114-492: Post Golden-Age Betty Boop is an animated cartoon character designed by Grim Natwick at the request of Dave Fleischer . 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. She has also been featured in comic strips and mass merchandising. A caricature of
228-405: 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". Although she was toned down in the mid-1930s as
342-580: A feminist icon. Betty Boop's best appearances are considered to be in her first three years due to her " Jazz Baby " character and innocent sexuality, which was aimed at adults, but the content of her films was affected by the National Legion of Decency and the Production Code of 1934, which imposed guidelines on the motion-picture industry and placed specific restrictions on the content films could reference with sexual innuendos. This greatly affected
456-675: A 1932 interview with Fleischer (although in The Bum Bandit , she is portrayed as a married woman with many children and with an adult woman's voice, rather than the standard "boop-boop-a-doop" voice). Attempts to compromise her virginity were reflected in Chess-Nuts (1932) and most importantly in Boop-Oop-a-Doop (1932). In Chess-Nuts , the Black King goes into the house where Betty is and ties her up. When she rejects him, he pulls her out of
570-514: A 21st-century audience, using slang from the social media website TikTok , and she has various hobbies. ( cyclist , recycling , etc.) Marking Betty Boop's 55th birthday, in 1985 she made her first appearance as a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon. The balloon held more than 15,000 cubic feet (420 m) of helium and was 67 feet (20 m) tall. The balloon did not finish the 1986 parade due to collapsing near Times Square . The balloon appeared again in 1987 then returned for occasional use in
684-420: A cannon and fires it. Koko, who remained hiding inside the cannon, knocks the ringmaster out cold with a mallet, while imitating the ringmaster's laugh. Koko then inquires about Betty's welfare, to which she answers in song, "No, he couldn't take my boop-oop-a-doop away". According to Jill Harness of Mental Floss , these portrayals of Boop fighting off sexual harassment on the animated screen made many see her as
798-490: A consistent way to whatever style is employed on a particular film. Since the early 1980s, teams of about 500 to 600 people, of whom 50 to 70 are animators, typically have created feature-length animated films. It is relatively easy for two or three artists to match their styles; synchronizing those of dozens of artists is more difficult. This problem is usually solved by having a separate group of visual development artists develop an overall look and palette for each film before
912-502: A corporate split into two separate companies: CBS Corporation and Paramount Pictures (the original distributor). As of 2021, Olive Films (under license from Paramount) holds home video rights and Trifecta retains television rights. The rights to the "Betty Boop" character were not sold with the cartoons by Paramount, but were transferred to Harvey Comics in 1958 along with the 'Famous Studios' cartoon characters (Casper, Herman & Katnip, Baby Huey, etc.), regardless of whether they had
1026-422: A dedicated Disneyana Fan Club (since 1984). Disneyland opened in 1955 and features many attractions that were based on Disney's cartoon characters. Its enormous success spawned several other Disney theme parks and resorts . Disney's earnings from the theme parks have relatively often been higher than those from their movies. As with any other form of media, animation has instituted awards for excellence in
1140-481: A fully defined woman's form. Many other female cartoons were merely clones of their male co-stars, with alterations in costume, the addition of eyelashes, and a female voice. Betty Boop wore short dresses, high heels, a garter, and her breasts were highlighted with a low, contoured bodice that showed cleavage. In her cartoons, male characters frequently try to sneak a peek at her while she is changing or simply going about her business. In Betty Boop's Bamboo Isle , she does
1254-400: 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
SECTION 10
#17328444128001368-451: A new life on the small screen and by the end of the 1950s, the production of new animated cartoons started to shift from theatrical releases to TV series. Hanna-Barbera Productions was especially prolific and had huge hit series, such as The Flintstones (1960–1966) (the first prime time animated series), Scooby-Doo (since 1969) and Belgian co-production The Smurfs (1981–1989). The constraints of American television programming and
1482-443: A new series. When the flapper/jazz era that Betty represented had been replaced by the big bands of the swing era , Fleischer Studios made an attempt to develop a replacement character in this style in the 1938 Betty Boop cartoon Betty Boop and Sally Swing , but it was not a success. The last Betty Boop cartoons were released in 1939, and a few made attempts to bring Betty into the swing era. In her last appearance, Rhythm on
1596-455: A puppy named Pudgy, beginning with Betty Boop's Little Pal (1934). The following year saw the addition of the eccentric inventor Grampy , who debuted in Betty Boop and Grampy (1935). While these cartoons were tame compared to her earlier appearances, their self-conscious wholesomeness was aimed at a more juvenile audience, which contributed to the decline of the series. Much of the decline
1710-522: A result of the Hays Code to appear more demure, she became one of the world's best-known and most popular cartoon characters. 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, the character was originally created as an anthropomorphic French poodle . Clara Bow
1824-459: A revival with the release of The Betty Boop Scandals of 1974 , becoming a part of the post-1960s counterculture . NTA attempted to capitalize on this with a new syndication package, but because no market existed for cartoons in black and white, they sent them to South Korea, where the cartoons were hand-traced frame-by-frame in color, resulting in the degradation of the animation quality and timing. Unable to sell these to television largely because of
1938-569: A selection of the original black-and-white Betty Boop cartoons in the 1990s, which led to an eight-volume VHS and LV set, Betty Boop, the Definitive Collection . Some of the nonpublic-domain Boop cartoons copyrighted by Republic successor Melange Pictures (Paramount Global's holding company that handles the Republic theatrical library) have been released by Olive Films under Paramount's license, while
2052-520: A separate background, computer animation is usually based on programming paths between key frames to maneuver digitally created figures throughout a digitally created environment. Analog mechanical animation media that rely on the rapid display of sequential images include the phenakistiscope , zoetrope , flip book , praxinoscope , and film. Television and video are popular electronic animation media that originally were analog and now operate digitally . For display on computers, technology such as
2166-661: A similar character. Betty Boop was the star of the Talkartoons by 1932 and was given her own series that same year, beginning with Stopping the Show . From that point on, she was crowned "The Queen of the Animated Screen". The series was popular throughout the 1930s. Since the character was created by an Austrian Jew and eventually voiced by a Jewish actress, Mae Questel, animation fans sometimes try to pinpoint various aspects that hint at Betty's Jewishness. The 1932 Talkartoon Minnie
2280-467: A similar vocal style in an act at the Everglades Restaurant club in midtown Manhattan , in "April or May 1928". Under cross-examination Bolton said that he had met with Kane at the club after Esther's performance, but could not say when she had walked in. Bolton also stated that Paramount's lawyers had paid him $ 200 to come to New York. Esther's name was given in the trial as Esther Jones. (During
2394-504: A superstar". 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
SECTION 20
#17328444128002508-532: 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
2622-450: A true powerhouse of animation production, with its own recognizable and influential anime style of effective limited animation . Animation became very popular on television since the 1950s, when television sets started to become common in most developed countries. Cartoons were mainly programmed for children, on convenient time slots, and especially US youth spent many hours watching Saturday-morning cartoons . Many classic cartoons found
2736-522: A very long history in automata . Electronic automata were popularized by Disney as animatronics . The word animation stems from the Latin animātiōn , stem of animātiō , meaning 'bestowing of life'. The earlier meaning of the English word is 'liveliness' and has been in use much longer than the meaning of 'moving image medium'. Long before modern animation began, audiences around the world were captivated by
2850-409: A wide variety of styles, relatively often including stop motion and cutout animation techniques. Soviet Soyuzmultfilm animation studio, founded in 1936, produced 20 films (including shorts) per year on average and reached 1,582 titles in 2018. China, Czechoslovakia / Czech Republic, Italy, France, and Belgium were other countries that more than occasionally released feature films, while Japan became
2964-579: Is a filmmaking technique by which still images are manipulated to create moving images . In traditional animation , images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets ( cels ) to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animation has been recognized as an artistic medium, specifically within the entertainment industry . Many animations are either tradtional animations or computer animations made with computer-generated imagery (CGI). Stop motion animation , in particular claymation , has continued to exist alongside these other forms. Animation
3078-643: Is a technique combining hand-drawn characters into live action shots or live-action actors into animated shots. One of the earlier uses was in Koko the Clown when Koko was drawn over live-action footage. Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks created a series of Alice Comedies (1923–1927), in which a live-action girl enters an animated world. Other examples include Allegro Non Troppo (Italy, 1976), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (US, 1988), Volere volare (Italy 1991), Space Jam (US, 1996) and Osmosis Jones (US, 2001). Minnie
3192-448: Is contrasted with live-action film , although the two do not exist in isolation. Many moviemakers have produced films that are a hybrid of the two . As CGI increasingly approximates photographic imagery , filmmakers can easily composite 3D animations into their film rather than using practical effects for showy visual effects (VFX). Computer animation can be very detailed 3D animation , while 2D computer animation (which may have
3306-413: Is pointless for a studio to pay the salaries of dozens of animators to spend weeks creating a visually dazzling five-minute scene if that scene fails to effectively advance the plot of the film. Thus, animation studios starting with Disney began the practice in the 1930s of maintaining story departments where storyboard artists develop every single scene through storyboards , then handing the film over to
3420-406: Is sometimes given credit as being the inspiration for Boop, though Fleischer told his artists that he wanted a caricature of singer Helen Kane . Kane later sued Fleischer over the signature "Boop Oop a Doop" line. 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
3534-449: Is that once a film is in the production phase, the marginal cost of one more shot is higher for animated films than live-action films. It is relatively easy for a director to ask for one more take during principal photography of a live-action film, but every take on an animated film must be manually rendered by animators (although the task of rendering slightly different takes has been made less tedious by modern computer animation). It
Betty Boop - Misplaced Pages Continue
3648-404: Is the best known and most extreme example. Since first being licensed for a children's writing tablet in 1929, their Mickey Mouse mascot has been depicted on an enormous amount of products , as have many other Disney characters. This may have influenced some pejorative use of Mickey's name , but licensed Disney products sell well, and the so-called Disneyana has many avid collectors, and even
3762-519: Is the process of producing high-quality traditionally animated films that regularly use detailed drawings and plausible movement, having a smooth animation. Fully animated films can be made in a variety of styles, from more realistically animated works like those produced by the Walt Disney studio ( The Little Mermaid , Beauty and the Beast , Aladdin , The Lion King ) to the more 'cartoon' styles of
3876-432: Is the process that was used for most animated films of the 20th century. The individual frames of a traditionally animated film are photographs of drawings, first drawn on paper. To create the illusion of movement, each drawing differs slightly from the one before it. The animators' drawings are traced or photocopied onto transparent acetate sheets called cels , which are filled in with paints in assigned colors or tones on
3990-536: The CIBC Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, from November 19, 2023, to December 24, 2023. Direction and choreography are by Jerry Mitchell , and the musical starred Jasmine Amy Rogers as Betty Boop, with Faith Prince as Valentina, Ainsley Melham as Dwayne, Erich Bergen as Raymond, Stephen DeRosa as Grampy, Angelica Hale as Trisha and Anastacia McCleskey as Carol. In the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit , Betty Boop
4104-583: 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 . By
4218-743: The Internet ( web cartoons ). Rotoscoping is a technique patented by Max Fleischer in 1917 where animators trace live-action movement, frame by frame. The source film can be directly copied from actors' outlines into animated drawings, as in The Lord of the Rings (US, 1978), or used in a stylized and expressive manner, as in Waking Life (US, 2001) and A Scanner Darkly (US, 2006). Some other examples are Fire and Ice (US, 1983), Heavy Metal (1981), and Aku no Hana (Japan, 2013). Live-action/animation
4332-554: The Internet Archive hosts 22 Betty Boop cartoons that are public domain . Betty Boop is regarded as one of the first and best-known sex symbols on the animated screen; she is a symbol of the Depression era and a reminder of the more carefree days of Jazz Age flappers . Her popularity was drawn largely from adult audiences, and the cartoons, while seemingly surreal, contained many sexual and psychological elements, particularly in
4446-515: The Warner Bros. animation studio . Many of the Disney animated features are examples of full animation, as are non-Disney works, The Secret of NIMH (US, 1982), The Iron Giant (US, 1999), and Nocturna (Spain, 2007). Fully animated films are often animated on "twos", sometimes on "ones", which means that 12 to 24 drawings are required for a single second of film. Limited animation involves
4560-556: The animated GIF and Flash animation were developed. In addition to short films , feature films , television series , animated GIFs, and other media dedicated to the display of moving images, animation is also prevalent in video games , motion graphics , user interfaces , and visual effects . The physical movement of image parts through simple mechanics—for instance, moving images in magic lantern shows—can also be considered animation. The mechanical manipulation of three-dimensional puppets and objects to emulate living beings has
4674-462: The flip book (1868), the praxinoscope (1877) and film . When cinematography eventually broke through in the 1890s, the wonder of the realistic details in the new medium was seen as its biggest accomplishment. It took years before animation found its way to the cinemas. The successful short The Haunted Hotel (1907) by J. Stuart Blackton popularized stop motion and reportedly inspired Émile Cohl to create Fantasmagorie (1908), regarded as
Betty Boop - Misplaced Pages Continue
4788-509: The hula wearing nothing but a lei , strategically placed to cover her breasts, and a grass skirt. This was repeated in her first cameo appearance in Popeye the Sailor (1933). A certain girlish quality was given to the character. She was drawn with a head more similar to a baby's than an adult's in proportion to her body. This suggested the combination of girlishness and maturity that many people saw in
4902-439: The persistence of vision and later to the phi phenomenon and beta movement , but the exact neurological causes are still uncertain. The illusion of motion caused by a rapid succession of images that minimally differ from each other, with unnoticeable interruptions, is a stroboscopic effect . While animators traditionally used to draw each part of the movements and changes of figures on transparent cels that could be moved over
5016-536: The 1932 "Talkartoon" Minnie the Moocher (1932), featuring Cab Calloway and his orchestra. Minnie the Moocher defined Betty's character as a teenager of a modern era, at odds with the old-world ways of her parents. In the cartoon, after a disagreement with her strict parents, Betty runs away from home, accompanied by her boyfriend Bimbo, only to get lost in a haunted cave. A ghostly walrus ( rotoscoped from live-action footage of Calloway) sings Calloway's song "Minnie
5130-529: The 1960s, and European producers looking for affordable cel animators relatively often started co-productions with Japanese studios, resulting in hit series such as Barbapapa (The Netherlands/Japan/France 1973–1977), Wickie und die starken Männer/小さなバイキング ビッケ (Vicky the Viking) (Austria/Germany/Japan 1974), Maya the Honey Bee (Japan/Germany 1975) and The Jungle Book (Italy/Japan 1989). Computer animation
5244-401: The 1990s. In May 1932, Helen Kane filed a $ 250,000 infringement lawsuit against Fleischer Studios, Max Fleischer and Paramount Publix Corporation for the "deliberate caricature" that produced "unfair competition", exploiting her personality and image. While Kane had risen to fame in the late 1920s as "The Boop-Oop-a-Doop Girl", a star of stage, recordings, and films for Paramount, her career
5358-522: The Beast was the first animated film nominated for Best Picture , in 1991. Up (2009) and Toy Story 3 (2010) also received Best Picture nominations, after the academy expanded the number of nominees from five to ten. The creation of non-trivial animation works (i.e., longer than a few seconds) has developed as a form of filmmaking , with certain unique aspects. Traits common to both live-action and animated feature films are labor intensity and high production costs. The most important difference
5472-453: The Betty Boop cartoons. No longer a carefree flapper from the date the code went into effect on July 1, 1934, Betty became a spinster housewife or a career girl who wore a fuller dress or skirt. Additionally, as time progressed, the curls in her hair gradually decreased in number. She also eventually stopped wearing her gold bracelets and hoop earrings, and she became more mature and wiser in personality, compared to her earlier years. Right from
5586-499: The Fleischers to discredit Kane, whom they later admitted to have been their model for Betty Boop." O'Meally also questioned if some sort of deal existed between Paramount and Bolton, and questioned if Esther were ever paid for her presumed loss of revenue. New York Supreme Court Justice Edward J. McGoldrick ruled, "The plaintiff has failed to sustain either cause of action by proof of sufficient probative force". In his opinion, based on
5700-696: The Friendly Ghost (1945), Warner Bros. Cartoon Studios ' Looney Tunes ' Porky Pig (1935), Daffy Duck (1937), Elmer Fudd (1937–1940), Bugs Bunny (1938–1940), Tweety (1942), Sylvester the Cat (1945), Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner (1949), MGM cartoon studio 's Tom and Jerry (1940) and Droopy , Universal Cartoon Studios ' Woody Woodpecker (1940), Terrytoons / 20th Century Fox 's Mighty Mouse (1942), and United Artists ' Pink Panther (1963). In 1917, Italian-Argentine director Quirino Cristiani made
5814-471: The Moocher featured the only appearance of Betty's parents: a strict immigrant couple, who get upset that Betty does not want to eat the traditional German foods hasenpfeffer (rabbit stew) and sauerbraten . Benjamin Ivry of Forward says that any of this evidence is ambiguous, as these are not kosher foods, and the accents of the parents are comical German accents, rather than Jewish. Betty appeared in
SECTION 50
#17328444128005928-413: The Moocher " and dances to the melancholy song. Calloway is joined in the performance by other ghosts, goblins, skeletons, and other creatures. Betty and Bimbo are subjected to skeletons drinking at a bar; ghost prisoners sitting in electric chairs; a cat with empty eye-sockets feeding her equally empty-eyed kittens; and so on. Betty and Bimbo both change their minds about running away and rush back home with
6042-537: The Moocher (film) Minnie the Moocher is a 1932 Betty Boop cartoon produced by Fleischer Studios and released by Paramount Pictures . In 1994, Minnie the Moocher was voted #20 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field. The cartoon opens with a live action sequence of the famous black musician Cab Calloway and his orchestra performing an instrumental rendition of " St. James Infirmary ". Betty Boop gets into an argument with her strict immigrant parents when she will not eat
6156-404: The Moocher", accompanied by several other ghosts and skeletons. This haunting performance sends the frightened Betty and Bimbo back to the safety of home. "Minnie the Moocher" served as a promotion for Calloway's subsequent stage appearances and also established Betty Boop as a cartoon star. The eight Talkartoons that followed all starred Betty, leading her into her own series beginning in 1932. With
6270-513: The Reservation (1939), Betty drives an open convertible, labeled "Betty Boop's Swing Band", through a Native American reservation, where she introduces the people to swing music and creates a "Swinging Sioux Band". The Betty Boop cartoon series officially ended with Yip Yip Yippy (1939). While Yip Yip Yippy appears at the end of the Betty Boop series, it is actually a one-shot about a "Drug Store" mail-order cowboy "wannabe" without Betty, which
6384-766: 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
6498-590: The Tramp (1955) failed at the box office. For decades afterward, Disney would be the only American studio to regularly produce animated features, until Ralph Bakshi became the first to also release more than a handful features. Sullivan-Bluth Studios began to regularly produce animated features starting with An American Tail in 1986. Although relatively few titles became as successful as Disney's features, other countries developed their own animation industries that produced both short and feature theatrical animations in
6612-521: The US. Successful producer John Randolph Bray and animator Earl Hurd , patented the cel animation process that dominated the animation industry for the rest of the century. Felix the Cat , who debuted in 1919, became the first fully realized anthropomorphic animal character in the history of American animation. In 1928, Steamboat Willie , featuring Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse , popularized film-with-synchronized-sound and put Walt Disney 's studio at
6726-498: The adventures of human protagonists. Especially with animals that form a natural predator/prey relationship (e.g. cats and mice, coyotes and birds), the action often centers on violent pratfalls such as falls, collisions, and explosions that would be lethal in real life. A cartoon can also be a still humorous drawing, often with the same elements as animated cartoons but with still versions. The illusion of animation—as in motion pictures in general—has traditionally been attributed to
6840-408: The alternative American anime graphic novel style; four issues were released. In 1993, plans were made for an animated feature film of Betty Boop, but they were later cancelled. The musical storyboard scene of the proposed film can be seen online. The finished reel consists of Betty and her estranged father performing a jazz number together called "Where are you?" Jimmy Rowles and Sue Raney provide
6954-469: The animation begins. Character designers on the visual development team draw model sheets to show how each character should look like with different facial expressions, posed in different positions, and viewed from different angles. On traditionally animated projects, maquettes were often sculpted to further help the animators see how characters would look from different angles. Unlike live-action films, animated films were traditionally developed beyond
SECTION 60
#17328444128007068-521: The animators only after the production team is satisfied that all the scenes make sense as a whole. While live-action films are now also storyboarded, they enjoy more latitude to depart from storyboards (i.e., real-time improvisation). Another problem unique to animation is the requirement to maintain a film's consistency from start to finish, even as films have grown longer and teams have grown larger. Animators, like all artists, necessarily have individual styles, but must subordinate their individuality in
7182-544: The character in a trailer spoof for a film called Boop , with Rose McGowan as Betty. 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. The comic was nominated for an Ignatz Award . Betty can be seen at meet-and-greets at the Orlando Universal Studios theme park. Media Animation Animation
7296-560: 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. 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. She still appears in merchandise and social media, appealing to
7410-522: The copyright line on the main titles. However, the mountain motif remains on some television prints, usually with a UM&M copyright line, while recent versions have circulated with the Paramount-Publix reference in cartoons from 1931. The original Betty Boop cartoons were made in black and white. As new color cartoons made specifically for television began to appear in the 1960s, the original black-and-white cartoons were retired. Boop's film career had
7524-414: The cute pen-and-ink star, Betty Boop, who seems to be getting more sexy and alluring each time, and her boyfriend, Bimbo. The musical portion is supplied by Cab Calloway and his orchestra, and what these boys can't do to the 'Minnie the Moocher' number isn't worth mentioning. Cab and his boys are shown only for a brief moment at the opening. Then a cartoon character, a big walrus with serpentine hips, performs
7638-714: The demand for an enormous quantity resulted in cheaper and quicker limited animation methods and much more formulaic scripts. Quality dwindled until more daring animation surfaced in the late 1980s and in the early 1990s with hit series, the first cartoon of The Simpsons (1987), which later developed into its own show (in 1989) and SpongeBob SquarePants (since 1999) as part of a "renaissance" of American animation. While US animated series also spawned successes internationally, many other countries produced their own child-oriented programming, relatively often preferring stop motion and puppetry over cel animation. Japanese anime TV series became very successful internationally since
7752-422: The drawings and simulate camera movement and effects. The final animated piece is output to one of several delivery media, including traditional 35 mm film and newer media with digital video . The "look" of traditional cel animation is still preserved, and the character animators ' work has remained essentially the same over the past 90 years. Some animation producers have used the term "tradigital" (a play on
7866-844: The field. Many are part of general or regional film award programs, like the China's Golden Rooster Award for Best Animation (since 1981). Awards programs dedicated to animation, with many categories, include ASIFA-Hollywood 's Annie Awards , the Emile Awards in Europe and the Anima Mundi awards in Brazil. Apart from Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Film (since 1932) and Best Animated Feature (since 2002), animated movies have been nominated and rewarded in other categories, relatively often for Best Original Song and Best Original Score . Beauty and
7980-513: The film had been storyboarded when, two weeks before voice recording was to begin with Bernadette Peters as Betty, the head of MGM, Alan Ladd Jr. , was replaced by Frank Mancuso , and the project was abandoned. On August 14, 2014, Simon Cowell 's Syco and Animal Logic announced they were developing a feature-length film based on the character. A musical entitled Boop! The Musical , with music by David Foster , lyrics by Susan Birkenhead and book by Bob Martin , made its pre-Broadway debut at
8094-439: The first "Color Classic" cartoon Poor Cinderella , her only theatrical color appearance in 1934. In the film, she was depicted with red hair as opposed to her typical black hair. The Betty Boop films were revived after Paramount sold them for syndication in 1955. UM&M and National Telefilm Associates were required to remove the original Paramount logo from the opening and closing, as well as any references to Paramount in
8208-454: The first feature-length film El Apóstol (now lost ), which became a critical and commercial success. It was followed by Cristiani's Sin dejar rastros in 1918, but one day after its premiere, the film was confiscated by the government. After working on it for three years, Lotte Reiniger released the German feature-length silhouette animation Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed in 1926,
8322-413: The flapper type, which Betty represented. While the character was kept pure and girl-like onscreen, compromises to her virtue were a challenge. The studio's 1931 Christmas card featured Betty in bed with Santa Claus, winking at the viewer. The Talkartoons The Bum Bandit and Dizzy Red Riding Hood (both 1931) were given distinctly "impure" endings. Officially, Betty was only 16 years old, according to
8436-406: The forefront of the animation industry. Although Disney Animation's actual output relative to total global animation output, has always been very small; the studio has overwhelmingly dominated the "aesthetic norms" of animation ever since. The enormous success of Mickey Mouse is seen as the start of the golden age of American animation that would last until the 1960s. The United States dominated
8550-418: The ghouls in hot pursuit. Betty makes it safely back to her home and hides under the blankets of her bed. As she shakes in terror, the note she earlier wrote to her parents tears, leaving "Home Sweet Home" on it. The film ends with Calloway performing the instrumental "Vine Street Blues". The Film Daily , on January 10, 1932, wrote: "This Max Fleischer musical cartoon is one of the best turned out so far with
8664-611: The humour it can provide. Some animated characters in commercials have survived for decades, such as Snap, Crackle and Pop in advertisements for Kellogg's cereals. Tex Avery was the producer of the first Raid " Kills Bugs Dead " commercials in 1966, which were very successful for the company. Apart from their success in movie theaters and television series, many cartoon characters would also prove lucrative when licensed for all kinds of merchandise and for other media. Animation has traditionally been very closely related to comic books . While many comic book characters found their way to
8778-473: The intervening decades due to a series of corporate mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures. In 1954 Paramount Pictures sold the TV rights to UM&M TV Corp, Paramount was selling off all of their library to pay off debts. UM&M TV Corp. went bankrupt before ever distributing the films, they only got as far as modifying the original masters with their TV titles. In 1955 National Telefilm Associates purchased all of
8892-435: The late 1980s, in a style similar to traditional cel animation. The so-called 3D style, more often associated with computer animation, became the dominant technique following the success of Pixar's Toy Story (1995), the first computer-animated feature in this style. Most of the cel animation studios switched to producing mostly computer-animated films around the 1990s, as it proved cheaper and more profitable. Not only
9006-403: The licenses & films owned by UM&M TV Corp. and made 16mm prints to distribute to TV stations. In 1985 NTA changed their name to Republic Pictures since much of their feature film library was old Republic movies. Aaron Spelling Productions absorbed the new Republic Pictures in 1994 and shortly after was acquired by Viacom, which also acquired Paramount Pictures. Then in 2006 Viacom made
9120-495: The look of traditional animation) can be used for stylistic reasons, low bandwidth, or faster real-time renderings . Other common animation methods apply a stop motion technique to two- and three-dimensional objects like paper cutouts , puppets , or clay figures . A cartoon in the animation sense is an animated film, usually short, featuring an exaggerated visual style. The style takes inspiration from comic strips , often featuring anthropomorphic animals , superheroes , or
9234-421: The magic of moving characters. For centuries, master artists and craftsmen have brought puppets, automatons , shadow puppets , and fantastical lanterns to life, inspiring the imagination through physically manipulated wonders. In 1833, the stroboscopic disc (better known as the phenakistiscope ) introduced the principle of modern animation, which would also be applied in the zoetrope (introduced in 1866),
9348-577: The merchandising rights to Betty's name were licensed to King Features Syndicate, until 2021 but since then are licensed to Global Icons Inc. 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
9462-491: 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. 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. The Betty Boop comic strip by Bud Counihan (assisted by Fleischer staffer Hal Seeger )
9576-749: The oldest extant animated feature. In 1937, Walt Disney Studios premiered their first animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , still one of the highest-grossing traditional animation features as of May 2020 . The Fleischer studios followed this example in 1939 with Gulliver's Travels with some success. Partly due to foreign markets being cut off by the Second World War, Disney's next features Pinocchio , Fantasia (both 1940), Fleischer Studios' second animated feature Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941–1942) and Disney's feature films Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Lady and
9690-505: The oldest known example of a complete traditional (hand-drawn) animation on standard cinematographic film. Other great artistic and very influential short films were created by Ladislas Starevich with his puppet animations since 1910 and by Winsor McCay with detailed hand-drawn animation in films such as Little Nemo (1911) and Gertie the Dinosaur (1914). During the 1910s, the production of animated " cartoons " became an industry in
9804-549: 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. Betty was first voiced by Margie Hines . Later, several different voice actresses performed the role, including Kate Wright , Bonnie Poe , Ann Rothschild (also known as Little Ann Little ), and especially Mae Questel , who began voicing Betty Boop in Bimbo's Silly Scandals (1931), and continued with
9918-530: The release of Stopping the Show (August 1932), the Talkartoons were replaced by the Betty Boop series, which continued for the next seven years. Betty Boop was unique among female cartoon characters because she represented a sexual woman. Other female cartoon characters of the same period, such as Minnie Mouse , displayed their underwear or bloomers regularly, in the style of childish or comical characters, not
10032-414: The rights to transfer Betty Boop, according to a 2011 US Court verdict. The courts, however, were unable to come to a majority decision concerning ownership of the copyright. A trademark on the name (but not legitimately the likeness) of Betty Boop is owned by Fleischer Studios, for which the character was created in the 1930s, but which was unable to claim copyright infringement in a 2008 district court case;
10146-410: The ringmaster follows her inside and sensually massages her legs, surrounds her, and threatens her job if she does not submit. Betty pleads with the ringmaster to cease his advances, as she sings " Don't Take My Boop-Oop-A-Doop Away ". Koko the Clown is practicing his juggling outside the tent and overhears the struggle inside. He leaps in to save Betty, struggling with the ringmaster, who loads him into
10260-450: The role until 1939, returning nearly 50 years later in Disney's Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). Today, Betty is voiced by Cindy Robinson since 2015. Although Betty's first name was assumed to have been established in the 1931 Screen Songs cartoon Betty Co-ed , this "Betty" is a different character, which the official Betty Boop website describes as a "prototype" of Betty Boop. At least 12 Screen Songs cartoons featured Betty Boop or
10374-435: The ropes, drags her off to the bedroom and says, "I will have you". The bed, however, runs away, and Betty calls for help through the window. Bimbo comes to her rescue, and she is saved before anything happens. In Boop-Oop-a-Doop , Betty is a high-wire performer in a circus. The ringmaster lusts for Betty as he watches her from below, singing "Do Something", a song previously performed by Helen Kane. As Betty returns to her tent,
10488-764: The screen (which is often the case in Japan, where many manga are adapted into anime ), original animated characters also commonly appear in comic books and magazines. Somewhat similarly, characters and plots for video games (an interactive form of animation that became its own medium) have been derived from films and vice versa. Some of the original content produced for the screen can be used and marketed in other media. Stories and images can easily be adapted into children's books and other printed media. Songs and music have appeared on records and as streaming media. While very many animation companies commercially exploit their creations outside moving image media, The Walt Disney Company
10602-458: The side opposite the line drawings. The completed character cels are photographed one-by-one against a painted background by a rostrum camera onto motion picture film. The traditional cel animation process became obsolete by the beginning of the 21st century. In modern traditionally animated films, animators' drawings and the backgrounds are either scanned into or drawn directly into a computer system. Various software programs are used to color
10716-400: The sloppy colorization, they assembled a number of the color cartoons in a compilation feature titled Betty Boop for President , to connect with the 1976 election, but it did not receive a theatrical release. The release of the films on video cassette for home viewing created a new market for the films in their original form. The American Movie Classics cable television channel showcased
10830-465: The start, Joseph Breen , the new head film censor, had numerous complaints. Breen ordered the removal of the suggestive introduction that had started the cartoons because Betty Boop's winks and shaking hips were deemed "suggestive of immorality". For a few entries, Betty was given a new human boyfriend named Freddy, who was introduced in She Wronged Him Right (1934). Next, Betty was teamed with
10944-425: The synopsis stage through the storyboard format; the storyboard artists would then receive credit for writing the film. In the early 1960s, animation studios began hiring professional screenwriters to write screenplays (while also continuing to use story departments) and screenplays had become commonplace for animated films by the late 1980s. Traditional animation (also called cel animation or hand-drawn animation)
11058-413: The totality of the evidence presented in the trial, the "baby" technique of singing did not originate with Kane. No confirmed recordings of Jones are known to exist. Under current US copyright law, Betty Boop is due to enter the public domain in 2026. Later versions of her character will enter the public domain in the years that they become eligible. Ownership of the Boop cartoons has changed hands over
11172-520: The traditional Hasenpfeffer . She runs away with her puppy boyfriend Bimbo, and sings excerpts of the Harry Von Tilzer song "They Always Pick on Me" and the song " Mean to Me ". Koko the Clown from the earlier short Out of the Inkwell makes a cameo appearance as Betty writes her note. Betty and Bimbo end up in a cave where a walrus -like apparition appears (voiced by Calloway), who sings " Minnie
11286-689: The trial, Lou Bolton, who was Esther Jones' manager, also testified his belief that she was probably in Paris.) An early test sound-on-disc film (lost after the trial), was produced, which featured Esther performing in this style and introduced as evidence. In the film, Esther sings three songs that had earlier been popularized by Helen Kane – "Don't Be Like That", "Is There Anything Wrong with That?", and "Wa-da-da" – which writer Mark Langer says "was hardly proof that Helen Kane derived her singing style from Baby Esther". Jazz studies scholar Robert O'Meally stated this evidence, though, "might very well have been cooked up by
11400-833: The use of less detailed or more stylized drawings and methods of movement usually a choppy or "skippy" movement animation. Limited animation uses fewer drawings per second, thereby limiting the fluidity of the animation. This is a more economic technique. Pioneered by the artists at the American studio United Productions of America , limited animation can be used as a method of stylized artistic expression, as in Gerald McBoing-Boing (US, 1951), Yellow Submarine (UK, 1968), and certain anime produced in Japan. Its primary use, however, has been in producing cost-effective animated content for media for television (the work of Hanna-Barbera, Filmation , and other TV animation studios ) and later
11514-565: The value had increased to an estimated US$ 370 billion. Animated feature-length films returned the highest gross margins (around 52%) of all film genres between 2004 and 2013. Animation as an art and industry continues to thrive as of the early 2020s. The clarity of animation makes it a powerful tool for instruction, while its total malleability also allows exaggeration that can be employed to convey strong emotions and to thwart reality. It has therefore been widely used for other purposes than mere entertainment. During World War II, animation
11628-401: The very popular 3D animation style was generated with computers, but also most of the films and series with a more traditional hand-crafted appearance, in which the charming characteristics of cel animation could be emulated with software, while new digital tools helped developing new styles and effects. In 2010, the animation market was estimated to be worth circa US$ 80 billion. By 2021,
11742-586: The vocals for Betty and Benny Boop. Producers Steven Paul Leiva and Jerry Rees began production on a new Betty Boop feature film for the Zanuck Company and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer . The script by Rees detailed Betty's rise in Hollywood in the Golden Age of Hollywood. It was to be a musical with music by jazz musician Bennie Wallace and lyrics by Cheryl Ernst Wells. Wallace and Wells had completed several songs and 75% of
11856-683: The words "traditional" and "digital") to describe cel animation that uses significant computer technology. Examples of traditionally animated feature films include Pinocchio (United States, 1940), Animal Farm (United Kingdom, 1954), Lucky and Zorba (Italy, 1998), and The Illusionist (British-French, 2010). Traditionally animated films produced with the aid of computer technology include The Lion King (US, 1994), Anastasia (US, 1997), The Prince of Egypt (US, 1998), Akira (Japan, 1988), Spirited Away (Japan, 2001), The Triplets of Belleville (France, 2003), and The Secret of Kells (Irish-French-Belgian, 2009). Full animation
11970-427: The world market of animation with a plethora of cel-animated theatrical shorts. Several studios would introduce characters that would become very popular and would have long-lasting careers, including Walt Disney Productions ' Goofy (1932) and Donald Duck (1934), Fleischer Studios / Paramount Cartoon Studios ' Out of the Inkwell ' Koko the Clown (1918), Bimbo and Betty Boop (1930), Popeye (1933) and Casper
12084-504: Was distributed by King Features Syndicate from July 23, 1934, to November 28, 1937. 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. 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
12198-678: Was due to the lessening of Betty's role in the cartoons in favor of her co-stars, not to mention Fleischer's biggest success, Popeye . This was a similar problem experienced during the same period with Walt Disney 's Mickey Mouse , who was becoming eclipsed by the popularity of his co-stars Donald Duck , Goofy , and Pluto . Since she was largely a musical novelty character, the animators attempted to keep Betty's cartoons interesting by pairing her with popular comic strip characters such as Henry , The Little King and Little Jimmy , hoping to create an additional spin-off series with her pairing with Popeye in 1933. None of these films, though, generated
12312-529: Was gradually developed since the 1940s. 3D wireframe animation started popping up in the mainstream in the 1970s, with an early (short) appearance in the sci-fi thriller Futureworld (1976). The Rescuers Down Under was the first feature film to be completely created digitally without a camera. It was produced using the Computer Animation Production System (CAPS), developed by Pixar in collaboration with The Walt Disney Company in
12426-466: Was nearing its end by 1931, and Paramount promoted the development of Betty Boop following Kane's decline. The case was brought in New York in 1934. On April 19, Fleischer testified that Betty Boop purely was a product of his imagination and detailed by members of his staff. Theatrical manager Lou Bolton testified that Kane had witnessed an African-American child performer, Baby Esther (Esther Jones), using
12540-637: 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. On February 11, 2016, Deadline announced that
12654-585: 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 . 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 . In April 2011, Funny or Die parodied
12768-421: Was voiced once more by Mae Questel. The character appears in a scene with detective Eddie Valiant . At the end, she appears in the crowd with a group of other cartoon characters who all sing " Smile, Darn Ya, Smile ". 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
12882-475: Was widely exploited for propaganda. Many American studios , including Warner Bros. and Disney, lent their talents and their cartoon characters to convey to the public certain war values. Some countries, including China, Japan and the United Kingdom, produced their first feature-length animation for their war efforts. Animation has been very popular in television commercials, both due to its graphic appeal, and
12996-482: Was written mainly to fill the release schedule and fulfill the contract. 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
#799200