Art and animation quality.

[cartMan]

You lot have probably done this one to death by now.

I find that the artwork, animation and characterisation of Betty Boop is very variable, yes even in the early 30, after the Haynes act well I feel a great deal was lost.

However I have a `modern’ B.B on VHS tape `Betty Boop goes to Hollywood’ and I feel that the artwork, animation and characterisation, is very true to original spirit of B.B ( Peanut head, curvy, mini skirt etc)
The other modern cartoons on the same tape, don’t come even close though.
Disappointing.
How does BETTY BOOP FOR PRESIDENT made 1980 compare ?
Can anyone recommend any more recent BB ?

[The Moocher]

IMHO the Hays act did for Betty Boop cartoons what Dutch elm disease did for forests.

Post Hays Betty stopped being cute and cuddly. She became prim and proper, a bit scary, and rather boring. The animation and drawing changed too. Her figure was no longer Mae West, and sometimes got closer to Olive Oyl. She wasn't so popular, didn't pull in the audiences and the cash, and less skilled animators took over.

A huge pity. I haven't seen all the cartoons pre early 1934, but there's nothing I've seen that I wouldn't happily show to my eight-year-old neice.

OK, that's my rant over. Even before 1934, Betty's characterization was variable. Different artists were used, sometimes in the same cartoon (for example Boop-Boop-a-Doop). Sometimes she was taller and slimmer, with a smaller head. In the earlier cartoons she was still evolving from her doggie origins and retained some canine features.

However, in those days she was revolutionary and new techniques evolved round her, for example when she was "morphed" on to the figure of a dancer (I think Ethel Merriman) in Betty's Bamboo Isle. Sometimes the new techniques didn't work, usually they did. She was, however, Inkwell and the Fleichers' top star, and she got the best cartoonists around.

Modern cartoons, for all their color and computer wizardy, don't get the care and attention that the hand-drawn ones got. Attempts do revive Betty were generally unsuccessful. Personally I found "Hurrah for Betty Boop" dire, with none of the mischief of the early cartoons. I've seen "Betty Boop for President" but it was in black and white and rather good, so it was probably the original.

I believe that the bit part that brought Betty back into the public eye suceeded because it went back to the basics. In "Who Framed Rodger Rabbit" she was black and white and (I understand) hand-drawn. Whether the Fleicher's other less-reputable subliminal techniques were also used (I won't go into that in a family forum) is a matter for speculation. Whatever the trick, her tiny bit part just blew everybody away.

I can't help feeling sorry for Jessica Rabbit!

Mooch

[Bikerbettyboop]

Hey well done and aptly put. I felt sorry for Jessica too.. I mean no body can give Betty Boop a run for her money!