Betty Boop
The best case study in animation to illustrate the powerful influence society has over the types of films that are produced is the story of Betty Boop. She was a major cartoon character before the Production Code of 1934 was put into place, and her dramatic and fatal transformation illustrates how a product created under one set of standards often withers when placed in a new set. At the same time, the Code alone cannot explain why this dizzy little flapper degenerated so quickly. Betty Boop exists today solely as a merchandising item. Betty's face and figure can be found on T-shirts, posters, and all sorts of things. Her current popularity in merchandise is somewhat puzzling, as the Fleischers released all of her short cartoons before 1940, save for a halfhearted TV special in the early 1980s and a brief cameo in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. While colorized versions of her cartoons exist, they were never given the same degree of exposure as the colorized versions of Max Fleischer's Popeye cartoons. Seen today, it is easy to see why these cartoons were often revived in the trippy 1960s. While not psychede
The Betty Boop cartoons may have entertained children, but the bulk of the humor was geared to adults (and probably aimed squarely at adult males). Raising charges of sexism against the Fleischer studio is thus difficult. As Smooden pointed out in Animating Culture, "the finale of Betty Boop and the Little King leaves the audience with the distinct impression that Boop has become the Little King's mistress. Betty's unique design was the work of Grim Natwick, one of the few animators at Fleischer who had an art school education yet many other Fleischer cartoons are obviously denizens of the Terrytoons/Felix the Cat/Early Mickey Mouse school. Seeing them for the first time, one can hardly believe one's eyes. The fluid natures of these cartoons make them difficult to describe in a coherent fashion. For the most part Boop was a tease, although Hollywood's habit of erratic self-censorship should not suggest that all innuendos were purely teases. Despite the instances recorded in the previous paragraph, one should not leave with the impression that the Boop cartoons were animated peepshows. The animation was at times amazingly precise, and at other times very crude. " (Outright nudity never occurred in the Fleischer world, but implied nudity did). Ad-libbing by the voice actors (including Mae Questel, who provided Betty's voice in many films) was the norm, resulting in a very spontaneous-sounding soundtrack. There were plenty of silly entries in which sewing machines sewed up rivers, or the moon put the earth up for auction, or other similarly goofy events occurred.
Common topics in this essay:
Betty Boop,
Boop-Oop-A-Doop Betty's,
Popeye Sailor,
Dave Fleischer,
Fleischer's Popeye,
Production Code,
Mae Questel,
Genie Aladdin,
Grim Natwick,
Roger Rabbit,
betty boop,
boop little,
colorized versions,
impression boop,
world dark,
boop cartoons,
dave fleischer,
max fleischer's,
|
Acceptance Essays
