Betty Boop

owde pisite swe sta znate o Betty Boop...

Betty Boop is an animated cartoon character designed by Grim Natwick,
appearing in the Talkartoon and Betty Boop series of films produced by
Max Fleischer and released by Paramount Pictures. With her overt sexual
appeal, Betty was a hit with filmgoers, and despite having been toned
down in the mid-1930s, she remains popular today. She has been featured
in two different comic strips, one in the 1930s and another in the
1980s.
Betty Boop made her first appearance on August 9, 1930 in the
cartoon Dizzy Dishes, the sixth installment in Fleischer's Talkartoon
series. She was originally designed by Grim Natwick, a veteran animator
of the silent era who would become lead director and animator for the
Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney studios. The character was modeled after a
combination of Helen Kane, the famous popular singer of the 1920s and
contract player at Paramount Pictures (the studio that distributed
Fleischer's cartoons), and Clara Bow, who was a popular actress in the
1920s who had not managed to survive the transition to sound because of
her strong Brooklyn accent which nevertheless became a trademark for
Betty. By direction of Dave Fleischer, Natwick designed the original
character in the mode of an anthropomorphic French poodle. The
character's voice was first performed by Margie Hines, and was later
provided by several different voice actresses including Kate Wright,
Ann Rothschild (a.k.a. Little Ann Little), Bonnie Poe, and most
notably, Mae Questel who began in 1931 and continued with the role
until 1938.
While the original design was rather ugly and awkward,
she was developed further after Natwick's departure under Berny Wolf,
Seymour Kneitel, Roland Crandall, and Willard Bowsky. Betty became
finalized as completely human by 1932 in the cartoon Any Rags. Her
floppy poodle ears became hoop earrings, and her black poodle nose
became a girl's button-like nose. Betty appeared in ten cartoons as a
supporting character, a flapper girl with more heart than brains. In
individual cartoons she was called "Nancy Lee" and "Nan McGrew",
usually served as a girlfriend to studio star Bimbo.
Although it has
been assumed that Betty's first name was established in the 1931 Screen
Songs cartoon Betty Co-ed, this "Betty" was an entirely different
character. Though the song may have led to Betty's eventual
christening, any references to Betty Co-ed as a Betty Boop vehicle are
incorrect. (The official Betty Boop website describes the titular
character as a "prototype" of Betty.) In all, there were at least 12
Screen Songs cartoons that featured either Betty Boop or a similar
character.


ewo owo sam nashla na netu...ali je na engleskom...shteta...oni koji znaju engleski neka prewode..hh..

Betty appeared in the first "Color Classic" cartoon 'Poor
Cinderella', her only theatrical color appearance (1934). In a cameo
appearance in the feature film Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), in her
traditional black and white, and voiced by Mae Questel, Betty mentioned
that work had "gotten slow since cartoons went to color," but she still
had "what it takes."
Betty Boop became the star of the Talkartoons
by 1932, and was given her own series in that same year beginning with
Stopping the Show. From this point on, she was crowned "The Queen of
the Animated Screen." The series was hugely popular throughout the
1930s, lasting until 1939.
Betty Boop's films found a new audience
when Paramount sold them for syndication in 1955. U.M.&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 the copyright line on the main titles. However, the
mountain motif remains on some television prints, usually with a
U.M.&M. copyright line, while recent versions have circulated with
the Paramount-Publix reference in cartoons from 1931.
A display of Betty Boop collectibles.
The
original "Betty Boop" cartoons were in black and white. And as newer
product made for television began to appear, her cartoons were soon
retired, particularly with the arrival of color television in the
1960s. But Betty's film career saw a major revival in the release of
"The Betty Boop Scandals of 1974", and became a part of the post 1960s
counterculture movement. NTA attempted to capitalize on this with a new
syndication package, but there was no market for cartoons in black and
white. As an answer, they had them remade cheaply in Korea, but were
unable to sell them due largely to sloppy production that belied the
quality of the originals. Unable to sell them to television, they
assembled a number of the color cartoons in compilation feature titled,
Betty Boop for President to capitalize on the 1976 election. But it saw
no major theatrical release, and resurfaced in 1981 on HBO under the
title, Hurray for Betty Boop.

It
was the advent of Home Video that created an appreciation for films in
their original versions, and Betty was rediscovered again in Beta and
VHS versions. The ever expanding cable television industry saw the
creation of American Movie Classics, which showcased a selection of the
original black and white "Betty Boop" cartoons in the 1990s, which led
to an eight volume VHS set, "Betty Boop, the Definitive Collection." To
date, no official DVD releases have been made in spite of the
tremendous interest. In spite of this, there are currently 22 public
domain Betty Boop cartoons available at the Internet Archive.
Marketers
rediscovered Betty Boop in the 1980s, and "Betty Boop" merchandise has
far outdistanced her exposure in films, with many not aware of her as a
cinematic creation. Much of this current merchandise features the
character in her popular, sexier form, and has become popular worldwide
once again. The 1980s, rapper, Betty Boo (whose voice, image and name
were influenced by the cartoon character) rose to popularity in the UK
largely due to the "Betty Boop" revival.
There were brief returns to
the theatrical screen. In 1988, Betty appeared after a 50 year absence
with a cameo in the Academy Award-winning film Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
In 1993, producers Steven Paul Leiva ("Space Jam") and Jerry Rees, best
known for writing and directing The Brave Little Toaster, 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 and lyrics by jazzman Bennie Wallace. Wallace had completed
several songs and seventy-five percent of 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.
Ownership
of the Boop cartoons has changed hands over the intervening decades due
to a series of corporate mergers, acquisitions and divestitures (mainly
involving Republic Pictures and the 2006 corporate split of parent
company Viacom into two separate companies). As of 2008, Lions Gate
Home Entertainment (under license from Paramount) holds home video
rights and CBS Television Distribution retains television rights.
Ironically, Paramount continues to hold theatrical distribution rights,
although any sort of video or theatrical re-release has yet to be
announced. But the "Betty Boop" character and trademark is currently
owned by Fleischer Studios, with the merchandising rights licensed to
King Features Syndicate.
The Betty Boop series continues to be a
favorite of many critics, and the 1933 Betty Boop cartoon Snow White
(not to be confused with Disney's 1937 film Snow White) was selected
for preservation by the U.S. Library of Congress in the National Film
Registry in 1994. Betty Boop's popularity continues well into present
day culture, with references appearing in the comic strip Doonesbury,
where the character B.D.'s busty girlfriend/wife is named "Boopsie" and
the animated reality TV spoof Drawn Together, where Betty is the
inspiration for Toot Braunstein. A Betty Boop musical is in development
for Broadway, with music by David Foster.