Flip the Frog



         


Flip the Frog was Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's first sound cartoon. It is about a happy-go-lucky, needy frog, named Flip the Frog, and his girlfriend, Clarisse Cat. Other recurring characters include Flip's dog, the mule Orace, and a dizzy neighborhood spinster.

The cartoon was created by Ub Iwerks in 1930. He had drawn a frog and his girlfriend in "Night'", one of the last Silly Symphonies short films he drew while working for Walt Disney.

After leaving Disney, Ub Iwerks began the Flip cartoon series with the help of Pat Powers. The first cartoon that Ub Iwerks made for the series was called Fiddlesticks (released on August 16, 1930), and it was also the first color sound cartoon ever made. Fiddlesticks was made in two-color Technicolor. The rest of the Flip series were made in black and white, except for Techno-Cracked (1933).

After the first two cartoons, the appearance of Flip the Frog was changed to become less frog-like. This was done under the encouragement of MGM who thought that the series would sell better if the character were more humanized. By the time the series ended Flip the Frog looked more like a boy than a frog. As part of this transformation, Clarisse Cat was eventually traded for a human girl named Fifi.

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List of cartoons for the Flip the Frog series






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