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Betty boop gif5/8/2023 ![]() ![]() The character was retired in 1939, but was later rediscovered during the 1970s. Betty made her debut as a plump anthropomorphic French poodle, with Betty's voice having been created by Margie Hines, Hines created the voice using her "baby doll" vocalization. Betty Boop first appeared in the 1930 Talkartoon titled Dizzy Dishes, which was released in 1930. One of Betty Boop's traits taken from Questel was impersonation, which was Questel's speciality. After the series rolled on, Betty Boop's mannerisms and traits were later based on Mae Questel, who often did the voice on a regular basis, starting from 1931. Betty and Clara were often compared to one another, most significantly in Hollywood on Parade No. Betty Boop's look was inspired by flappers of the 1920s, most notably Clara Bow. Besides, there was a certain girlishness in her personality, which was emphasized by her style of singing, sentimentality, and overall flapper-like behavior. In Betty's earlier cartoons, male characters liked to put moves on Betty, and generally she provoked that. All other cartoon girls of that time did not differ much from animated male characters, with only eyelashes, voice and outfit alterations to show their femininity. She was the first character on the animation screen to represent a sexual woman. Betty Boop is a light-hearted flapper reminding the audience of the carefree times of the Jazz Age. In online fandom, fan art and fiction there is also alternatively a Black Betty Boop. Betty is also known as Baby Boop or Bitsy Boop and on the day of the celebration of Halloween, Betty goes by the name Betty Boo and Betty "Boo" Boop. Betty is notable for her spit curls, baby-talk and scat singing. She is a female cartoon character best known for her " Boop-Oop-a-Doop" catchphrase, which is usually followed by a " Bop", which is a high-pitched squeak that is often incorporated into her "Boop" routine. It is this symbol-laden character, who still resonates in today's society, that director Claire Duguet explores in the documentary Betty Boop For Ever, supported by the testimonies of Jeni Mahoney, the great-granddaughter of Max Fleischer, Chantal Thomas and Jean-Charles de Castelbajac.Betty Boop is the main character of the series. This recalled that she was the first heroine to raise the issue of sexual harassment in the entertainment industry, by slapping a crooked producer in a 1932 episode. So much so that in November 2017, when the Weinstein scandal erupted, The New Yorker featured her on the cover, facing a man with his back to the wall in an open bathrobe. But unlike the docile characters embodied on screen by Hollywood actresses, Betty Boop defended herself. This was what gave her strength, yet also what imprisoned her in an image of prejudice, perpetually hunted by malicious men who held a grudge against her body, at a time when the romanticization of forced relationships was rampant in the film industry. Which makes sense, given that she was a drawing. Like flappers, those young American girls who challenged social and sexual conventions, who went out alone, who drank, who flirted, Betty Boop didn't care how others looked at her. Never before seen on the screen.īetty Boop, musical short by Dave Fleischer "A Language of my own" (1935) © Lobster From flappers to feminism The cartoon is transgressive even in its soundtrack, with this "boop-oop-a-doop" borrowed from scat, and this music provided by black jazzmen like Cab Calloway or Louis Armstrong, projected on the front of the stage in front of a white audience. Just as women have just won the vote, she runs for president and wins. Like Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, Betty Boop is a pilot. Sexy, but not just that she is free, she has fun, she works. With her pin-up body and baby face that appeal to all generations, Betty Boop, born from the imagination of animator Max Fleischer, is above all a pioneer in the representation of the female character. Soon she became a woman, the first all-human cartoon heroine, the first to play the leading role in an animated series. In her first appearance, she adopted the features of a somewhat endearing bulldog. In animated shorts, there was only one female figure: Minnie Mouse, the wise housewife mouse. On the screen, Hollywood actresses were beautiful, seductive, ideal for distracting male brains preoccupied with unemployment and the economy at half-mast. At the same time, talking movies took their first steps. In 1929, the stock market crash plunged the United States into the Great Depression. In Betty Boop For Ever, a comprehensive documentary for French channel Arte, director Claire Duguet Claire Duguet discusses the position of Betty Boop in popular culture, but also in the representation of feminist struggles. ![]()
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