The Music Lesson

Flip the Frog was a creation of Ub Iwerks when he went to work making his own cartoons in 1930. The problem is that Flip is NOT an interesting character in most of his cartoons...in fact he's downright dull. So, because of this, I found I loved "The Music Lesson" because instead of showing Flip as a boring nice-guy he's instead an annoying kid...and full of himself!

When the story begins, Flip is taking a music lesson he hates. He is very distractable and again and again he stops practicing. Ultimately, he runs away and goes to a swimming hole with his friends...and all sorts of calamities ensue.

Flip is a much more amoral prankster in this cartoon and unfortunately it didn't do much to save Flip...and soon he'd be a cartoon has-been...mostly because it was too little too late. It's a shame...as there's some real promise in this one and the story is actually fun to watch...unlike many of the Iwerks films of the era.

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, enough of them even being good.

Despite not being historically significant like 'Fiddlesticks', which other than that was actually to me a lesser Flip the Frog cartoon, was, 'The Music Lesson' is still pretty good. Not one of the best of the series, but far from one of the worst. It is not perfect but there are things here that improve quite a bit and done much better than many other Flip the Frog cartoons.

A lot of good things in 'The Music Lesson'. The animation is mostly good, with beautifully detailed backgrounds, nice shading and characters that aren't drawn too crudely. There is some nice character animation here. 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.

There are plentiful sight gags, and they are mostly beautifully timed, though there are a few sloppy ones, and very amusing, even when unoriginal. Maybe not always hilarious but they hardly fall flat. There is a nice natural charm and a good deal of zest.

Characters are lively. There is a lot of mischievous fun. The pacing is generally secure and the sentimentality is thankfully kept at bay.

Flip is a bit bland still though despite showing more personality and mischief than usual, he never was one of animation's most compelling, most interesting or personality-filled lead characters.

Also found some of the drawing slightly erratic, which is s shame because the animation as said is mostly good. Some sloppy timing on occasions too.

Overall, pretty good. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Flip takes piano lessons from a character at times his wife, his landlady and various other roles in other Iwerks shorts in the Flip series and others. Flip's efforts to evade his lessons take up much of the short. His hare-brained schemes prove he's not a very high watt bulb, but his teacher isn't Mensa material either. Run-of-the-mill Flip short, but not too bad. Just not very memorable. Still worth seeing once. Recommended for Flip fans.