CARTOON CLIP: "Fiddlesticks" (1930) (Patreon)

Happy Saturday! As promised, here is a hi-def clip from Flip the Frog’s first appearance, Fiddlesticks, released in August 1930. Fiddlesticks is an important cartoon in that it was the first full sound cartoon in color, not counting the brief animated segment from King of Jazz, produced by Walter Lantz’s studio released earlier in April. While the King of Jazz segment was produced in two-color Technicolor, Fiddlesticks was filmed in an obscure two-color process known as Harriscolor. (More information on the process can be found in Barbara Flueckiger’s Historical Film Colors page.) 

Interestingly, around March 1930, sometime during Fiddlesticks’ production, the original producer slated to use Harriscolor for their cartoons was Pat Sullivan, whose Felix the Cat cartoons needed something new to allure audiences, since Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse eclipsed him in popularity. Obviously, this deal never materialized.  

This is from the raw scan from an original 35mm color print, with no clean-up work done. Tomorrow, I will post a clip from Ragtime Romeo!