Iwerks Studio
Iwerks Studio was an animation studio headed by animator Ub Iwerks.
Financing
Iwerks was working for
Newly hired animator Fred Kopietz recommended that Iwerks employ a friend from Chouinard Art School, Chuck Jones, who was hired and put to work as a cel washer.
Despite a contract with
Characters
Iwerks created the characters Flip the Frog, and later Willie Whopper. Several short films were made with both characters.
Flip the Frog
The Flip the Frog series was the first series from the Iwerks Studio, produced 1930 to 1933.
As the series progressed, Flip became more of a down-and-out, Chaplin-esque character who always found himself in everyday conflicts surrounding the poverty-stricken atmosphere of the Great Depression. After the first two cartoons, the appearance of Flip the Frog gradually became less froglike.
Willie Whopper
The Willie Whopper series was the second from the Iwerks Studio. 14 shorts were produced 1933 to 1934.
Willie is a young lad who tells of his many outlandish adventures, which are then depicted on-screen. His fantastic accounts are, in fact, outright lies or "whoppers". His stories are usually preceded by his memorable catchphrase, "Say, did I ever tell ya this one?" The character's first film was "The Air Race" (1933).
ComiColor cartoon series
From 1933 to 1936, the studio release a series of shorts (independently distributed, not part of the MGM deal) in Cinecolor, named ComiColor cartoons, which mostly focused on fairy tales with no continuing character or star. They are now in the public domain.
Iwerks also experimented with
Filmography
Image gallery
-
"Jack Frost" (1934)
-
"Little Black Sambo" (1935)
-
"Sinbad the Sailor" (1935)
-
"Balloon Land" (1935)
References
- ^ ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 31 July 2022.