Whoever would’ve thought that the man responsible for animating the first ever Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony wouldn’t be able to create a memorable, catchy caricature of his own – especially when his creation was distributed by MGM, the self-same company that would later bring Tom & Jerry to the world?

Whatever the reasons, Ub Iwerks’ Flip the Frog was a veritable flop. Though he started out strong in 1930 with an MGM short – and while he was spectacularly drawn and garnered a 37-cartoon series – he only lasted three years.

As he began to look less like a frog and more like a species-ambiguous anomaly, with his white-gloved hands, white-shoed feet and upright posture, storylines alluding to his froggy nature were sparse. Even spiffily dressed in short pants, a bowtie and a white chapeau (the pants and chapeau were added after the bowtie alone was presumably deemed too minimalist a fashion statement), Flip wasn’t fetching enough for fans to embrace his peculiar charms.

Last seen in 1933’s Soda Squirt, Flip the Frog faded into obscurity, despite valiant attempts, not just on Iwerks’ part, but also with the aid of Betty Boop animator Grim Natwick and Woody Woodpecker illustrator Shamus Culhane. Iwerks’ other non-Disney creation, Willie Whopper, met a similar fate.