Fire! Fire!

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, 'Fire! Fire!' for me is above average and enjoyable. Not quite one of the best Flip the Frog cartoons but far from being one of the worst. It is not a great cartoon and has faults 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 'Fire! Fire!'. The animation is good, 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.

There are sight gags aplenty, and they are surprisingly funny on the most part. There is a nice natural charm, a lot of zesty energy and it does well in not falling into sentimentality or cutesiness. Really liked the lively support.

However, 'Fire! Fire!' has faults. Flip is still not a particularly compelling character personality-wise, a general fault with his cartoons. The story is very thin, there are signs of one at the start but it is completely neglected for the rest of the cartoon.

Occasionally the pace drags and a few of the gags are on the stale side.

In conclusion, decent. 7/10 Bethany Cox