Changes

===Betty Boop===

===Betty Boop===

In 1921 the Fleischers took the ''Inkwell'' series and opened their own studio, adding ''Song Car-Tunes'' (1924-26), which were silent shorts meant for audience participation, aided by a bouncing ball over the lyrics to keep tune.  It was also during this time that they were competing with Disney, who’s [[Mickey Mouse]] was proving to be a money-making commodity; Disney would introduce ''Steamboat Willie'' in 1929, the first animated cartoon short with sound.  The Fleischers would follow this film with a sound short of their own, ''Dizzy Dishes'' in 1930, and bring to the screen their hugely-popular creation, Betty Boop.

In 1921 the Fleischers took the ''Inkwell'' series and opened their own studio, adding ''Song Car-Tunes'' (1924–26), which were silent shorts meant for audience participation, aided by a bouncing ball over the lyrics to keep tune.  It was also during this time that they were competing with Disney, who’s [[Mickey Mouse]] was proving to be a money-making commodity; Disney would introduce ''Steamboat Willie'' in 1929, the first animated cartoon short with sound.  The Fleischers would follow this film with a sound short of their own, ''Dizzy Dishes'' in 1930, and bring to the screen their hugely-popular creation, Betty Boop.

Betty was a late-1920’s flapper, with a large head sporting a short, spit-curled hairdo and a tiny mouth, set on top of a curvaceous body; a baby-doll voice (provided by actress Mae Questel) finished her off.  And she attracted some controversy of her own, for in much of the Fleischer films the stories are not so much character-driven as they are dark, violent, and sexually-suggestive.  In ''Bimbo’s Initiation'' (1931), Bimbo (Betty Boop’s dog) is in an underground place, suffering a series of tortures by characters wearing chamber pots on their heads; in ''Snow White'' (1933) Betty and Ko-Ko are in a haunted, dark cavern filled with ghosts, one of which is a rotoscoped [[Cab Calloway]].  In these darker films there is also the occasional presence of evil rats bearing somewhat of a resemblance to Mickey Mouse, in keeping with the competition with Disney.  Dispite the risque, Betty would star in many successful shorts, reaching her peak in 1935, before declining in popularity and ending in 1939.  In part, the Production Code of the 1930’s tamed the sexual-suggestiveness given in the first Betty Boop films, resulting in a reason for her decline.

Betty was a late-1920’s flapper, with a large head sporting a short, spit-curled hairdo and a tiny mouth, set on top of a curvaceous body; a baby-doll voice (provided by actress Mae Questel) finished her off.  And she attracted some controversy of her own, for in much of the Fleischer films the stories are not so much character-driven as they are dark, violent, and sexually-suggestive.  In ''Bimbo’s Initiation'' (1931), Bimbo (Betty Boop’s dog) is in an underground place, suffering a series of tortures by characters wearing chamber pots on their heads; in ''Snow White'' (1933) Betty and Ko-Ko are in a haunted, dark cavern filled with ghosts, one of which is a rotoscoped [[Cab Calloway]].  In these darker films there is also the occasional presence of evil rats bearing somewhat of a resemblance to Mickey Mouse, in keeping with the competition with Disney.  Dispite the risque, Betty would star in many successful shorts, reaching her peak in 1935, before declining in popularity and ending in 1939.  In part, the Production Code of the 1930’s tamed the sexual-suggestiveness given in the first Betty Boop films, resulting in a reason for her decline.

*[http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=max%20fleischer%20AND%20mediatype%3Amovies A selection of the Fleischers' cartoons, from the Internet Archive]

*[http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=max%20fleischer%20AND%20mediatype%3Amovies A selection of the Fleischers' cartoons, from the Internet Archive]

[[Category: Animators]]

[[Category:Animators]]