The Village Smitty (1931) User Reviews

Not Much Said, But A Lot To See

[ccthemovieman-1 · 7/10 · 25 April 2008]

There is a lot to see in this old Flip The Frog cartoon. For instance, right near the beginning we see a farm scene with about a dozen animals in it, all doing cartoonish-things, along with dancing trees. Everything is moving to the music. Actually, that's how the things goes throughout as only a word or two is spoken. Most of it is either pantomime or singing a song or two.

A horse pulling an attractive female frog throws a shoe. Luckily for them, the village smitty is right there so the horse - the most entertaining character in the cartoon - goes to get re- soled. A few wacky things happen after that, thanks to a pretty funny but brutal horse fly.

Overall, it's dated but it has enough sight gags to make it worth a look. This was the fourth cartoon in a series of old ones in a DVD called "Cartoons That Time Forget: The UB Iwerks Collection Vol. 1."

What is it about blacksmiths and cartoons?

[llltdesq · 7/10 · 20 November 2003]

There seems to have been a penchant for making cartoons featuring blacksmiths, particularly in the 1930s and I'm not sure why. Granted, the concept does work great visually and in the 1930s the automobile wasn't so pervasive as today. Be that as it may, most studios used the concept. Even Iwerks made Flip the Frog work at a forge (try saying that three times fast) in this rather fun little short. Be warned: Flip is about as successful here as he is generally. Flip is reasonably lively here. Not too bad for a Flip the Frog, with some very nice visuals ad great animation. Good to have in print. Well worth watching. Recommended.

Flip the blacksmith

[TheLittleSongbird · 5/10 · 25 May 2018]

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.

The series started off with three watchable but average cartoons in a row with the historically significant 'Fiddlesticks', 'Little Orphan Willie' and 'Flying Fists', before getting stronger with 'The Village Barber' and particularly 'Cuckoo Murder Case', both among the stronger Flip the Frog cartoons. 'The Village Smithy' once again sees the series go backwards and back to the not bad but nothing special standard of the first three Flip the Frog cartoons.

Not bad at all by all means. The animation is good enough 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.

'The Village Smithy' does mildly amuse and charm in places, with a few nicely engineered gags and has a lively pace at times. Not a dull or completely humourless cartoon. The horse is the best character. The chemistry between the characters does have a little charm and tension.

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 others veer on the childish. With Iwerks, there was the danger of having too much sentiment and, while other Flip the Frog fare worse in this regard, 'The Village Smithy' is at times too cutesy, which makes things feel a bit bland and forgettable.

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 and occasionally it's on the dull side with some draggy pacing and doesn't have enough laughs which are very scarce.

Overall, average but watchable. 5/10 Bethany Cox

About average for 1931

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 4 February 2017]

Ub Iwerks was an invaluable employee for Walt Disney and helped to create Mickey Mouse. However, the key word is 'employee' and Ub naturally wanted more power and credit for his work, so he began a production company that released cartoons through MGM in the early 1930s. The company eventually folded...mostly because Disney and Fleischer Brothers cartoons were better...better animated, better stories and with better characters. This Flip the Frog cartoon demonstrates some of this, as Flip was a bland and unappealing character. The animation quality is quite nice and the story (thankfully) is not full of singing...but still, there aren't a whole lot of laughs either. Not a bad cartoon...about average for 1931...but average just wouldn't be good enough long term for Iwerks and his studio.

...and the need for a blacksmith in 1930s 'toons is...

[admoon-670-526201 · 10/10 · 25 September 2015]

Watching Flip do his work reminds me of my past. Our culture was much more rural and most of the 'toons of the day reflected that. It's why I consider cartoons more a statement of our cultural history than anything else. It's why I get messed up when some young whipper-snapper makes a judgment about the content of a 'toon and they know nothing of the time. I live in a city now, but most of my life looked just like Flip The Frog's when he was the Village Smitty. I can relate to most of the cartoons directly. I had to hitch up a team just to go to town. Study your history. You will be able to connect the dots much more easily.

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