Flip finds himself having to care for an abandoned baby.Flip finds himself having to care for an abandoned baby.Flip finds himself having to care for an abandoned baby.
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Flip and the little orphan
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.
Despite not being historically significant like 'Fiddlesticks' was, 'Little Orphan Willie' for me is the marginally better cartoon. It is not as technically impressive as that cartoon and still don't care for Flip, but it does improve in the pacing, which is much livelier here, and the humour, which there is more of ('Fiddlestricks' was lacking generally in the laughs department) and provides mildly amusing moments. Still consider it on the average side.
Not bad at all by all means. The animation is decent enough, apart from the looping that does betray low budget, 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.
'Little Orphan Willie' does amuse and charm in places, with a few nicely engineered gags and has a lively pace. Not a dull or completely humourless cartoon. The little orphan of the title is cute and avoids being too much of a brat.
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. Generally there could have been more gags and while there are amusing parts other veer on the childish. With the premise there was the danger of having too much sentiment and 'Little Orphan Willie' is at times too cutesy and sentimental.
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.
Overall, average but watchable. 5/10 Bethany Cox
Despite not being historically significant like 'Fiddlesticks' was, 'Little Orphan Willie' for me is the marginally better cartoon. It is not as technically impressive as that cartoon and still don't care for Flip, but it does improve in the pacing, which is much livelier here, and the humour, which there is more of ('Fiddlestricks' was lacking generally in the laughs department) and provides mildly amusing moments. Still consider it on the average side.
Not bad at all by all means. The animation is decent enough, apart from the looping that does betray low budget, 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.
'Little Orphan Willie' does amuse and charm in places, with a few nicely engineered gags and has a lively pace. Not a dull or completely humourless cartoon. The little orphan of the title is cute and avoids being too much of a brat.
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. Generally there could have been more gags and while there are amusing parts other veer on the childish. With the premise there was the danger of having too much sentiment and 'Little Orphan Willie' is at times too cutesy and sentimental.
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.
Overall, average but watchable. 5/10 Bethany Cox
helpful•02
- TheLittleSongbird
- May 21, 2018
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Waisenjunge Willie
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime6 minutes
- Color
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