event
Cinematheque: Boop-Oop-A-Doop: Some Of Betty's Best
-
Fri Feb 5
7:30 pm
Cinematheque: Boop-Oop-A-Doop: Some Of Betty's Best at Vilas Hall
Animation was a warped grown-up's playground long before South Park, thanks in no small part to the 1930s reign of squeaking, shimmying flapper Betty Boop. Not only a puzzling sex symbol, Betty often fell prey to, and even found herself upstaged by, the disturbing whims of animators. Though the three shorts in this Cinematheque retrospective make clear that Betty wasn't just hokey and cute, they're still pretty big productions. "Snow White" features Cab Calloway's help on a musical number, as well as a hideous queen, a menacing talking mirror, and Betty getting rolled around in a giant snowball, trapped in a block of ice, and chased by a monster that at one point has three ducks sprouting out of its head. "Poor Cinderella" is the only old Boop short in color, and "Grampy's Indoor Outing" is a tad more innocent, but just as visually acrobatic, in its fantasy of an indoor carnival.
Vilas Hall 821 University Ave., Madison, WI
Animation was a warped grown-up's playground long before South Park, thanks in no small part to the 1930s reign of squeaking, shimmying flapper Betty Boop. Not only a puzzling sex symbol, Betty often fell prey to, and even found herself upstaged by, the disturbing whims of animators. Though the three shorts in this Cinematheque retrospective make clear that Betty wasn't just hokey and cute, they're still pretty big productions. "Snow White" features Cab Calloway's help on a musical number, as well as a hideous queen, a menacing talking mirror, and Betty getting rolled around in a giant snowball, trapped in a block of ice, and chased by a monster that at one point has three ducks sprouting out of its head. "Poor Cinderella" is the only old Boop short in color, and "Grampy's Indoor Outing" is a tad more innocent, but just as visually acrobatic, in its fantasy of an indoor carnival.
Updated 01/28/2010
