Flip the Frog

Flip the Frog is an animated cartoon character created by American animator Ub Iwerks. He starred in a series of cartoons produced by Celebrity Pictures and distributed through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1930 to 1933. The series had many recurring characters besides Flip; including Flip's dog, the mule Orace, and a dizzy neighborhood spinster.

History of Flip

Flip was created by Ub Iwerks, animator for the Walt Disney Studios and a personal friend of Walt Disney in 1930, at the Iwerks Studios. After a series of disputes between the two, Iwerks left Disney and went on to accept an offer from Pat Powers to open a cartoon studio of his own and receive a salary of $300 a week, an offer that Disney couldn't match at the time. Iwerks was to produce new cartoons under Powers's 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 it was subsequently changed to Flip.

Flip

Flip, FLIP, or flips may refer to:

Arts and entertainment

Music

Other

Business

Initialisms

Frog

Frogs are a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (Ancient Greek an-, without + oura, tail). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" appeared in the early Triassic of Madagascar, but molecular clock dating suggests their origins may extend further back to the Permian, 265 million years ago. Frogs are widely distributed, ranging from the tropics to subarctic regions, but the greatest concentration of species diversity is found in tropical rainforests. There are approximately 4,800 recorded species, accounting for over 85% of extant amphibian species. They are also one of the five most diverse vertebrate orders.

The body plan of an adult frog is generally characterized by a stout body, protruding eyes, cleft tongue, limbs folded underneath, and the absence of a tail in adults. Besides living in fresh water and on dry land, the adults of some species are adapted for living underground or in trees. The skin of the frog is glandular, with secretions ranging from distasteful to toxic. Warty species of frog tend to be called toads but the distinction between frogs and toads is based on informal naming conventions concentrating on the warts rather than taxonomy or evolutionary history; some toads are more closely related to frogs than to other toads. Frogs' skins vary in colour from well-camouflaged dappled brown, grey and green to vivid patterns of bright red or yellow and black to advertise toxicity and warn off predators.

The Frog

The Frog is a 1937 British crime film directed by Jack Raymond and starring Noah Beery, Jack Hawkins and Richard Ainley. The film is about the police chasing a criminal mastermind who goes by the name of The Frog. It was based on a novel by Edgar Wallace. It was followed by a loose sequel The Return of the Frog, the following year.

Cast

Critical reception

Britmovie called it a "routine thriller" ; while British Pictures wrote, "(it) suffers through being an adaptation of a theatre adaptation (by Ian Hay) of the original novel. Some of the exposition is clunky and at times confusing; and the direction needed someone like Walter Forde to make the most of it. Hawkins and Harker, in the roles they played on stage, hold it together."

Ub Iwerks

Ubbe Eert "Ub" Iwerks, A.S.C. (/ˈʌb ˈaɪwɜːrks/; March 24, 1901 – July 7, 1971) was an American animator, cartoonist, character designer, inventor, and special effects technician, who created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Mickey Mouse with Walt Disney. The works Iwerks produced alongside Disney went on to win numerous awards, including multiple Academy Awards.

He was born in Kansas City, Missouri. His father, Eert Ubbe Iwerks, emigrated to the U.S. in 1869 from the village of Uttum in East Frisia (northwest Germany, today part of the municipality of Krummhörn). Ub's full name can be seen on early "Alice" shorts that he signed. Several years later he simplified his name to "Ub Iwerks", sometimes written as "U. B. Iwerks".

He is the father of Disney Legend Don Iwerks and grandfather to documentary film producer Leslie Iwerks.

Career

Iwerks was considered by many to be Walt Disney's oldest friend, and spent most of his career with Disney. The two met in 1919 while working for the Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio in Kansas City, and would eventually start their own commercial art business together. Disney and Iwerks then found work as illustrators for the Kansas City Slide Newspaper Company (which would later be named The Kansas City Film Ad Company). While working for the Kansas City Film Ad Company, Disney decided to take up work in animation, and Iwerks soon joined him.