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. Again, after another brief spout of good cartoons, 'Movie Mad' 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.
'Movie Mad' does mildly amuse and charm in places, with some nicely engineered and amusing gags. Not a dull or completely humourless cartoon. The supporting characters are nice enough The chemistry between the characters does have a little charm and tension. There is a great corridor sequence and the highlights are the Charlie Chaplin impersonation and the Laurel and Hardy caricatures.
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. There are actually more gags than usual, 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, 'Movie Mad' 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 on the dull side with some draggy pacing. The cartoon definitely could have done far more with its Hollywood setting.
Overall, average but not a bad cartoon. 5/10 Bethany Cox
