Pobre Cenicienta

Before moving on to their prolific (and highly successful) POPEYE series (as well as into their unfortunate GABBY series--just imagine Elmer Fudd without his macho sex appeal), Paramount's Fleischer brothers poured their creative genius into BETTY BOOP. This is their finest B-B cartoon, and may just be their finest EVER, period.

Using their 3-D filming process (and a unheard-of budget for a cartoon short), they adapted the Cinderella legend to Betty, adding some marvelous songs and (likely roto-scoped) beautiful dance numbers. For reasons not told, this was the only Betty Boop cartoon ever done in color--a tragedy.

Look for versions with the original opening titles intact--even the titles show that this was a project of love (and yes, money). Plus, Betty's as sexy an ingenue as ever thanks to Technicolor.

This is the first color film from the Fleischer Studio and it's in something called "Cinecolor"--which appears to be a variation on 2-color Technicolor. Unlike the older 2-color Technicolor, the film seems to have a lot of blues and a slightly greater color spectrum. It is easier on the eyes than the older process but it truly isn't full color--the full spectrum is missing. This cannot be confused with the rich and vibrant colors of true Technicolor--a more expensive process that was also being introduced around the same time. Not surprisingly, Technicolor became the dominant color process, as it simply looked nicer and wasn't mostly orange. Now despite these limitations, this Betty Boop cartoon is nice to look at because like many of the Fleischer cartoons, there were very lovely line drawings and a nice 3-D look to the backgrounds (something this studio specialized in). These help you overlook the orange hue on most everything.

Clearly this in an innovative film, though I also think it suffers from two major problems. First, although it's a Betty Boop cartoon, it's an amazingly "by the book" rendition of the old story. There isn't much new or exciting to the tale. Second, if you are not a fan of Boop, you also might not be all that impressed--simply because she's a rather dull character compared to animated characters from the 40s and 50s (which had a lot more personality). However, compared to competing contemporary cartoons of the era, this is a fairly good short. While nowhere near the quality of most Disney cartoons, compared to Warner Brothers and the other studios, it is clearly technically superior. Worth a look if you are a film historian or want to see a better than average cartoon of the 1930s.

By the way, I saw this film on the DVD entitled "Cartoon Crazys: And The Envelope Please". This is a rather poor compilation of supposedly award winning and nominated films. Poor because several of the films are very lame and are NOT award nominated, the prints are rather bad and parts of some of the cartoons are missing! This might account for the extreme redness of the cartoon, as it could use a good restoration. Cinecolor and Two-Color Technicolor films often get an even more orange look over time but clean up quite beautifully.

This is the only color cartoon we have of the delicious Miss Boop, incidentally made on the cusp of when the Hayes Code was enforced. So we have her at her bouncing sexist. And we discover that she is a redhead!

Pretty much all the material that Disney later covered in his feature cartoons had been done in a Boop version first, and with more energy. I think if Fleischer had arranged the backing to make feature cartoons, we'd now be visiting BoopLand in California, Florida and Paris.

Oh, there's another unique thing here. Betty does her trademarked butt dancing but when with her prince at the ball, has an equally sexy smooth ballroom dance. I think it is the only non-jazzy dance in all the Boop cartoons.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

This is an absolutely beautiful cartoon! Most Fleischer shorts were quite visually striking, to be sure, but Betty Boop only had one color cartoon-this one. While in many ways it's good that black and white was used for most of her cartoons, the sweep of this cartoon cried out for color. The Fleischers were likely also hoping that Betty's popularity would boost interest in the Color Classics series that they were starting. Betty as Cinderella was certainly fitting-after all, Cinderella did ultimately become a princess when she married the prince and Betty Boop is cartoon royalty. Wonderful effort from the brothers Max and Dave. In print and available. Most highly recommended.

Max Fleischer and Paramount give Betty Boop the Cinderella treatment in this 10-plus minute short presented in lovely Cinecolor (the Fleischer Studio's first color cartoon). Betty sings "I'm just a poor Cinderella"--and her Fairy Godmother refers to her as a "kind and gentle thing"--but we know from her sashay walk that she's just pretending to be an innocent. Playing the scrub-girl taunted by her ugly stepsisters, Betty/Cindy sobs for less than a second before her wish to attend the Prince's Ball is granted--with the proviso to be out of there by midnight. Some funny visual jests: the trumpeter blowing so hard on his instrument that his pants become briefs (showing off his hairy legs!); the Prince's sword accidentally giving one of the stepsisters a goose; Betty sliding down the castle bannister to get to her coach before it changes back to a pumpkin. The 3D effect is quite stunning, as is Betty's red hair and the Prince's blue eyelids! I never understood Betty Boop's universal appeal (she seems to attract the die-hard affection of all races, creeds and orientation); she's resourceful and sexy, if never quite as sassy as one might hope.