Thrills and Chills

Just watched this Max Fleischer Betty Boop cartoon on YouTube. It's the last one made in New York before the move to Miami. It's also one of several that has the little pup Pudgy as a co-star, in fact the full title card says, "A Betty Boop Cartoon/Pudgy in Thrills and Chills". Betty and her dog are on a train to a ski resort. During much of that time, a man who's smitten with Betty keeps saying in his goofy way, "Hey pretty lady, give me a kiss." The Boop girl keeps resisting. She also does a lot of skating (this sequence is rotoscoped). Pudgy himself has some cute adventures on the ice before being carried away on an ice floe. It's up to Betty and that goofy guy to rescue him...Entirely animated by one man-Roland Crandall-Thrills and Chills provide many of those gags in which many inanimate objects come to life. No greats shakes but amusing enough for my tastes.

The cartoon begins with Betty and her diminutive pup Pudgy hastening to catch a train to a ski resort and almost being prevented from boarding it by a "nutsy-dopesy" young masher who badgers our heroine for a kiss. Once the train arrives at its destination, Betty proceeds to skate on a frozen lake with magnificent proficiency while her admirer goes all out to impress her with his less-than-magnificent ski jumping. Unhappily, an emergency soon arises when Pudgy antagonizes a fish who vindictively propels him over the edge of a waterfall and causes him to be borne away by the current on a small slab of ice. An instant later, Betty herself comes tumbling over the waterfall, but she is rescued by the amorous galoot, who subsequently joins her in an obstacle-fraught race to save her puppy's life.

Betty Boop looks heart-dizzyingly gorgeous in "Thrills and Chills"; her new, conspicuously more realistic design is simply utterly perfect. She is a tall, very leggy and deeply elegant and winsome belle who appears to be about twenty-two years old. My own opinion is that no female animated character has ever looked as beautiful as Betty does in this cartoon.

The masher is an endearing fellow who is nothing like the dangerous and sleazy characters who hounded Betty in her earlier cartoons (the Old Man of the Mountain, for instance). He reminds me of an over-excited puppy in his cloddish efforts to get Betty to kiss him, and he certainly demonstrates that his heart is in the right place when he saves Betty and her dog from peril. He is at his most likeable in the adorably pleasant last few seconds of the cartoon, where the expression on his face and the sounds that he utters are hilarious.

The highlight of the short is Betty's super-enthralling figure-skating, which represents the most excellent use of the rotoscoping animation technique that I have seen. Those who complain about Betty's post-1934 shorts being tame and sanitized obviously haven't seen how titillatingly the animators have depicted her legs here!

The musical score is particularly nice, and it wonderfully matches the mood of the cartoon. I do love the whimsical use of the train's toots as a musical instrument, as well as the magical interpretation of "Jingle Bells" that accompanies Betty's pirouetting on the ice. Other than the figure-skating, my favourite moments in the cartoon are Betty and Pudgy's cute game of Xs and Os on the train (Betty's face looks inexpressibly sweet when she steams up the window with her breath), and the anthropomorphization of the tree which occurs in the course of the hurtle to save Pudgy.

This is a Fabergé Egg of a cartoon with a phenomenally charming Betty Boop and a fairytale atmosphere. No one makes animated shorts as exquisite as this in the twenty-first century. I wouldn't hesitate in describing "Thrills and Chills" as one of the loveliest fruits of the Golden age of American animation: a masterwork through and through.

A good deal of the pre-Production Code Betty Boop cartoons are daring and creative, with content that makes one amazed at what's gotten away with. While the later Betty Boop cartoons made after the Code was enforced are still watchable and exceptionally well-made, they are so toned down that they feel bland.

Fleischer were responsible for some brilliant cartoons, some of them still among my favourites. Their visual style was often stunning and some of the most imaginative and ahead of its time in animation. The character of Betty Boop, one of their most famous and prolific characters, may not be for all tastes and sadly not as popular now, but her sex appeal was quite daring for the time and to me there is an adorable sensual charm about her. The good news is that she has not lost her charm, despite being significantly toned down, she is still cute and her comic timing is good.

Pudgy is similarly adorable and while not "interesting" he is always watchable and works well with Betty, one really cares what happens to him here. Betty's admirer makes an impact without being creepy or annoying.

On top of that, the animation in 'Thrills and Chills' is as to be expected outstanding, being beautifully drawn, crisply shaded and meticulous in detail. There is some ingenious rotoscoping too. The music is infectious, lush and dynamic. There are some amusing moments and it is cute without being too saccharine. The voice is reliably good.

The story is thin and predictable though (this said, this was not exactly new with a Betty Boop cartoon).

As has been said many times about the post-Production Code Betty Boop cartoons, there is a big personal preference for the more risqué, surreal, creative and more consistently humorous and imaginative pre-Production Code Betty Boop cartoons, having been toned down by the limitations of the code many of the later cartoons are tame in comparison and have a blandness.

In summary, pretty good and worth seeing but not great. 7/10 Bethany Cox