Friday, December 07, 2007

Don't Take Betty's Boop

Here's another great Betty Boop cartoon from 1932.
Again, I don't know who the animator is, so if you do please tell us!
This was made before the Hays Office clamped down on Hollywood and cartoons were still allowed to be randy.
It was a cartoon staple in the early 30s to have a near-rape at the end of each cartoon. In most cartoons, the hero would show up and save the girl from the big bad man, but sometimes in the Betty Boops, it would actually happen and she would then like him after! Amazing times.

http://www.cartoonthrills.org/blog/boopoopdooop/rublegsmall.mov

I really love the way this animator draws and moves Betty.
Look how cute her little feet are and how voluptuous her legs are.

The movement is very careful and completely un Disney. Disney in the 30s developed a style of motion that in effect hid the motion. They animated in a very rubbery style that squashed and stretched so much that the actions usually shot past the poses. It looks great, but it avoids showing you the action. You can't see how you are getting from one pose to the next without freeze framing it. This is what most feature animation does today. There is a place for it, but I think there is also a place for this kind of beautiful fluid action that you can appreciate without having to slow down the action.



Gorgeous drawings!
I love the arms and hands. Her hands are like horsehoe crabs. Don't you want your stubbly face to be softly stroked by primitive crustaceans?


http://www.cartoonthrills.org/blog/boopoopdooop/donttakesmall.mov


In this next scene, all of a sudden her anatomy turns into Jack Kirby's style. Is it a different animator? Or is the same animator just experimenting as he goes? Trying things spontaneously as he thinks of them.
It's really cool that the anatomy keeps breaking down into rubber hose in between certain actions.

From rubbery to solid flesh.
She runs out in total rubber hose action. Was this on purpose, or is it the animator giving more work to the assistant to finish?

Either way, it's a great idea to animate back and forth between different approaches. It keeps things surprising and alive.


http://www.cartoonthrills.org/blog/boopoopdooop/sing2small.mov


Someday I should do a post about the differences in taste of ass appreciation between Disney and the other studios.










I just love this style of animation. Weird, sexy, cartoony, silly, innocent and dirty all at the same time.

This is an art form all its own that can't be matched by any other.