Cartoons That Time Forgot Coll

This is a collection of cartoons from the Ub Iwerks studio, created in 1930 soon after Iwerks left Disney, only for it to close in 1936, a couple of years after the loss of his MGM contract.
Iwerks's first cartoon creation was Flip the Frog. Flip was basically a Mickey Mouse-type character, a happy, dancing character with little personality. It came as no suprise when Flip was scrapped a few years later, but his cartoons are not really that bad, because all of his cartoons had musical scores written by the great Carl Stalling (who later enjoyed huge success with "Looney Tunes"), which helps to make the Flip cartoons quite enjoyable.
Iwerks next venture was Willie Whopper, a boy who would tell tall tales, such as how he can fly a plane, or saving his girlfriend from outlaws. He wasn't very successful either, and the series was perhaps the weakest of Iwerks's cartoons.
The last Iwerks cartoon series was the underrated "ComiColor" series. These cartoons were based on nursery rhymes and childern tales, with a lot of musical and dancing numbers, which seems to suggest that Iwerks was creating something a bit different rather than creating a carbon copy of Walt Disney's "Silly Symphonies", in which some studios tried to imitate. These were made in two-colour Cinecolor (as Walt Disney had the exclusive rights to use the 3-colour Technicolor process at the time), and were released independently due to MGM refusal to distribute them. The ComiColor series was not very successful too, which resulted in the closure of Iwerks's studio.
This DVD contains a whopping 32 cartoons on this DVD, from Iwerk's first cartoon "Fiddlesticks" (Flip the Frog in 2-colour Technicolor)to his last ComiColor cartoon "Happy Days".
The quality of these cartoons are generally better than any other Public Domain home video, with the ComiColor cartoons retaining their original titles. Some of the Flip the Frog cartoons have their original titles recreated, and the cartoons themselves are of near-pristine quality. Sadly, the Willie Whopper cartoons have seen better days, with most of his cartoons having a noisy picture and sound quality.
However, 32 ultra-rare cartoons in one DVD represents good value for money, and should not be ignored by fans of classic animation.

My title may seem disrespectful to "the Master" but it is a fact that Walt Disney admitted in later years that he couldn't draw worth a lick.........
Walt's genius lay in knowing talent (which is why Ub Iwerks was so pivotal as the creator and original animator of Mickey Mouse) in comic inspiration, and in constantly upgrading his studios product.
The cartoons on this DVD show what comes of techincal skill without the last two attributes....they are good for their time (compare them with Mickey 1928-1930!) but they never evolve. The Iwerks vision is intriguing to the modern eye, bizarre and eccentric at times and one can see why the studio bosses of the time wouldn't back it; the technical quality of these cartoons is adequate but the story treatments can be strange and not always child - friendly.
If you like animation, you should buy both volumes of this DVD set. If you are looking for an electronic babysitter for the kids, go buy some modern pap that won't offend anyone or strain the intellect too much. These cartoons are for the serious student.

It's about time that a company focused its attention on Ub Iwerks. The Cartoons That Time Forgot, are literally just that, cartoons that have not seen the light of day from the time they were made. Ub Iwerks got his start working for Walt Disney, and animated the earliest Mickey Mouse cartoons as well as some of the early Silly Symphonies.

These cartoons clearly show some influences from the Disney studios, some characters look amazingly Mickey Mouseish, and many have the same charm of the Disney shorts. These cartoons are a good introduction to some cartoon characters that never quite caught on, like Flip the Frog and Willie Whopper (who?).

If you are a vintage animation lover, then this DVD belongs in your library!