1933 cartoon review - Snow White (AKA, Betty Boop in Snow White)

 This year's Snow White got mixed reactions, but what about this 7 minute short of Betty Boop as Snow White? Did you know that the Disney Snow White (1937) uses an animator who job-hopped to Disney from Fleischer? 

Courtesy of IMDB.com - Yes, the icicles are singing.

Disney took animators from Fleischer all the time, it turns out. Snow White, as Disney did it, was using a previously Fleischer Studios animator (after Disney was quite impressed by his talents). Fleischer made a Snow White before Disney did, but it looked quite different than the one Disney made. Imagine Betty Boop and KoKo the clown starring in Snow White. That's our short for today. Who's KoKo the clown? He's a character Fleischer used to animate. 

Overall Thoughts

Oh my, there are so many. First of all, Fleischer gets weird and you have to see it to understand. Cab Calloway is KoKo and sings about "wanting crap shooting poll bearers" and it's kind of cool, except as usual, a lot of anatomically impossible things happen all the time. Cab Calloway is a major jazz singer. Lots of jazz happens in Fleischer cartoons. KoKo even jazz dances. It's a cool song. 

We see dwarves, yes, but they only catch her after she freezes in a river in a convenient coffin shape. What? Don't even talk to them, she doesn't even meet them while awake (although she somehow moves within her ice coffin alive, so she's not dead), and then KoKo is her romantic interest. Bimbo is just there and purely exists to be in the cartoon and do nothing while KoKo takes his romantic place (Betty was originally his girlfriend when introduced in 1930). 

If that old witch looks familiar, remember what I said in the intro. That same animator made the 1937 Snow White for Disney. Fun, right? There was a joke at Fleischer suggesting a tunnel led to Disney. Max Fleischer did not find it funny. He battled with losing animators to Disney. 

So, lot's of weird anatomy is a thing Fleischer does a lot of, and I mean a lot of. Did I mention they like to tie Betty up a lot? I didn't? Let me enlighten you. They often have her calling for help, speaking in baby voice, and well, being sexualized. She started as sexualized and they eventually made Fleischer change her dress to a more covering one. It still doesn't make you forget her original. Nobody remembered the new dresses. Being tied up is apparently a way to make her sexy. Somehow that makes me vaguely uncomfortable. When I saw her tied to a tree (that saved her somehow, because why not) I was like "oh no, not this nonsense".

What I liked and disliked

What I disliked straight away is the "help I'm tied to a tree" bit. Seriously, give her a backbone. She's pretty much popular for sex appeal alone. They've never given her much of a brain in any short. She's here to ogle. She's a sexual image and fan service. She's here to be saved by the men. It's tiring to see them do it over and over again. She's here to wink and charm, be saved from dangerous people, and sing sexy songs. This is a concept Hollywood women got trapped into in roles and movies all the time. It still happens. 

All that aside, I liked Cab Calloway. That was nice, that was cool, and that was easy to listen to. I could use more of that. It was all a musical, by the way, so keep that in mind. Fleischer tends to do musical-style shorts almost exclusively. I could also understand Betty's lyrics, which is a sign of better sound equipment and a bit more effort to make talkies. The 1930s got better at sound as the era continued. 

It was nonsensical, made you question your sanity, and really showed me why Disney made it and Fleischer didn't. This wasn't kid friendly, really, and not much of their stuff would be. It either scares kids or it's just weird. What's even weirder is the end of this one, where they turn the witch inside out and dance in the snow in a circle while holding hands. The end. What a ride. 

Here's the thing. If I wasn't researching for a time travel project, I wouldn't watch Betty Boop. As a kid, I got a library VHS (I know, aging myself) of Betty Boop on a whim, not knowing what it was. I watched it (vividly remember her tied to something while being burned) and got a little weirded out. Never watched it again. I couldn't tell you why I picked it up, but I can tell you why I put it back. It was too weird to show to a kid. Keep that in mind with these cartoons. Some people think Fleischer inspired the Bendy and the Ink Machine games. I tend to agree. 

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