Famous Studio’s Flip Flap (1948), isn’t top Famous, but I’ve always liked this one. Just as in the Fleischer years, the director credit goes to the supervisor, with the actual animation direction being done by the first animator in the credits, in this case, Myron Waldman. There are no less than four people credited for story on this picture, with Bee Lewi getting top credit. Lewi, a children’s author, wrote the story for ‘Calling All Kids”, a monthly children’s magazine. Thankfully, the original credits have shown up on the internet, although only in black and white.

As most every Famous Studios cartoon from this period, it’s well-produced and animated – and especially aimed toward children. It has one of my favorite scores of any of the Famous Studios shorts, of course by Winston Sharples.

A whole bunch of years ago, when I was either 19 or 20, my friend Jeff Missinne let me know that there was a 16mm print of Flip Flap for sale from a collector named Dennis Atkinson- probably advertised in ‘The Big Reel’. I called Dennis up, and, little did I know, he ran a yearly program of films called Cinesation in Saginaw, Michigan- about 2 1/2 hour from me. He invited me to come to the show and pick the print up while I was there. I think he wanted $30 for this near-mint Kodachrome print of the film. I hadn’t seen too many of the Noveltoons since they really weren’t shown on TV around Detroit when I was a kid- so each new 16mm print was especially fun since they were ‘new’ films to me.

All these years later, I’m happy to say this print has been enjoyed by a lot of people. It remains the only copy really available to the public of this short – and I’ve been really happy to share it.

We released the film on the Noveltoons Blu-ray that’s been out of print for some years, attempting to recreate the original titles at least closer to their original look (and with the proper Polacolor opening and closing).

Have a good week all!