Monday, April 16, 2012

The Romance of Betty Boop, Bill Melendez, 1985

Those familiar with the Fleischer brothers original Betty might find her characterization in this 1985 television special jarring, though clearly pains have been taken to assure Mizz Boop retains her ba-doop (she's apparently based heavily on Grim Natwick's character sketches.)


Still, it's a cute special with some cool design, if you can step back from your strong expectations of what a Betty Boop cartoon is supposed to be (and deal with her cringe inducing sexy-talk.) The fey, louche, cross-eyed, butt-chinned Waldo VanLavish cracks me up.


Whatever happened to that Bimbo fellow? He seemed like such a nice young man.


Posted by kinky_boot_beast at 6:30 AM
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2 comments:

  1. Mr. CavinApril 16, 2012 at 2:43 PM

    Seems like a response to that funky eighties Queens bargain basement sexuality. The first sequence mirrors the Girl's Just Wanna Have Fun video kind of faithfully. But even with your warning and this cultural anthropology, I couldn't quite accept Boop's retasking as a dithering Sex in the City extra.

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  2. kinky_boot_beastApril 17, 2012 at 12:49 AM

    Frankly, I couldn't either. I think it's fine for what it is, but it is not... Betty. Not our Betty. It just isn't.

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