| | Ironically, the character that caused the biggest reason of her decline was the introduction of Popeye, which Betty had introduced in the 1933 short ''Popeye the Sailor''. Based upon characters created by [[Elzie Segar]], Popeye, Olive Oyl, and the lumbering Bluto typified the Fleischers’ uniqueness from Disney, in which the idiosyncrasies of the animators came into prominence, and depended on which team was drawing. In addition, voice actors dubbed the sound on the finished films, which differed from Disney’s use of a pre-recorded sound track; the result was ad-libbing without much concern for the coordination of the sound with the lip movements, and in Popeye’s case resulted in the character’s famous improvised mutterings. | | Ironically, the character that caused the biggest reason of her decline was the introduction of Popeye, which Betty had introduced in the 1933 short ''Popeye the Sailor''. Based upon characters created by [[Elzie Segar]], Popeye, Olive Oyl, and the lumbering Bluto typified the Fleischers’ uniqueness from Disney, in which the idiosyncrasies of the animators came into prominence, and depended on which team was drawing. In addition, voice actors dubbed the sound on the finished films, which differed from Disney’s use of a pre-recorded sound track; the result was ad-libbing without much concern for the coordination of the sound with the lip movements, and in Popeye’s case resulted in the character’s famous improvised mutterings. |
| | + | Changes were made to the character prior to putting him on celluloid. Gone were most of the population comprising the ''Thimble Theater'' strip from which Popeye was originally created; retained were Olive Oyl, Bluto, and J. Wellington Wimpy, a ner-do-well with a penchant for hamburgers. Popeye was portrayed as a wisecracking sailor who tended to stay out of trouble, only to fight back when "I had all I can stans, an'I can stans no more!" Possibly the biggest benefit came as a result of the spinach growing industry reporting increased demand; prior to the Fleischers, Popeye gained his strength by rubbing the Wishing Hen in Segar's strip. Several major spinach growing areas responded to the new fortune by erecting statues of Popeye in his honor. |
| | 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. | | 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. |