Fiddlesticks (1930 film)

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Fiddlesticks
Flip the Frog - Fiddlesticks poster.jpg
Directed by Ub Iwerks [1]
Produced byUb Iwerks
Music by Carl Stalling
Animation byDrawn by:
Ub Iwerks
Fred Kopietz
Jim Pabian
Backgrounds byFred Kopietz
Color processHarriscolor (England) Black and White (United States)
Distributed by Celebrity Pictures
Release date
  • August 16, 1930 (1930-08-16)
Running time
6:12
CountryUnited States
LanguageSound film (no dialogue)

Fiddlesticks is a theatrical animated short film directed and animated by Ub Iwerks, in his first cartoon since he departed from Walt Disney's studio. The short features Iwerks' character Flip the Frog. [2]

Contents

The short is the first complete, individual sound cartoon to be photographed in color, using the short-lived Harriscolor process. [3] [4] Fiddlesticks was released a few months after King of Jazz , a musical revue from Universal Pictures which included a two-strip Technicolor cartoon segment, animated by Walter Lantz & Bill Nolan of the Universal cartoon studio, featuring a caricature of the film's star Paul Whiteman (and a cameo by Iwerks creation Oswald the Lucky Rabbit). [5]

The copyright of the film was renewed in 1959, [6] one of the few Flip cartoons to have their copyright renewed. It entered the public domain on January 1, 2026 as a work from 1930.

Plot synopsis

The short

Flip is seen dancing on lilypads until he reaches land and dries himself off. He walks to a party, where he performs a dance for the audience, accidentally climbing to a spider web. He also performs a duet, playing piano alongside a mouse playing the violin. They perform two songs. In the first song, the mouse starts crying, and so do Flip and the piano. The second song makes Flip start hugging the piano, which then kicks Flip. The cartoon ends with Flip beating on the piano; he kicks all the piano keys into the air, and they drop onto him.

Significance

Fiddlesticks was the first in the Flip the Frog series. The sound system was Powers Cinephone, the same system used for Disney's Mickey Mouse shorts starting with Steamboat Willie in 1928 up to 1932, which Ub Iwerks previously worked on from 1928 to 1929. [7]

The unnamed mouse in the cartoon bears a striking resemblance to Mortimer Mouse, the original concept behind Mickey Mouse, both of whom were first animated by Ub Iwerks. [8] [9]

The cartoon appeared on a television set in the music video for Eminem's song "The Real Slim Shady", which a viewer laughs at.

References

  1. ↑ Bradley, Edwin M. The First Hollywood Sound Shorts, 1926–1931. p. 225.
  2. ↑ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. p. 80. ISBN   0-8160-3831-7 . Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  3. ↑ Cyrenne, Randall. "Flip The Frog: The Complete Series – Animated Views" . Retrieved January 21, 2026.
  4. ↑ Robertson, Patrick (2011). Robertson's Book of Firsts. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN   9781608197385 . Retrieved May 24, 2017.
  5. ↑ "Fiddlesticks (1930)". J.B. Kaufman. March 23, 2017. Retrieved January 21, 2026.
  6. ↑ "Catalog of Copyright Entries, Third Series. Parts 12-13: Motion Pictures and Filmstrips Jan-Dec 1959: Vol 13 No 1-2". U.S. Govt. Print. Off. 1959.
  7. ↑ Barrier, Michael (1999). Hollywood cartoons: American animation in its golden age. Oxford University Press. p. 50. ISBN   0-19-503759-6.
  8. ↑ Mortimer Mouse - D23
  9. ↑ Esberg, Dan (January 14, 2018). "It's About Time Ub Iwerks Got His Credit" . Retrieved May 28, 2022.
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