Circus

Flip the Frog plays a hot dog vendor at a circus, but soon finds himself chasing after a thief for stealing a woman's purse. I enjoyed some of the gags in this cartoon such as the beginning where Flip is selling a hot dog to a customer. He orders the hot dog to roll over and it dips itself into the mustard. As the customer bites into it, it jumps out of the bun and flees. This is exactly similar to the Mickey Mouse cartoon THE KARNIVAL KID. This isn't a surprise seeing as both cartoons were animated by Ub Iwerks. I also enjoy the gag where the woman slides down an ostrich whose feathers fit on her like a tutu. The ending (which I will not give away) was quite a surprise for me. Overall, I feel the animation of this short is done quite well as most of Ub's cartoons are.

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, enough of them even being good.

Despite not being historically significant like 'Fiddlesticks', which other than that was actually to me a lesser Flip the Frog cartoon, was, 'Circus' is still pretty good. Not one of the best of the series, but far from one of the worst. It is not perfect but there are things here that improve quite a bit and done much better than many other Flip the Frog cartoons.

A lot of good things in 'Circus'. The animation is very good good, with beautifully detailed backgrounds, nice shading and characters that aren't drawn too crudely. There is some nice character animation here. 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.

There are plentiful sight gags, and they are beautifully timed and very amusing, even when unoriginal. Maybe not always hilarious but they hardly fall flat, the hotdog sequence is a riot. There is a nice natural charm and a good deal of zest.

Characters are lively. There is a lot of excitement and fun as well as a sense of danger. The pacing is never dull.

Flip is a bit bland still though, he never was one of animation's most compelling, most interesting or personality-filled lead characters.

A lack of originality and moving forward too, there is some gag borrowing and reuse here and with not enough freshness. Structurally, on top of being slight and occasionally on the sentimental side, it's at times repetitive and random.

Overall, pretty good. 7/10 Bethany Cox

This is a very funny cartoon, but from a plotting standpoint, it's a mess. The individual gags just happen more or less by happenstance. Ub Iwerks was interested in technique more than content. He was an idea man only when it came to the mechanics of things. A master at what he did and one of the finest animators who ever dipped a pen into an inkwell, but not overly interested in mundane trifles like plots or stories. Tex Avery, master of the machine gun school of sight gags, included something resembling a plot most of the time, even if he simply poked fun at it later. This was Iwerk's Achilles heel and why, at least in part, his studio folded in a few years. His shorts were visually nice, even beautiful in some cases, funny and often just as forgettable as a stale piece of toast. This has some wonderful gags and you may remember the gag for years-but forget which cartoon it was in after two days. The individual parts are better than their sum. Worth watching because the animation is superb. Cotton candy, sumptuous but hardly filling. Recommended with above caveats.

Circus (1932)

*** (out of 4)

As the title clearly suggests, the circus is the setting for this entry in the Flip the Frog series. Flip is doing his job selling hot dogs when he notices a man stealing a woman's purse. The film then switches over to slapstick as Flip tries to catch the guy.

CIRCUS is a fun entry for the series and while it's certainly not the best that it had to offer there's at least enough clever charm to make it worth watching for fans. The highlight is certainly the scene where Flip fixes the hot dog, which includes the hot dog coming to life and dipping itself in mustard before getting on the bun. The second portion of the film has Flip getting involved or interrupting several circus acts with another highlight coming when the lion gets a tasty treat.

The bulk of this cartoon is a wild chase scene between Flip The Frog and a purse snatcher.

Flip is a hot dog vendor at the circus and the opening gags are very funny. Where else but a cartoon to you see the following? A customer approaches, and asks for one hot dog. Four little dogs come out and dance and the customer picks out his favorite. The hot dog is then told by Flip to lie down (on the grill!), roll over, then go over and dip his butt into a jar of mustard and then lie on top of a bun. The little hot dog then closes the top part of the bun on himself and waits to be eaten. On the first bite, though, he yells "ouch" and jumps out of the bun.....only to be eaten by a nearby two-head Siamese twin! That's the wacky world of these UB Iwerks "Flip The Frog" animated shorts, which is why I really enjoy a lot of these.

Anyway, a pick pocket comes along, steals a few things and then gets spotted stealing an old woman's purse. The bulk of the cartoon is Flip going after the crook and the crazy scenes that ensue. The two of them go at it while a three-ring circus is in progress, so you get some very wild sight gags, such as the two opponents running up, down and around a big horse while chasing each other. You see them on roller-coaster type motorcycle events, or the high wire.

Along the chase are numerous innocent victims, such as a guy who gets eaten by a lion, or another who gets flattened by an elephant.

It's another frenetic Flip cartoon, which means it is fun to watch, and with a surprise ending. Definitely recommended.