ub iwerk's chick artist

this is not myron "grim"natwick. this is berny wolf,
one of the many animators at the ub iwerks studio.
as many of ya know,ub left walt disney's studio beacause of personal and work
differences.he opened his studio,with distrbn.by MGM.his first series was
Flip the Frog.flip was a easy-going character,but many of his Depression-era
shorts were filled with..um,shall we say,unnmetionable themes.and with the arrival of grim,they became even more risque! however,just as he had made a contribution to
Fleisher Studios:Betty Boop,he did the same for the flip series and the iwerks studio in general.

1:Girlfriends
Flip the Frog
Flip had gone thru an assortment of girlfriends.the first(and obviously longest running)was a cat.
Clarice(a fan name,mind you)was a cutie,with lipstick lips that changed color thru the shorts she
appeared in(but sadly,never came off on flip's face),a skirt looking like an upside-down bowl and
a daisy-hat.and of course,high-heels! but mgm wasn't satisfied with her,as bestilty was a no-no.
(think Bimbo from the TKs and BBs replaced by fred) so ol'grim decided to help ub out.starting
with Funny Face,flip's new girlfriend,fifi became a regular for about the rest of flip's series.FiFi
was dressed like the little girls of the period:sleevless dress,often visible undies(apoligizes to PC
group),little black socks and stubby little mary-janes.she was a grim-styled gal:ready to defend
herself when nessasary,occasinaly tough(to villans,that is),but sweet and loyal to flip.(oddly enough in funny face,she rejects him for a real boy).her only other known apperance is an Araibian-styled short(a specialty in grim's case,especially when it to females).the plot is simple:
flip and fifi go to afore-metioned continent,but a magician ala-kazoops fifi to the city's sultan.of
course,she lets the creep have it and tries to escape,but the guards stop her.and it's flip to da rescue! CooCoo the Magician was animated by longtime fleisher,disney and currently at the time iwerks animator:Shamus Culhane.
Willie Whopper
after flip was dropped,ub made Willie Whopper,a little boy who, true to his namesake,told unbeilevable but brillianty animated fables.as usual,grim made him a girlfriend.starting with the
reworked version of an earlier stab,The Air Race,Mary made her first apperance in Sprite Flight.
mary was styled and modeled after fifi,but the changes are obvious:
-she was blond,whereas fifi was a brunette
-her dress was light gray,whereas fifi's was black
-her lipstick lips are more-seen then fifi's(again,they never came off on willie's face)
willie himself went thru change too. first of all,grim made him tall and lanky,like a boy version of flip.but he changed to fat in Stratos Fear.

to be continued...