This cartoon was amusing, but it definitely does not feature Gus Edwards or his famous song "School Days" as indicated in most search engines and the online descriptions of the restored DVD. The quality of the restoration is very good, and I found it amazing that the sound is often excellent, especially the music soundtrack. There is some singing, and teachers may find it amusing to see how cartoonists viewed school more than 70 years ago. I did find a few sexual innuendos, although the cartoon is tame compared with some of the older Betty Boop cartoons, for example. Regarding the rest of the DVD featuring "School Days," once you have seen a few Flip the Frog cartoons, you realize that there are always the same characters: Flip, his dog, a hag, a Betty-Boop-type character always on the verge of losing her clothes, a rat who sometimes appears as a skunk (as in "School Days"), and a few others not featured in "School Days." Unfortunately, most of these characters do not always retain their individual personalities in the other cartoons featured in this DVD. On a positive note, those who are knowledgeable in classical music will be amused by the music soundtrack, which often features bizarre arrangements of familiar music such as the overture to Flotow's opera "Martha," Figaro's aria "Non piu andrai" from Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro," and appropriately a quote from Brahms' "Academic Festival Overture" in the final cartoon about a college football game. The animation, while amazing compared with more modern cartoons, is not as good as many contemporary cartoons. Nearly all cartoons are in black and white, and often feature looped background scans and even looped actions of background characters. One curious note. A recurring word throughout this series is "Nertz" and a man named "O. Nertz." In the football episode, the underdog team is "Nertz U." and features numerous bespectacled, non-athletic types. I wonder if Dr. Suess came up with his word "nerd" after watching these cartoons.
5 Reviews
Flip the Frog goes to school,
llltdesq7 November 2003
I can't decide if this is the most boring cartoon I've ever seen or not. I'm sure I've seen worse, but I can't think of any offhand. At one point, I entertained dreams of Flip answering a want ad looking for a temporary employee-for a biology class studying anatomy and needing frogs to complete their studies. Beautiful work technically, at least everywhere but plotting and story. If you like good backgrounds and animation, you might give this a look. If you have insomnia and don't want to keep it, also give this a shot, as it's drug-free and not habit-forming. The DVD it's on is worth having and you can always skip this short. Watch it once, though, as it is well animated. For completeists only.
Flip goes to school
TheLittleSongbird31 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, some are actually pretty decent and more.
Despite not being historically significant like 'Fiddlesticks' was, 'School Days' 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, though a good one, 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 'School Days'. The animation is very 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 more than enough sight gags, and they are surprisingly funny on the most part. There is a nice natural charm, a lot of zesty energy and there are touching parts. Really liked the amusing dog character, and while the story is very slight it is engaging and amiable.
However, still don't find Flip the most compelling or personality-filled lead characters.
'School Days' also doesn't quite escape the trap of falling into sentimentality and a little more variety wouldn't have gone amiss.
All in all, pretty good. 7/10 Bethany Cox
Despite not being historically significant like 'Fiddlesticks' was, 'School Days' 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, though a good one, 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 'School Days'. The animation is very 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 more than enough sight gags, and they are surprisingly funny on the most part. There is a nice natural charm, a lot of zesty energy and there are touching parts. Really liked the amusing dog character, and while the story is very slight it is engaging and amiable.
However, still don't find Flip the most compelling or personality-filled lead characters.
'School Days' also doesn't quite escape the trap of falling into sentimentality and a little more variety wouldn't have gone amiss.
All in all, pretty good. 7/10 Bethany Cox
The Dog Is A Howl
ccthemovieman-124 May 2008
I love the dog in this cartoon. The mutt provides almost all the laughs in this Flip The Frog animated short.
Flip is back in his school days, on his way to the old one-room school house. You know the story: his pet dog wants to follow his master. The poor dog even has a turnstile in the middle of front year's picket fence, apparently to help prevent him from getting out. However, this is a very smart dog and he finds a way.
Flip looks back and sees his dog running up to him, so he ties the canine to a tractor, hoping that will keep him from following. Later, we see how the dog gets around this.
After a few so-so school scenes, which are mainly a few minutes of music with Flip playing the piano, the kids singing and the old schoolmarm dancing, the dog makes his appearance. Then a skunk also shows up! Chaos ensues! This cartoon gets funnier and funnier as it goes along and the skunk jokes are hilarious. He and Flip's dog make a funny twosome.
Highly recommended.
Flip is back in his school days, on his way to the old one-room school house. You know the story: his pet dog wants to follow his master. The poor dog even has a turnstile in the middle of front year's picket fence, apparently to help prevent him from getting out. However, this is a very smart dog and he finds a way.
Flip looks back and sees his dog running up to him, so he ties the canine to a tractor, hoping that will keep him from following. Later, we see how the dog gets around this.
After a few so-so school scenes, which are mainly a few minutes of music with Flip playing the piano, the kids singing and the old schoolmarm dancing, the dog makes his appearance. Then a skunk also shows up! Chaos ensues! This cartoon gets funnier and funnier as it goes along and the skunk jokes are hilarious. He and Flip's dog make a funny twosome.
Highly recommended.
Dog Days at School
Michael_Elliott25 March 2016
School Days (1932)
*** (out of 4)
Flip the Frog is trying to get to school but his dog wants to come with him. Flip finally manges to lose him but once in the classroom the dog shows back up so Flip must try and hide him from the teacher.
SCHOOL DAYS is another good entry in this series, which I've been making my way through. I'm really surprised that this creation of Ub Iwerks isn't better known to film buffs because it's actually quite entertaining and full of nice imagination. The highlight of this film comes towards the end when the dog's fur begins to stink too much. I won't spoil what happens but it's actually quite funny. The animation itself is also quite good and the music is nice too.
*** (out of 4)
Flip the Frog is trying to get to school but his dog wants to come with him. Flip finally manges to lose him but once in the classroom the dog shows back up so Flip must try and hide him from the teacher.
SCHOOL DAYS is another good entry in this series, which I've been making my way through. I'm really surprised that this creation of Ub Iwerks isn't better known to film buffs because it's actually quite entertaining and full of nice imagination. The highlight of this film comes towards the end when the dog's fur begins to stink too much. I won't spoil what happens but it's actually quite funny. The animation itself is also quite good and the music is nice too.
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