Pobre Cenicienta

Poor Cinderella (1934)

**** (out of 4)

Excellent Betty Boop cartoon is the only one to feature her in color and they made her a red head as well! In the film she plays Cinderella who is granted a magical night thanks to her fairy godmother and soon the Prince falls in love with her. Storywise this here is pretty familiar to all the other versions out there but the real interest here is getting to see Betty Boop in color. I'm not sure of the reasonings behind making her a red head but it's certainly interesting to say the very least. The short really does follow the story pretty closely so those expecting to see something new might be disappointed. However, fans of Boop are going to love seeing the sexy "actress" getting to play her looks down as the abused Cinderella. I thought these early scenes were very good and things certainly got better as the Pre-Code naughty moments happen and this is when Betty is pretty much stripped down in order for her new clothes to be put on her. Modern audiences probably wouldn't even think about this but film buffs know this wasn't always accepted. The Technicolor is also extremely good here and overall this is just a highly entertaining short.

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.

Long before Rodgers and Hammerstein had the idea of musicalizing Cinderella, Betty Boop made the midnight pumpkin change tunefully, with verve, sex and good story editing. The plot is trimmed to its essentials, the splendid backgrounds may have influenced the Disney Beauty and the Beast, and the closing shot of the Pinocchio-nosed sisters wraps everything up with a laugh.

This is one of my favorite Betty Boop cartoons, and "Cinderella" is one of my favorite fairy tales, even though I'm an adult. I want to emphasize that this was just sixteen years ago, prior to Disney releasing their animated theatrical version.

Like I said, I love animation from Fleischer Studios, as well as animation from Disney, Hanna/Barbera, Rankin/Bass, and Studio Ghibli from Japan. Betty Boop is one of my favorite cartoon characters, as are Bugs Bunny, Tweety, Pepe le Pew from Warner Bros., and Disney's Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. I love the ballroom scene where Betty/Cinderella and the Prince dance-until midnight, that is.

I love the song in this cartoon featuring Betty Boop, despite it being in two-strip Cinecolor.

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.