After 25 cartoons in the "Jolly Frolics" collection, one would expect UPA to run out of ideas, to settle into a style with the same old characters, and give up on its creativity for good.
This does not happen in "Fudget's Budget". It IS creative. It IS groundbreaking. The Cartoon Modern style that UPA created is present in this, but you're not going to find another UPA cartoon that looks the same. The people collapse into lines, spin around, and reform into people again. The money motif is pervasive: dollar signs are prominent design features of the Fudget house. Mrs. Fudget goes down two flights of stairs without a stairway ever appearing in the shot. The short has that UPA magic.
It does peter out by the end. Partway through, the audience has seen most of what the short has to offer. It has to build towards a conclusion, but they list off events in the story to the point of boredom.
It says a lot about the rest of the short, and especially the animation quality, that I can think so highly of the overall cartoon despite not liking how it develops towards an ending. The animation is top- notch. It's surprising even if you've watched the 25 previous Jolly Frolics cartoons. It blew me away. The facial expressions and hair animation of Mrs. Fudget when she defends her hairdressing is great. She has happy eyes that look like the caret key on a keyboard: ^
It's also great that Mrs. Fudget (Irene) is depicted as an equal to her husband George, rather than subordinate. So many UPA cartoons were written by frustrated husbands, for frustrated husbands. She "meets the bills" with George's paycheck, rather than "waste his money" or any other cliché that UPA could have said instead. The cause of the Fudget's financial woes is not Irene's intense spending; everyone in the family contributes to them spending beyond their means, and everyone in the family cuts back. "Fudget's Budget" takes a basic premise and expands it wonderfully.
