Flip and his girlfriend go on a date in a swimming hole.Flip and his girlfriend go on a date in a swimming hole.Flip and his girlfriend go on a date in a swimming hole.
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Storyline
Did you know
- ConnectionsFeatured in Pee-wee's Playhouse: Ants in Your Pants (1986)
Featured review
Swimming hole Flip
Ub Iwerks's Flip the Frog series of cartoons was short-lived, only lasting from 1930 to 1933. On the most part the Flip the Frog cartoons are not great or cartoon/animated masterpieces and it is sort of understandable as to why Flip didn't make it bigger. However they are far from terrible ones either and do hold some interest.
The series started off with three watchable but average cartoons in a row with the historically significant 'Fiddlesticks', 'Little Orphan Willie' and 'Flying Fists', before getting stronger with 'The Village Barber' and particularly 'Cuckoo Murder Case', both among the stronger Flip the Frog cartoons. 'Puddle Pranks' sees the series go backwards and back to the not bad but nothing special standard of the first three Flip the Frog cartoons.
Not bad at all by all means. The animation is good enough with beautifully detailed backgrounds, nice shading and characters that aren't drawn too crudely. The music makes even more of an impact, it is lushly and cleverly orchestrated, full of lively energy and not only adds brilliantly to the action it enhances it.
'Puddle Pranks' does mildly amuse and charm in places, with a few nicely engineered gags and has a lively pace at times. Not a dull or completely humourless cartoon. The villain gives a lot of personality, menace and entertainment value. The chemistry between them does have a little charm and tension.
However, Flip doesn't really have a very interesting or compelling personality which is a very big problem in general in the series. Willie Whopper who came later was an even more short-lived character and to me while also limited he was a much better character. Generally there could have been more gags and while there are amusing parts others veer on the childish. With Iwerks, there was the danger of having too much sentiment and, while other Flip the Frog fare worse in this regard, 'Puddle Pranks' is at times too cutesy, which makes things feel a bit bland and forgettable.
Also problematic is the very thinly plotted story, which actually is not much of one at all and is very predictable, taking a fairly familiar premise and doing very little if anything new with it. Structurally, it also feels very cobbled together, like an episodic series of events that's not always cohesive and occasionally it's a bit on the dull side and doesn't have enough laughs.
Overall, average but watchable. 5/10 Bethany Cox
The series started off with three watchable but average cartoons in a row with the historically significant 'Fiddlesticks', 'Little Orphan Willie' and 'Flying Fists', before getting stronger with 'The Village Barber' and particularly 'Cuckoo Murder Case', both among the stronger Flip the Frog cartoons. 'Puddle Pranks' sees the series go backwards and back to the not bad but nothing special standard of the first three Flip the Frog cartoons.
Not bad at all by all means. The animation is good enough with beautifully detailed backgrounds, nice shading and characters that aren't drawn too crudely. The music makes even more of an impact, it is lushly and cleverly orchestrated, full of lively energy and not only adds brilliantly to the action it enhances it.
'Puddle Pranks' does mildly amuse and charm in places, with a few nicely engineered gags and has a lively pace at times. Not a dull or completely humourless cartoon. The villain gives a lot of personality, menace and entertainment value. The chemistry between them does have a little charm and tension.
However, Flip doesn't really have a very interesting or compelling personality which is a very big problem in general in the series. Willie Whopper who came later was an even more short-lived character and to me while also limited he was a much better character. Generally there could have been more gags and while there are amusing parts others veer on the childish. With Iwerks, there was the danger of having too much sentiment and, while other Flip the Frog fare worse in this regard, 'Puddle Pranks' is at times too cutesy, which makes things feel a bit bland and forgettable.
Also problematic is the very thinly plotted story, which actually is not much of one at all and is very predictable, taking a fairly familiar premise and doing very little if anything new with it. Structurally, it also feels very cobbled together, like an episodic series of events that's not always cohesive and occasionally it's a bit on the dull side and doesn't have enough laughs.
Overall, average but watchable. 5/10 Bethany Cox
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- TheLittleSongbird
- May 24, 2018
Details
- Runtime7 minutes
- Color
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