Flip Flap (1948) User Reviews

Seal of Approval

[boblipton · 5/10 · 21 January 2014]

Flip Flap leaves his family at the zoo to move to the Arctic Paradise. However, when his girl friend Celia is captured by sealers, there is nothing to hold him and he returns home in this decent but unremarkable Noveltoon.

Noveltoons were Famous Studios line of non-series cartoons in the 1940s and the beginning of the 1950s, where they tried out new ideas in an effort to find repeatable successes like Popeye and Herman & Katnip. Most of them fell into patterns in which child-like heroes -- like Flip Flap -- face some issue that is solved easily in the last sequence. The gags here are standard cartoon gags in which ordinary human tropes are given a seal or Arctic interpretation: competent, but not terribly inspired. If you have a yen to see a typical entry in the series, this will do well.

Flip flapping for approval

[TheLittleSongbird · 5/10 · 28 February 2020]

Did find a good deal to like about the Noveltoons series from Famous Studios, with the best decade being in my opinion the 40s. Some cartoons are better than others, some much more so, but the series is well worth seeing and were mostly very well made and scored. When Famous Studios were good, their cartoons were amusing (sometimes hilarious) and charming without being too sentimental. When they were not so good, their cartoons could be too cute and the material and stories could be thin and tired.

'Flip Flap' is neither one of the best or worst Noveltoon cartoons, and the studio overall did better and worse, and fits in the competent but very average extreme. 'Flip Flap' has all of the consistent good things about Famous Studios' primarily 40s cartoons (generally their quality for me declined around the mid-late-50s onwards), but it also has most of the drawbacks of the middling to worst cartoons in the Noveltoons series and from the studio.

The good things are quite a few and quite a few. In their 40s efforts, regardless of the standard of everything else (which did vary), the two things that were consistently good were the animation and the music. The animation sees a lot of beautiful, fluid drawing and atmospheric colours, but it was the very richly detailed backgrounds that particularly stood out. The music is distinctive Sammy Timberg, which is a good thing being somebody who likes the lush and dynamic orchestration and nuanced character that was always present in his music very much and have never had a problem with how it fits.

Credited Ken Roberts provides some charming narration without over-explaining with what's going on. Flip Flap is an adorable title character and very easy to identify with. There is some genuine charm here and a few mildly amusing moments.

It is a shame though that the story is at best paper thin and for too much of 'Flip Flap' non existent. It could have done with a tighter pace, the beginning parts would have benefitted from being more eventful and there is not enough dramatic tension.

Also thought that 'Flip Flap' veered too much on being the wrong side of saccharine and being too cute. The gags tend to be too few and they are pretty "seen it all before" and "running out of ideas" quality.

On the whole, 'Flip Flap' has its fair share of good things and is watchable enough. At the same time it felt somewhat bland. A mixed feelings 5/10

Cute Little "Noveltoon" Cartoon

[ja_kitty_71 · 10/10 · 21 May 2015]

Here is a "Noveltoon" cartoon from Paramount Studios. I had never heard or seen it until I watched it on YouTube. Upon witnessing it, my affection for it grew; prior to this, I held a fondness for seals.

Well, the story for this cute little cartoon is about a bored little zoo seal named Flip Flap who runs away to the Frozen North after hearing about it from his parents. When he gets there, he meets a cute little seal girl. The two automatically fall in love, but will it last? Why did I say that? Well, you will just have to watch the cartoon and see.

So overall, this cartoon is so cute, and I really love it. I don't really have a favorite scene.