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6.2/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.2/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Soda Squirt remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have an itch for weird, rubber-hose animation from the early 1930s, then sure. It is essentially a seven-minute fever dream. If you don't like old cartoons that make absolutely zero sense, you will probably hate it.
Flip the Frog is just doing his job at the soda counter. He's mixing drinks for movie stars, which feels like a strange day job for a frog. The whole thing is just loose and floppy.
There is this one guy who comes in looking like he’s having the worst day of his life. He is super jittery, maybe even a bit effeminate by the standards of these old-school animators. Flip decides the best way to handle this is to pour a bunch of random chemicals into a glass. 🥤
The guy drinks it and immediately turns into a hulking, terrifying version of Mr. Hyde. It is basically the cartoon version of Laughing Bill Hyde but way more chaotic. The animation on the transformation is actually pretty creepy for something made in 1933.
The pacing is all over the place. One minute he is small, the next he is breaking the furniture. It reminds me of the manic energy in Elstree Calling, where everyone is just kind of screaming at the screen. You can tell they were just trying to see how much ink they could smear on the celluloid before the film ran out.
Specific weirdness:
It is not a masterpiece. It feels like a rough draft for something much darker, but instead, they chose to make it about a frog serving milkshakes. Sometimes the lack of logic is the best part. It is not trying to be The Battle of the Sexes or anything deep. It is just a cartoon.
The whole thing just ends abruptly, like the animator suddenly realized they had a lunch date. It is charming, in a slightly unhinged way. If you like classic animation history, check it out. If you want a story that actually makes sense, look elsewhere. 🐸