Ub Iwerks

**Ubbe Eert “Ub” Iwwerks (1901–1971)** was an American animator, character designer, inventor, and special effects technician. He created Flip the Frog and Willie Whopper for MGM’s animation studio, some of their earliest cartoon characters and series. Besides MGM, Iwerks also designed and co-created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Mickey Mouse, and was Walt Disney’s partner in the 1920s.

## Early Life

Iwerks was born on March 24th, 1901, in Kansas City, MO. His father, Eert Ubbe Iwwerks had immigrated from Germany in 1869. The elder Iwwerks was 57 when Ub was born, and had fathered and abandoned numerous wives and children before. Following his streak, Eert abandoned his son as a teenager, and left him with his mother, forcing him to drop out of school. Iwerks despised his father and never spoke of him.

## Career at MGM

Iwerks left the Disney studio in 1930, after an offer from Pat Powers to start his own studio. The Iwerks Studio opened later that year, where he created a cartoon character, and a series with him, Flip the Frog. Powers’ own studio, Celebrity Pictures distributed the first four Flip shorts, before it was picked up by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He would go on to make 34 Flip cartoons for MGM, and soon introduced a new character and series, an imaginative liar named Willie Whopper.

However, despite their surprisingly high budgets, Flip and Willie never became well-known characters, and their series’ never became as popular as others. His distribution was soon dropped by MGM, who in turn hired Looney Tunes pioneers Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising to make cartoons instead.

## Other Works

### Disney:

Iwerks actually spent most of his career with Walt Disney and his studio. The two met in 1919, and soon became partners in the 1920s. The two of them co-created the characters of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Mickey Mouse, along with working on Laugh-O-Grams and Alice Comedies. The two of them found lots of success with Mickey and the Silly Symphony series. However, Ub soon began to chafe under Walt’s dictation. In January 1930, the two had a falling out, which broke their friendship and partnership.

At the turn of the 40s, Iwerks returned to Disney, where he would mainly work on special effects, with his most notable work on the feature film “Song of the South” (1946). Ub would continue to work on effects for Disney up until the mid-60s.

### ComiColor Cartoons:

After Iwerks left MGM, he produced a series of shorts from 1933 to 1936 called ComiColor Cartoons (which were independently distributed). These would usually revolve around the retelling of classic fairy tales and fables (similar to what Disney’s Silly Symphonies had become around the same time).

### Leon Schlesinger Productions:

For a brief time in 1937, Iwerks worked for Leon Schlesinger Productions, where he worked on a few Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts. In his short time there, he created the character of Gabby Goat, who, while became somewhat forgotten, has returned in some modern Looney Tunes material.

### Columbia Pictures:

From 1937 to 1940, Iwerks directed 17 Color Rhapsody shorts, including “Skeleton Frolic” (1937), which reused elements from the Silly Symphony “The Skeleton Dance” (1929), which Iwerks had animated entirely.

### Gran’pop Monkey:

In 1940, Iwerks created a new character and series to go along with it. This was Gran’pop Monkey, an old and cranky monkey in the same veins as Mr. Magoo. These shorts featured the art of British illustrator Lawson Wood. Despite all of this, the series was never popular and only three shorts were created.

### Others

His most notable work outside of major animation studios was his effects on Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” (1963). He even got an Academy Award nomination for it.

## Death

Ub Iwerks died of a heart attack in Burbank, CA on July 7th, 1971, at the age of 70.

## Influence/Tributes

* The *Ub Iwerks Award for Technical Achievement*, as part of the Annie Awards, is named in his honor.

* A rare self-portrait of Iwerks was found in the garbage bin of an animation studio in Burbank. The portrait was saved and is now part of the Animation Archives in Burbank, California.

* After the Second World War, much of Iwerks' early animation style was imitated by legendary manga artists Osamu Tezuka and Shōtarō Ishinomori.
* In 1989, Iwerks was named a Disney Legend.

* In the 1996 *The Simpsons* episode "The Day the Violence Died", a relationship similar to Iwerks' early relationship with Walt Disney is used as the main plot.
* A documentary film, *The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story*, was released in 1999, followed by a book written by Iwerks' granddaughter Leslie Iwerks and John Kenworthy in 2001.

* A feature film released in 2014, *Walt Before Mickey*, showed how Ub Iwerks, portrayed by Armando Gutierrez, and Walt Disney, portrayed by Thomas Ian Nicholas, co-created Mickey Mouse.

* The sixth episode from the second season of *Drunk History*, tells about Ub's work relationship with Disney, with stress on the creation of Mickey Mouse. Iwerks was portrayed in the episode by Tony Hale.

## Filmography at MGM

1. “Fiddlesticks” (1930)
2. ”Flying Fists” (1930)
3. ”The Village Barber” (1930)
4. ”Little Orphan Willie” (1930)
5. ”The Cuckoo Murder Case” (1930)
6. “Puddle Pranks” (1930)
7. ”The Village Smitty” (1931)
8. ”The Soup Song” (1931)
9. ”Laughing Gas” (1931)
10. ”Ragtime Romeo” (1931)
11. ”The New Car” (1931)
12. ”Movie Mad” (1931)
13. ”The Village Specialist” (1931)
14. ”Jail Birds” (1931)
15. ”Africa Squeaks” (1931)
16. ”Spooks” (1931)
17. ”The Milkman” (1932)
18. ”Fire-Fire” (1932)
19. ”What A Life” (1932)
20. ”Puppy Love” (1932)
21. ”School Days” (1932)
22. ”The Bully” (1932)
23. ”The Office Boy” (1932)
24. ”Room Runners” (1932)
25. ”Stormy Seas” (1932)
26. ”Circus” (1932)
27. ”The Goal Rush” (1932)
28. ”The Pony Express” (1932)
29. ”The Music Lesson” (1932)
30. ”Nurse Maid” (1932)
31. ”Funny Face” (1932)
32. ”Coo-Coo the Magician” (1933)
33. ”Flip’s Lunch Room” (1933)
34. ”Techno-Cracked” (1933)
35. ”Bulloney” (1933)
36. ”A Chinaman’s Chance” (1933)
37. ”Pale-Face” (1933)
38. ”The Air Race” (1933)
39. ”Play Ball” (1933)
40. ”Soda Squirt” (1933)
41. ”Spite Flight” (1933)
42. “Stratos Fear” (1933)
43. ”Davy Jones’ Locker” (1934)
44. ”Hell’s Fire” (1934)
45. ”Robin Hood, Jr.” (1934)
46. ”Insultin’ the Sultan” (1934)
47. ”Reducing Creme” (1934)
48. ”Rasslin’ Around” (1934)
49. ”Cave Man” (1934)
50. “Jungle Jitters” (1934)
51. ”Good Scout” (1934)
52. ”Viva Willie” (1934)