|
Friday 9.3.2001
Vamp Wins Hearts again
"Boop-Oop-A-Doop!"
Betty Boop is a curvy young woman with an innocent face and a sexy soft voice. This vamp, however, seems to be unaware of her own charm. Betty's innocent adventures aroused a great deal of passion among the audiences and filmmakers of the 1930's. This year Miss Boop wins hearts in Tampere Film Festival.
Betty Boop and her admirer Bimbo
|
Betty Boop's road to stardom was rocky: First, there was the transformation from a dog into a woman, and then she had to try different roles. Her sexy appearance stirred opposition. There was censorship, and lawsuits were filed against her.
First appearing in a small role in the cartoon Dizzy Dishes (1930) Betty Boop became the biggest star of Fleischer studios. Originally, Grim Natwick drew Betty as a dog with floppy ears and a muzzle. Nevertheless, right from the beginning Betty had a female figure: an ample bosom, a tight waist and long legs. She wore a tight short dress. The floppy ears were soon changed into earrings and the muzzle into a cute nose: Betty had become a woman.
Betty appeared under different names until 1932 when she became Betty Boop. She appeared in all kinds of roles from a show performer and a princess to a brisk housewife. In the Bum Bandit, Betty appears as a housewife. She stops a train robber who turns out to be Betty's runaway husband.
Betty appeared in tens of black and white cartoon shorts and in one color animation called Poor Cinderella (1934). Mae Questel was one of the actresses who did Betty's voice. The real life model for Betty was American singer Helen Kane. Although when Kane later sued Fleischer studios, they denied having used her as a model.
Different kinds of animal characters accompanied Betty. Bimbo the dog was to be the star of Fleischer studios, but instead, he was soon appeared in smaller roles as an eager admirer and a boyfriend to Betty. Later on, Bimbo appeared merely as Betty's pet dog. In Betty Boop cartoons the impossible became possible: Betty's toes could talk, and her clothes could fly off her.
The Fleischer brothers introduced sexuality in their cartoons unlike their rival Disney. Recurrent gags included Betty's clothes dropping off, or her skirt popping up for whatever reason, and the silhouettes of her curvy figure. There was, however, never any nudity.
In 1934, stricter censorship laws were enforced against American film industry by the so-called Hays Code, which may have affected Betty Boop cartoons, too. In any case, her skirt was lowered and her dress got sleeves at the end of the decade.
At the height of her career in the 1930's, Betty Boop had her own radio show and a comic book, and there was a great deal of Betty Boop merchandise from playing cards to soap. Although the last Betty Boop animation was made in 1939, she is still known for her cartoons, her "Boop-Oop-A-Doop" and the Betty Boop merchandise.
Betty Boop flirts with the audience on Friday 9 March and on Saturday 10 March at 5.00 p.m. in Tullikamarin pakkahuone.
|
