Betty Boop
Betty Boop is an animated cartoon character designed by Grim Natwick at the request of Max Fleischer.[a][6][7][8] She originally appeared in the Talkartoon and Betty Boop film series, which were produced by Fleischer Studios and released by Paramount Pictures. She was featured in 90 theatrical cartoons between 1930 and 1939.[9] She has also been featured in comic strips and mass merchandising.
Not to be confused with Betty Boo.Betty Boop
Dizzy Dishes (1930)
Max Fleischer, with Grim Natwick et al.
- Margie Hines (1930–1932, 1938–1939)[2]
- Little Ann Little (1931–1933, 1938)[3]
- Harriet Lee (1931)[2][3]
- Mae Questel (1931–1939, 1988)[2][3]
- Bonnie Poe (1933–1934, 1938)[2]
Post Golden-Age
- Victoria Dorazi (1980)[2]
- Desiree Goyette (1985)[2]
- Melissa Fahn (1989)[2]
- Sandy Fox (1991–2022)[4][2]
- Cindy Robinson (1991–present, official commercials)[2]
Human (although a dog in her first appearance)
Female
A caricature of a Jazz Age flapper, Betty Boop was described in a 1934 court case as "combin[ing] in appearance the childish with the sophisticated—a large round baby face with big eyes and a nose like a button, framed in a somewhat careful coiffure, with a very small body of which perhaps the leading characteristic is the most self-confident little bust imaginable".[10] Although she was toned down in the mid-1930s as a result of the Hays Code to appear more demure, she became one of the world's best-known and most popular cartoon characters.
History[edit]
Origins[edit]
Betty Boop made her first appearance in the cartoon Dizzy Dishes, released on August 9, 1930, the seventh installment in Fleischer's Talkartoon series. Inspired by a popular performing style, but not by any one specific person, the character was originally created as an anthropomorphic French poodle.[b] Clara Bow is sometimes given credit as being the inspiration for Boop,[12] though Fleischer told his artists that he wanted a caricature of singer Helen Kane, who performed in a style shared by many performers of the day–Kane was also the one who sued Fleischer over the signature "Boop Oop a Doop" line.[13] Betty Boop appeared as a supporting character in ten cartoons as a flapper girl with more heart than brains. In individual cartoons, she was called "Nancy Lee" or "Nan McGrew"—derived from the Helen Kane film Dangerous Nan McGrew (1930)—usually serving as a girlfriend to studio star Bimbo.
Within a year, Betty made the transition from an incidental human-canine breed to a completely human female character. While much credit has been given to Grim Natwick for helping to transform Max Fleischer's creation, her transition into the cute cartoon girl was also in part due to the work of Bernard Wolf, Otto Feuer, Seymour Kneitel, Roland "Doc" Crandall, Willard Bowsky, and James "Shamus" Culhane.[14] By the release of Any Rags, Betty Boop was forever established as a human character. Her floppy poodle ears became hoop earrings, and her black poodle nose became a girl's button-like nose.
Media[edit]
Television[edit]
In 1955, Betty's 110 cartoon appearances were sold to television syndicator UM&M, which was acquired by National Telefilm Associates (NTA) in 1956. NTA was reorganized in 1985 as Republic Pictures, which folded in 2012, and became Melange Pictures, a subsidiary of Paramount Global, the parent company of Paramount. Paramount, Boop's original home studio (via Melange/Paramount Global), acts as a theatrical distributor for the Boop cartoons that they originally released. Television rights are handled on Paramount's behalf by Trifecta Entertainment & Media, which in turn were inherited from CBS Television Distribution (renamed CBS Media Ventures in 2021), successor to other related companies, including Worldvision Enterprises, Republic Pictures Television, and NTA.
Betty Boop appeared in two television specials, The Romance of Betty Boop in 1985, which was produced by Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez, the same creative team behind the Peanuts specials, and 1989's The Betty Boop Movie Mystery; both specials are available on DVD as part of the Advantage Cartoon Mega Pack. While television revivals were conceived, nothing has materialized from the plans. Her most recent television appearance was an episode of Project Runaway All Stars in February 2018.[27]
On February 11, 2016, Deadline announced that a new 26-episode television series focusing on Betty Boop is in production, in partnership with Normaal Animation, Fleischer Studios, and King Features. The show was to be aimed towards the tween and teenaged audiences. The show's premise, according to the article, will "recount the daily struggles, joys, and victories of young Betty Boop, who has every intention of being on stage and becoming a superstar".[28]
Home media[edit]
While the animated cartoons featuring Betty Boop have enjoyed renewed attention over the last 30 years, official home-video releases have been limited to the VHS and LaserDisc collector's sets in the 1990s. No such releases for the Betty Boop cartoons on DVD and Blu-ray were made until 2013, when Olive Films, under license from Paramount Home Entertainment, finally released the nonpublic domain cartoons, although they were restored from the original internegatives, these were altered in 1954 by a now defunct TV distributor named UM&M TV Corp. and the altered opening and closing credits appear on these discs.[29] Volume 1 was released on August 20, 2013, and volume 2 on September 24, 2013. Volume 3 was released on April 29, 2014, and volume 4 on September 30, 2014.
Comics[edit]
The Betty Boop comic strip by Bud Counihan (assisted by Fleischer staffer Hal Seeger) was distributed by King Features Syndicate from July 23, 1934, to November 28, 1937.[30] From November 19, 1984, to January 31, 1988, a revival strip with Felix the Cat, Betty Boop and Felix, was produced by Mort Walker's sons Brian, Neal, Greg, and Morgan.[30][31] In 1990, First Comics published Betty Boop's Big Break, a 52-page original graphic novel by Joshua Quagmire, Milton Knight, and Leslie Cabarga. In 2016, Dynamite Entertainment published new Betty Boop comics with 20 pages in the alternative American anime graphic novel style.
Merchandise[edit]
Marketers rediscovered Betty Boop in the 1980s, and Betty Boop merchandise has far outdistanced her exposure in films, with many not aware of her cinematic origin. Much of this merchandise features the character in her popular, sexier form, and has become popular worldwide once again.
In 2010, Betty Boop became the official fantasy cheerleader for the upstart United Football League. She was featured in merchandise targeted towards the league's female demographic.[36]
As of 2021, international licensing company Global Icons has acquired the licensing rights to Betty Boop and other Fleischer Studios characters, thus ending Fleischer's longtime relationship with King Features Syndicate.[37] She still appears in merchandise and social media, appealing to a 21st-century audience, using slang from the social media website TikTok, and she has various hobbies. (cyclist, recycling, etc.)[38]
Legacy and revivals[edit]
Betty Boop's popularity has continued into popular culture. In the Green Acres episode "School Days", Oliver quips that Lisa "has a lot of Betty Boop in her". In Drawn Together, Betty is the inspiration for Toot Braunstein. Rapper Betty Boo based her voice and image on Betty Boop. The 1933 Betty Boop cartoon Snow-White (not to be confused with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) was selected for preservation by the U.S. Library of Congress in the National Film Registry in 1994. Betty appears in the Ink and Paint club scene in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Betty is parodied in the Animaniacs episode "Girl with the Googily Goop", with the Boop character called "Googi Goop". The episode, made predominantly in black and white, is also a parody of "Little Red Riding Hood". Googi was voiced by one-time Betty Boop voice actress Desirée Goyette. Beatress Johnson, a character in American Mary, has had extensive plastic surgery to resemble Betty Boop. Betty Boop appeared with model Daria Werbowy in a commercial for Lancôme's Hypnôse Star Mascara, directed by Joann Sfar.[75] In March, 2017, Betty appeared with fashion designer Zac Posen in an animated promotional short produced by King Features Syndicate, Fleischer Studios (its subsidiary) and Pantone.[76]
In April 2011, Funny or Die parodied the character in a trailer spoof for a film called Boop, with Rose McGowan as Betty.[77]
Betty Boop is a central character in the satirical parody webcomic Mr. Boop. The comic centers on the relationship between Betty and a fictionalized version of the webcomic's creator who is married to Betty.[78] The comic was nominated for an Ignatz Award.[79] Betty can be seen at meet-and-greets at the Orlando Universal Studios theme park.[80]
