Boop!

By: Brian Thomas
Date: Monday, April 02, 2007

This week we’re featuring Betty Boop, the indirect inspiration for most of the female characters in anime. You can find some samples of Betty’s work on YouTube.

SPOTLIGHT OF THE WEEK

Betty Boop (who was a dog in her first appearances) spun off from the Koko the Clown cartoon series at the start of the sound era and was tremendously popular in the early 1930s – so much so that censors came down pretty hard on her flirty sexuality. The spotlight was again on Betty in the 1960s, when the cartoon’s hallucination-like surrealism was appreciated by a whole new generation. The Boop cartoons have been at the center of a controversy again since the mid-‘90s, when an overzealous digital restoration for a laserdisc box set release ruined much of the image quality while cleaning up speckles and smudges. Since then, the Boop cartoons have been used as filler items in budget cartoon packages, some taken from these DNR-burned LDs or even worse transfers. This set doesn’t seem to suffer from those woes, and gives us more Boop cartoons than any DVD release yet, but it’s far from the definitive treatment this movie star deserves. Some Betty cartoons have been restored by ASIFA’s preservation project.

(O) BETTY BOOP Collector’s Edition (Echo Bridge) This 2-disc set features 42 classic cartoons, mostly taken from TV prints. Windowboxing gives them a more accurate aspect ratio than some presentations, and they don’t suffer from over-cleaning, but the image suffers from some wear and digital mushiness. The audio is also a bit muffled, but not nearly as bad as some discs featuring cartoons of the era. The earliest shorts in this set are 1933’s “Betty Boop's Ker-Choo”, “Is My Palm Read” (featuring Betty in lingerie and naked as an infant) and “Betty Boop's Crazy Inventions”. The rest come from later when Betty’s image was increasingly toned down and supporting characters Grampy and Pudgy became more prominent. The rest of the line-up: “Be Human”, “Betty Boop and Grampy”, “Betty Boop and Little Jimmy”, “Betty Boop and the Little King”, “Betty Boop's Rise to Fame”, “Betty in Blunderland”, “Happy You and Merry Me”, “House Cleaning Blues”, “The Impractical Joker”, “Musical Mountaineers”, “Not Now”, “Stop That Noise”, “Swat the Fly”, “Baby Be Good”, “Betty Boop with Henry, the Funniest Living American”, “Candid Candidate”, “Ding Dong Doggie”, “The Hot Air Salesman”, “Judge for a Day”, “A Language All My Own”, “A Little Soap and Water”, “Rhythm on the Reservation”, “Training Pigeons”, “We Did It”, “Grampy's Indoor Outing”, “Little Nobody”, “Making Friends”, “Making Stars”, “More Pep”, “My Friend the Monkey”, “No! No! A Thousand Times No!! ”, “Poor Cinderella”, “Pudgy Picks a Fight”, “Pudgy Takes a Bow Wow”, “The Scared Crows”, “So Does an Automobile”, “A Song a Day”, “Taking the Blame” and “You're Not Built That Way”. Includes Betty key chain.

NEW DVD RELEASES

Here’s a rundown of the constant stream of anime comin’ at ya on DVD from around the world:

(O) ANGELINA BALLERINA: Angelina Follows Her Dreams (Fox) You’ve got to follow your dreams, as movies and TV keep telling us. So when I dream about capturing hundreds of lizards around the neighborhood and setting them loose at the post office, I should… ?
(O) BILL & MANDY’S BIG BOOGEY ADVENTURE (Warner Bros.)
(O) CASE CLOSED Case 3.1: Behind the Facade (Funimation) Episodes 40-45. Kid detective Conan Edogawa defies social convention on his quest for the truth even when it takes him from the grimiest gutter to vast estates.
(O) DEFENDERS OF THE EARTH Complete Series Volume 2 (BCI Eclipse) Comic-strip heroes battle Ming the Merciless across five more discs.
(O) DORA THE EXPLORER: Shy Rainbow (Paramount) Dora coaxes a rainbow from its hiding place in the closet. Anyone catch the brilliant Dora parody on Saturday Night Live?

ERGO PROXY Volume 3: Cytopropism
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(O) ERGO PROXY Volume 3: Cytopropism (Geneon) While Vincent struggles against his inner demons, the delicate balance of control in Romdo begins a slow descent into chaos as Raul and Daedalus agree to work together and fix the growing threat. End title theme by Radiohead!
(O) GARFIELD & FRIENDS: An Ode to Odie (Fox) 13 episodes. Also available in a limited edition with mini plush toy.
(O) HAPPY TREE FRIENDS Season 1 Volume 2 (Mondo/Navarre) Cuddles, Giggles, Lumpy, Toothy and all their cute friends continue the carnage. With commentraks, storyboards, behind-the-scenes and more.
(O) INU-YASHA Volume 52: The Last Shard of the Jewel (Viz) Episodes 155-157.
(O) KODOCHA Volume 12: Akito’s Rival (Funimation) Valentine’s Day!
(O) KYO KARA MAOH! GOD(?) SAVE OUR KING Part 2 Volume 3 (Geneon) Yuri and his group head out to rescue hostage children amid a volcanic eruption.
(O) LITTLE ROBOTS: Reach for the Sky (Fox) Four episodes.
(O) MOON PHASE Phase 5 (Funimation)
(O) MY HiME Volume 7 (Bandai) The final dance of the HiME draws to a close as the last of the HiME battle each other. Also available in a collector art box.
(O) PINK PANTHER CLASSIC CARTOON COLLECTION Volume 5: The Ant & the Aardvark (MGM) Supporting characters on the Pink Panther TV show get the spotlight: a lackadaisical ant that sounds like Dean Martin is pursued by a dopey aardvark that sounds like Jackie Mason. Includes all 17 shorts.
POKÉMON Movie 9: Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea
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(O) POKÉMON Movie 9: Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea (Viz) Ash and Pikachu go on a treasure hunt. Amazon has an exclusive edition that includes a bonus OVA and Pokémon Advanced Battle Volume 1.
(O) SHE-RA PRINCESS OF POWER Season 1 Volume 2 (BCI Eclipse) 33 episodes, commentraks, documentary, art cards, scripts, storyboards and more
(O) SOLTY REI Volume 3 (Funimation)
(O) TOM GOES TO THE MAYOR Complete Series (Warner Bros.) A newcomer to a small town appoints himself a public do-gooder, cooking up eccentric schemes with the town’s mayor. “Businessman’s Edition” includes commentraks, deleted footage, behind-the-scenes and more.
(O) VEGGIE TALES: Lyle the Kindly Viking (Big Idea) Archibald Asparagus attempts to stage a lost Gilbert & Sullivan musical.
(O) VIEWTIFUL JOE Volume 8 (Geneon) Final Showdown: Viewtiful Joe vs. Almighty Leader!

NOT ON DVD CORNER

We welcome the input of Maniacs who want to share input on this section, where we highlight a different genre feature that has yet to come to digital disc format – just send your suggestions to Anime Avalanche in an email identified with “NOT ON DVD” in the subject line.

(O) OUT OF THE INKWELL (Lionsgate? Shout Factory? Echo Bridge?) An earlier, even more groundbreaking series of cartoons from Betty Boop’s home at the Max Fleischer Studios featured a little clown named Koko who, along with his dog pal Bimbo, have bizarre adventures both in the cartoon and ‘real’ world. Some of the 85 or so Inkwell cartoons are lost, but the ones that survive need to be preserved on DVD in first class editions. Of lesser importance are a series of Koko cartoons made for TV in the 1960s by Hal Seeger Productions, with Larry Storch providing the clown’s voice. With Shout Factory releasing other Seeger properties, I hope they’ll get around to this one as well. It’s a crime that so much of animation history is NOT ON DVD.

And be sure to check back next week—and every week—for Mania’s Anime Avalanche! And check in every Tuesday for the latest DVD Shopping List!

Questions? Comments? Let us know what you think at Anime Avalanche.