Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Betty Boop: The Essential Collection: Volume 3 Blu-ray Movie Review

Betty Boop, MTV star?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 6, 2014

Betty Boop may have made her ebullient debut in 1930, but there’s little question that she’s actually a child-woman of the 1920s, a kind of virtual hangover from the chaotic twenties, a flapper both out of her proper era and well ahead of her time. Betty became one of the most iconic figures in animation, something that continued well past her heyday, including as recently as the brouhaha which arose when she made a cameo in Who Framed Roger Rabbit and actually bared her breasts for one solitary frame, something that became a cause célèbre when the first home video versions were released and prurient viewers could pause playback to actually see Betty in all her momentary glory (Disney later bowdlerized subsequent releases when the furor threatened to disrupt their wholesome image). Betty was always a flirt and a bit of a loose woman, and until the Hays Office came along, anyway, she was fairly forward in displaying her physical charms. Olive Films is releasing a glut of Betty Boop cartoons on Blu-ray, including Betty Boop: The Essential Collection - Volume One and Betty Boop: The Essential Collection - Volume Two, and now this third set features twelve more of Betty's shorts in another hugely entertaining compilation.

This third volume of Betty Boop cartoons contains the following shorts:

Minnie the Moocher (1932). This short of course takes its name from the famous Cab Calloway song, and Calloway is in evidence in the opening, doing what might be thought of as the thirties’ version of a Michael Jackson moonwalk. This opening footage is evidently the earliest known film record of Calloway and his band. That very distinctive opening dance is later morphed into a kind of hallucinogenic walrus when Betty runs away from her parents (with Bimbo in tow), only to find that, a la Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, there’s no place like home.

I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead, You Rascal You (1932). Much like the short featuring Cab Calloway, this second 1932 Boop outing offers yet another jazz icon in a brief live performance, Satchmo himself, Louis Armstrong. Some question the propriety of featuring fairly insensitive portrayals of black cannibals (one of them voiced by Louis) in the main body of the cartoon, but this has some typical surreal Fleischer touches, including the literally explosive finale.

Mother Goose Land (1933). This might seem to be a departure from the first two music oriented shorts, but in fact is an example of another staple in the Boop canon, the use of fairy tale characters. Betty gets swept up into Mother Goose territory, kind of like Alice in Wonderland, though there’s a lascivious spider (of Miss Muffet fame) with more than mere fairy tales on his mind.

The Old Man of the Mountain (1933). This is another fantastic Cab Calloway-fest, with Calloway and company once again starting the cartoon with another sung prelude. While the story here may seem quaint to modern day eyes, in its day it raised considerable hackles among more conservative types who felt that Betty’s overt sexuality, as well as the leering quality of several supporting characters (not all of them human), were simply not acceptable. The Old Man himself turns out to be young enough to lust after Betty, actually snatching her skirt off of her at one point. Fans of The Nightmare Before Christmas will recognize some antecedents in this cartoon.

I Heard (1933). Don Redman hasn’t retained the same renown as Cab Calloway or (especially) Louis Armstrong, but at the time he was another hugely popular musician, and he, like the other two stars, appears in a brief introduction to the main cartoon. The story here concerns a haunted mine that Betty finds herself in (in her underwear, no less), only to be rescued with the help of Bimbo, who made his final appearance in this short.

Ha! Ha! Ha! (1934). This is one of the prime examples of the very particular genius the Fleischers brought to early animation. Here we see Max Fleischer (or at least his hand) actually draw Betty and depart, at which point the animated characters take over the asylum, so to speak. The patent insanity actually only increases when Koko gets out of the inkwell and indulges his sweet tooth, which in turn leads Betty to try her dentistry skills on him. That leads to chaos with laughing gas in a wonderfully surreal wrap up.

Stop That Noise (1935). This is a charming but slight entry in the Boop canon, detailing Betty’s unsuccessful efforts to get a good night’s sleep in a cacophonous urban environment, which leads her to escape to the country, which has its own set of noises to keep her awake.

Service With a Smile (1937). Betty looks a bit different now that the cartoons have made it to the late thirties, but her travails are far from over. Here she’s trying to deal with a litany of complaints from guests at the hotel she’s in charge of (the name of the emporium is a call back to Cab Calloway).

The New Deal Show (1937). Fans of Christopher Guest’s Best in Show might get a kick out of this entry, which is set at a contest for pets. There’s nothing quite like Parker Posey attempting to purchase a bumble bee for her dog in the cartoon, but some of the animals have rather strange accoutrements.

Be Up to Date (1938). Mae Questel bid adieu to voicing Betty with this less than hilarious short which finds Ms. Boop taking a mobile dry goods store to some yokels up in the hills. It’s notable that Betty’s look has continued to evolve, perhaps slightly but still noticeably.

Out of the Inkwell (1938). The Fleischers actually had a series called Out of the Inkwell, and this bizarre but endearing Boop cartoon follows that format by having Betty interact with a live action janitor (Oscar Polk) who manages to hypnotize Betty, making her do a number of odd things. Betty returns the favor, with a decidedly politically incorrect result.

Pudgy in Thrills and Chills (1938). Betty shares screen time with her occasionally troublesome little dog Pudgy in this short, though the real problem in this cartoon turns out to be a kind of dunderheaded guy on the make for Betty as she and Pudgy travel to a ski resort. Later, there’s a kind of winterized call back to D.W. Griffith’s Way Down East with Lillian Gish.

Betty Boop: The Essential Collection: Volume 3 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Those who have already purchased and/or seen Betty Boop: The Essential Collection - Volume One or Betty Boop: The Essential Collection - Volume Two will know generally what to expect from Betty Boop: The Essential Collection – Volume Three's AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. Once again, Olive has gone back to the original camera negatives and done 4K scans to prepare this transfer, though in this case there's somewhat more variability in grain structure, sharpness and contrast than in the second volume. There's also some fairly bad chemical damage on display here in some of the shorts, including emulsion issues. Otherwise, though, the depth of the image is incredible, and in the best looking shorts, clarity and sharpness are exceptional. Though there is some variability here, as mentioned above, when taken as a whole, the shorts on this collection look fantastic and all retain a naturally organic filmic appearance.

Betty Boop: The Essential Collection: Volume 3 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As with the previous two volumes, the DTS-HD Master Audio Mono tracks on these shorts are somewhat of a mixed bag. There's abundant hiss and clipping in the higher registers in several shorts, as well as a generally boxy sound that simply can't be overcome considering the recording technologies of the day (something which lossless audio ironically probably only exacerbates), but all of these shorts are certainly listenable if not stellar sounding.

Betty Boop: The Essential Collection: Volume 3 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements are offered on this Blu-ray disc.

Betty Boop: The Essential Collection: Volume 3 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This third volume has some great shorts, as well as (frankly speaking) some placeholders, but it's further proof of how timeless Betty Boop is. As with the two previous Olive releases of Boop shorts, there's some unavoidable damage to be seen in several of these shorts, including the requisite age related scratches, flecks and specks. But the transfers here are top rate, and Boop fans who didn't get quite enough of Betty in the first two volumes will certainly be pleased by this third trip to the well. Highly recommended.