Andrea/Duck Dodgers here. I friendly welcome every fan of animation at my blog. The goal is to support the love and rediscovery of Classic Theatrical Cartoons from the Golden Age of Animation, keeping meanwhile an eye on Golden Age "Funny Animals" Comics as well as on modern animated productions! Every SUPPRESSED ethnic caricature to be sometimes presented here is just for HISTORICAL and EDUCATIONAL purpose and NOT to offend anyone. Stay Tooned and Enjoy the place !

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Poor Cinderella

Like I promised last week, here's a post about "Poor Cinderella", a Fleischer Color Classic released on 8/3/1934. This is a very important and particular cartoon in many ways. It's the first Fleischer cartoon produced in color, a 2-strip Cinecolor process that would be abandoned in the subsequent Fleischer releases. Also it is the only appearance of Betty Boop in color, not counting the Korean rotoscoped and redrawn remakes from the early 70s.
This is basically a straightforward retelling of Cinderella story, augmented with just a small dose of the typical Fleischer surrealism. In this cartoon, the main emphasis has been put not on the gags, but on the visual spectacle. This is an amazingly sumptuous cartoon, comparable with Disney's most lavish Silly Symphonies, or Columbia's "The Little Match Girl". The backgrounds are extremely elaborate, and many of the shots are composed and staged in depth, viewed from the large distance. That characteristic is very unusual and rarely seen in the 30s cartoons, and Fleischers will use it in several other Color Classics and Popeye cartoons. Another thing that deserves to be mentioned is a very catchy and enjoyable soundtrack.




















































7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you for doing a review for this cartoon. This is my favorite Color Classic cartoon and is one last great Betty Boop apearence before the Hays-Code striped (pun!) the character's personality and making her very bland and rarely funny.

9:54 pm

 
Blogger The Lone BeaderĀ® said...

I have never seen this one. Very cute!! Also, hope your holidays were grand! Cheers from Boston=:)

6:14 pm

 
Blogger Craig D said...

Yet another one of my daughter's favorites! Are these screen captures coming from the VCI "Somewhere in Dreamland" 2 DVD set?

Thanks, as always, for sharing!

8:34 pm

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

this is my first time seeing betty in color..hehe!! she looks very nice

6:58 am

 
Blogger Hammerson said...

>> Are these screen captures coming from the VCI "Somewhere in Dreamland" 2 DVD set? <<

Yes, both Cinderella and Dreamland screen captures were taken from the VCI DVD. I made some minor contrast corrections, because the VCI transfers suffered from the poor black level. I have the first edition of this DVD set, and some people claimed that the second edition (from last year) has some improved transfers and better prints for few cartoons. Is this true? Has anybody compared these DVDs?
Screen captures from the other Color Classics in my previous posts were taken from the rare restored prints shown on French TV. I plan to include more of them in some of the future posts.

4:02 pm

 
Blogger Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Wow! Thanks for posting these and the other images on this page! Veeeery interesting!!!!!

9:54 am

 
Blogger Hammerson said...

Thank you Uncle Eddie! We are really glad to have you as one of the blog visitors.

2:28 pm

 

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