Flip the Frog

Ub Iwerks was the lead animator for Walt Disney Productions, after he and Walt Disney left Winkler Pictures to work on the Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony series. In 1930, after a series of disputes between the two, Iwerks left the company and went on to accept an offer from distributor Pat Powers to open a cartoon studio of his own, Animated Pictures, and receive a salary of $300 a week, an offer that Disney was unable to match at the time.

Iwerks was to produce new cartoons under Powers' Celebrity Pictures auspices and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The first series he was to produce was to feature a character called Tony the Frog, but Iwerks disliked the name and was subsequently changed to Flip. Flip's personality is reminiscent of Mickey Mouse, which Iwerks created with Disney and had intended to compete with.

Ub Iwerks planned to release the series in both color and black-and-white versions through Celebrity Productions, Inc. The series attracted public attention in England by being the first color sound cartoon series, in the two-color British Multicolor System. These shorts were exhibited in England in color, but not in the United States where they were made. After four shorts had been produced (Fiddlesticks, Flying Fists, Little Orphan Willie and Puddle Pranks) MGM picked up the series. They agreed to exhibit Fiddlesticks and Flying Fists. Little Orphan Willie and Puddle Pranks were never copyrighted and remain in the public domain. MGM decided to produce the series entirely in black and white, releasing the ones produced in color in black-and-white versions only. Some have speculated that the episode Techno-Cracked (1933) may have been photographed in Cinecolor. The Cinecolor process was a new two-color process that came out in 1932, the year that Technicolor began phasing out its two-color system in favor of their new three-strip process. Iwerks would go on to make extensive use of Cinecolor with his ComiColor Cartoon series.

Iwerks' studio quickly began accumulating new talent, such as animators Fred Kopietz, Irv Spence, Grim Natwick, and Chuck Jones (who worked at the Iwerks studio as a cel-washer before going on to inbetweening and then animating at the Leon Schlesinger studio). After the first two cartoons, the appearance of Flip the Frog gradually became less froglike. This was done under the encouragement of MGM, who thought that the series would sell better if the character were more humanized. Flip's major redesign is attributed to Grim Natwick, who made a name for himself at the Fleischer Studios with the creation of Betty Boop. Natwick also had a hand in changing Flip's girlfriend. In earlier films, she was consistently a cat, but Natwick made Flip's new girlfriend, Fifi, a human who shared distinct similarities with Betty (even down to her spit curls).

This frog's personality also began to develop. As the series progressed, Flip became more of a down-and-out, Chaplin-esque character who always found himself in everyday conflicts surrounding the poverty-stricken atmosphere of the Great Depression. Owing to the influx of New York City animators to Iwerks' studio, such as Natwick, the shorts became increasingly risqué. In Room Runners (1932), Flip, out of cash and luck, attempts to sneak out of his hotel in order to avoid paying his past-due rent. Another gag has Flip watch a girl taking a shower through a keyhole. In The Office Boy, released the same year, Flip tries to secure a low-level office job and meets a shapely secretary. At one point in the short, a mischievous mouse that Flip tries to apprehend scoots up the secretary's skirt. In A Chinaman's Chance (1933), Flip and his dog track down the notorious Chinese criminal Chow Mein. While investigating in a Chinese laundry, Flip stumbles into an opium den, inhales the drug though an opium pipe he takes from a sleeping junkie, and begins hallucinating.

The character eventually wore out his welcome at MGM. His final short was Soda Squirt, released in October 1933. Subsequently, Iwerks replaced the series with a new one starring an imaginative child named Willie Whopper. Flip became largely forgotten by the public in the ensuing years, but the character would make a small comeback when animation enthusiasts and historians began digging up the old Iwerks shorts. All of the Flip cartoons are now available in the 2004 Region 2 Flip the Frog DVD set released by Mk2/Lobster in France. Most are available in Region 1, in particular on the Cartoons That Time Forgot series.

The copyright for Fiddlesticks was renewed in 1959 by Exclusive Pictures Corp.; it entered the public domain in 2026, whereas the remaining copyrighted cartoons, if any, will enter the public domain as late as 2029.

In 1931, a Flip the Frog Annual was issued in England by Dean & Son Ltd. Published "by exclusive arrangement with Ub Iwerks, the originator of the film character, Flip The Frog", it was drawn by Wilfred Haughton, who also drew the early Mickey Mouse Annuals for Dean. The Annual only ran for one edition, based on Flip's ending in 1933 and the lack of success with it. The earlier, more frog-like character was used rather than the later version. The book contains 11 full cartoon strip stories, 4 colour plates and other one-page items that are not derived from any of his cartoons. All the adventures take place outside, unlike the cartoons, and feature additional characters, including a mischievous boy fox ("Freddie"), a policeman ("Robert"), an Uncle Flop (mentioned only), and others not shown in the cartoon films. An additional cartoon co-star included is Flap, Flip's frog girlfriend from Puddle Pranks (1930).

All cartoons have their copyrights renewed unless otherwise noted.

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Thirty-seven of Flip's cartoons were compiled on the French Mk2/Lobster Films 2004 2-disc DVD set Flip the Frog.

Twenty-seven of Flip's cartoons are included in the two DVD collections Cartoons That Time Forgot: The Ub Iwerks Collection, Vol. 1 and 2.

Another early Flip short, Little Orphan Willie, while not included on any of the above DVD releases, is included on the DVD collection Return of the 30s Characters from Thunderbean Animation.

Iwerks retained the original camera negatives to the films. All thirty-eight of Flip's cartoons were released and restored from the negatives on Blu-ray in October 2023 by Thunderbean Animation. The Blu-ray has an introduction by documentary filmmaker and Ub Iwerks' granddaughter Leslie Iwerks.

A clip of the character tap-dancing on a turtle from Fiddlesticks is featured on a television set in the music video for Eminem's song "The Real Slim Shady", which a viewer laughs at.

Footage from Room Runners is featured during the intro sequence of the Futurama episode "Children of a Lesser Bog".

In the Muppet Babies episode "The Great Muppet Cartoon Show", footage from "Funny Face" appears during the "We Love Cartoons" song.