amphibious with a bow tie to more human-like. Iwerks was able to lure a tremendous team of talent to his Studio, including musical director Carl Stalling and animators Grim Natwick, Shamus Culhane, and Chuck Jones, (the latter worked there as a cel washer).
With his last short produced in 1933, Flip the Frog faded in popularity, and a number of the cartoons slipped into the public domain. However, through the years, thanks to diligent work by many authors and historians, as well as Ub’s granddaughter Leslie Iwerks, who has chronicled the filmmakers’ significant contributions, the Flip the Frog cartoon series has received deserved and renewed attention.
Ninety-five years after this debut in Fiddlesticks, Flip the Frog may not have generated the star power of other cartoon characters from that same period, but he has definitely earned his rightful place in animation history.
Happy Birthday, Flip!
We highly recommend and refer your to Thunderbean Animation’s Flip The Frog the complete series on blu-ray for more Iwerks information.
Michael Lyons is a freelance writer, specializing in film, television, and pop culture. He is the author of the book, Drawn to Greatness: Disney’s Animation Renaissance, which chronicles the amazing growth at the Disney animation studio in the 1990s. In addition to Animation Scoop and Cartoon Research, he has contributed to Remind Magazine, Cinefantastique, Animation World Network and Disney Magazine. He also writes a blog, Screen Saver: A Retro Review of TV Shows and Movies of Yesteryear and his interviews with a number of animation legends have been featured in several volumes of the books, Walt’s People. You can visit Michael’s web site Words From Lyons at: 
I know I once enjoyed the “flip the frog“ series when it appeared on local television here in New York. I cannot say I have absolute vivid memories of it, but I certainly enjoy the music since I bought the complete series from THUNDERBEAN animation recently. I highly recommend it as does the author of this morning‘s cartoon research post. All I can say is it still stands up for me today, but that’s because I enjoy 1930s music and scores very much!
“Flip Flip! Flip Flip! Flip Flip! Flip Flip! Flippy dip Flip!” All right, so it’s no “Hello Ma Baby”, but it sure is catchy.
I first learned about Flip the Frog from the chapter on Ub Iwerks in Jeff Lenburg’s THE GREAT CARTOON DIRECTORS, which I read nearly thirty years ago. I was already familiar with some of the Iwerks ComiColor cartoons like “Jack Frost” and “Balloon Land”, both of them staples of public domain video compilations, but I had never even heard of Flip or Willie Whopper until then. I finally made their acquaintance several years later through the CARTOONS THAT TIME FORGOT video collection, since when Flip and Willie have been among my favourite cartoon stars of the 1930s. I’m especially fond of Flip’s more ribald escapades, such as “Room Runners”, “What a Life”, and “The Office Boy”. Pre-Code cartoons don’t get any pre-codier than that!
I find it fascinating that the first cartoon Iwerks directed after leaving Disney, “Fiddlesticks”, features a violin recital played by a dead ringer for Mickey Mouse, right down to his red shorts and white gloves; while the first cartoon that Walt Disney made after Iwerks’s departure, “Fiddlin’ Around”, features a violin recital played by Mickey Mouse himself. I don’t know if this was merely coincidence, or if Walt was trying to prove that “anything Ub can do, I can do better.” If the latter was the case, then Walt certainly made his point.
Thanks for a “Damn!” good post! Long live Flip!
“Fiddlesticks” could almost be a Silly Symphony cartoon of the same era. The characters and types all bear a resemblance to their Disney equivalents at the time, which is actually not surprising since Ub Iwerks himself was largely responsible for that look. The Mickey Mouse clone was probably deliberate, since Iwerks and Disney had debated over who was most responsible for the character’s creation and development. In the background music, it sounded like a few snatches of a tune resembling “Minnie’s Yoo Hoo”.
Gradually, the cartoons produced by Ub grew into a more distinctive style of their own, to the point where there is a clear demarcation between an Iwerks cartoon and a Disney cartoon.
Fortunately for everyone, the relationship between Walt and Ub was not permanently acrimonious, because later Ub rejoined the Mouse House and made some technical innovations. Just at a time when Disney needed it!
“A Mouse Divided” by Jeff Ryan addresses the Disney-Iwerks relationship in detail and is a fascinating read, especially for giving Iwerks his due share of credit in Disney’s early successes.
I remember first seeing”The Flip The Frog”movie cartoons on a local tv cartoon program”Early Bird Cartoons on WABC TV Channel 7 in NYC..weekday mornings as far back as 1958.
Happy (belated) Birthday, Flip! My first grown-up job was helping out with the restoration/cleanup on Fiddlesticks for Thunderbean and it gave me a further appreciation for Iwerks as someone who knew him mostly for Oswald. It was even more exciting to find out the significance of the short- Flip has become such an endearing character to me now. The history behind all these older mascots, obscure or not, is always so interesting to read about!
Fiddlesticks looks great on the Thunderbean release. I had bought a few of Blackhawk’s Super-8 releases in the 1970’s. I think Flip is great!