FLIP THE FROG - Ub Iwerks - "Spooks" (1931)

Hey!! Here we are, already on Day 11 of the "Countdown To Halloween," and yet another amazing cartoon from the 1930's entitled "Spooks," but this time, instead of Oswald The Lucky Rabbit, the star is Flip The Frog, not to be confused with Flip The Bird, a comic character from the 60's! It really is such a beautiful gesture, isn't it, so let's get rollin', crackin', and a movin'!

One year later after Walter Lantz's version of "Spooks," Ub Iwerks brought out his own version!

There's only one difference, this one doesn't have anything to do with the "Phantom Of The Opera," is a completely different story, and is animated to a much higher level in the detail department!

Here he is, our hero, Flip The Frog out alone on a cold and windy night with only his brave stead as a companion!

Seriously, it's hard for my little pea brain to comprehend that only one man was responsible for all this amazing imagery, it is almost beyond my grasp of reality! You know when people ask you who you'd like to meet from all of history, I'm thinking Mr. Ubbe Ert Iwwerks would be a damn fine choice! It's almost like he was from another planet! Ub passed away in 1971 at the age of 70, and I seriously doubt there will ever be another talent such as his!

Are you starting to get scared yet?

Flip's choice of refuge might not be the best decision in the world! Like the rain wasn't that bad!

Ub Iwerks wrote, animated, directed, and produced "Spooks!!!!"

He had some help with production from Pat Powers, and the Master of all the Maestros, Carl W. Stalling was the genius who supplied the music! Carl Stalling should be in some kind of record book if he's not already, for his remarkable career that includes an unthinkable 760 credits!! Ok, sure, they're all shorts, but still, that has to be the greatest run of all time without a freakin' doubt! I'm tired just thinking about it! Here's a bit of what Carl brought to the table in this freak fest!

Dinner is served!!

Flip pretends to be enjoying himself, but hands off the bone to a skeleton dog when his skeleton host isn't watching!

Hubba, Hubba, bring on the ladies!!

The personality that Ub was able to put into this skeleton character is totally off the charts at times! Here he measures Flip up for a certain untimely fate!

It's not what the face of the clock says, but this is 13 o'clock in our world!

Oh, boy, Flip has really got himself into serious trouble this time!

Now you see what the measuring was all about, Flip is the perfect size to fit the last display case he has in his collection of death!

One big explosion ends the whole ordeal.......

.......and Flip and his faithful stead can ride off together in love, peace, and understanding!

......OR, Can they?

Flip streams many places these days on Youtube, Here's just one of them! You really can't go wrong!

FIEND / Don Dohler Productions - 1980

It's Halloween Countdown Friday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. We gots another flick from the Baltimore area by writer/producer/director Don Dohler, who also brought us the super low budget movies like THE ALIEN FACTOR, NIGHTBEAST, HARVESTERS, ALIEN FACTOR II, CRAWLER and more. Unbelievably, the budget for this one was just $6,000, something the Dungeon movie crew knows all about!

Eegah!! sent over a great little sound clip from this flick for our earjoyment, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button over by our own Atomic Meanster, NOW, Rufus The Gnat!.. Here's a taste of... FIEND!

The story starts with an evil spirit entering into a gravesite and reanimating a moldy corpse into the form of Mr. Longfellow. To stay alive, it needs to absorb the life energy from a victim by Longfellow wrapping his hands around their throat!

Don Leifert is Mr. Longfellow, he was also in five other Dohler productions. Sadly, Don died in 2010 at age 59 from a heart condition.

Longfellow, a music instructor, is ready to snatch this girl's life force but is interrupted before he can seal the deal. By the way, this girl is the worst student in the history of music and actually deserves to die after hearing her play!

George Stover, who has a total of 73 movie credits (6 now either filming or in post!) and appeared in many Dohler projects, plays Mr. Longfellow's assistant. Here, they're having a tense conversation concerning music books!

This guy hears a girl screaming and goes to her aid, only to succumb to Longfellow's choke hold. There are always plenty of characters with goofy hair styles in Dohler flicks.

Gary, a nosey neighbor, decides to check out the spirit world for an explanation to the mysterious deaths occurring in the neighborhood.

Gary goes to a graveyard for clues where he meets a weirdo grounds keeper who sneaks up behind a tombstone and slaps him on the shoulder, and, for some strange reason has a newspaper clipping in his pocket of the dead dude that was reanimated into Longfellow!.. Seriously... WTF, Man?!!

In the meantime, Longfellow has tricked Gary's wife into coming over to his house. She goes in and down some stairs into the basement where she's attacked by the Fiend!

Here's a close up of the makeup job for... The FIEND!!

Gary finds his dead wife and has to go a round with Longfellow. Don Dohler's son, playing Scotty, grabs a sword from the wall and jabs it deep into Longfellow's back.

He looses the life force and drops dead on the floor, bringing an end to the insanity. The evil life force then heads back into outer space, from which it came!.. Do I hear an echo?

Tomorrow is another Halloween Countdown Saturday with Eegah!!

OSWALD THE LUCKY RABBIT - Walter Lantz - "Spooks" (1930)

 Welcome to Day 6 of the Halloween Countdown down in The Dungeon, and tonight's special little feature called "SPOOKS!"

 Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was actually the first Disney animated character predating Mickey! It's a long, wild, and convoluted story that contains the names of heavy hitters Walt Disney, Ub Iwerks, Carl Laemmle, and Walter Lantz, and can be read in full detail on Wikipedia, and I suggest that you do!

"Spooks" has a real sketchy almost unfinished look to it, but it's the simplicity that makes it work!

I didn't know they had slim fit pants back in 1930! This dude makes Olive Oyl look like a porker!

This shot makes for a perfect Halloween owl wallpaper!

Next thing you see is this phantom of a character entering an opera house! That's right kids, you might not know who Oswald The Lucky Rabbit is, but almost everyone has heard of "The Phantom Of The Opera" these days, and this cartoon was made as a tribute to Lon Chaney and the very first "Phantom Of The Opera" movie that was made in 1926!

So Let's Get This Shindig Started! Take it away Maestro!

See the little guy on the right, that's not Mickey!

"Tongue Tied Tongue Twister" - Try saying that real fast 13 times in a row, and see what happens to you!

The opera house has a pretty tough crowd on this particular night!

The Phantom hooks the young tongue-tied vocalist up with a wind-up phonograph (Record Player) stuffed into her bustle that she can mime to! What you'll hear in the little sound clip is the record skipping, followed by the phonograph running down and have to get wound back up, kind of like one of those bad Superbowl halftime shows!

She's told by The Phantom that everything will always be fine, as long as she doesn't try and remove his mask!

So, what's the first thing the stupid girl does? Remove his mask of course! Now he's mad because his ugly mug has been exposed!!

This is probably the weirdest shot in the whole cartoon! Also, not Mickey again!

Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks created Oswald The Lucky Rabbit in the 1920's! It was later that Walt Disney went another direction and ended up creating Mickey Mouse! Woody Woodpecker's Dad Walter Lantz carried on the Oswald cartoons until 1943! Oswald returned to the Disney family in 2010 in the video game called Epic Mickey!

In an effort to save the young lady, Oswald is of course, put through a series of obstacles like this giant spider.......

.......and then these dinosaur critters that run through Oswald's legs with sharp fins on their backs effectively denutting him! How they used to get away with wanton destruction of the family jewels gags in children's cartoons I will never know!

The story ends with The Phantom chasing Oswald down just in time to get in one last gag!

 

The Phantom asks Oswald a simple question! "What does a chicken say when it lays a square egg?" When Oswald doesn't respond correctly, The Phantom slaps him to give him the answer to the question, "OUCH!"  It's all that simple, see you on Saturday!

There are many free streaming versions of Oswald in "Spooks!" Here's the link to just one of them!