Pioneering cartoon series (from 1930-1939, plus a few one-off revivals) from Fleischer Studios, Betty Boop was the mirror of the stereotypical flapper, simultaneously looking for a good time and good-at-heart. In early cartoons, Betty's pals were Koko the Clown and Bimbo the dog; later on, Betty's grandpa Grampy, wild cousin Buzzy, and nonhumanized puppy Pudgy headlined episodes of their own.The Hays Code essentially killed off all interest in Betty Boop - obviously as a cartoon she couldn't wear such flamboyant outfits or maintain such a casual attitude towards sex. The producers tried to make her more wholesome with more concealing clothes but this approach failed, it having been her flamboyant, Spoiled Sweet attitude that was so much fun to watch for her original viewers in the first place.
Popeye the Sailor: July 14: Billed as a Betty Boop cartoon, but she only makes a brief appearance in what is otherwise a Poorly Disguised Pilot for the Popeye the Sailor cartoons.
The Old Man of the Mountain: August 4
I Heard: Sept. 1
Morning, Noon and Night: Oct. 6
Betty Boop's Hallowe'en Party: Nov 3
Parade of the Wooden Soliders: Dec. 1
1934
She Wronged Him Right: Jan. 5
Red Hot Mamma: 2 February
Ha! Ha! Ha!: 2 March
Betty in Blunderland: 6 April
Betty Boop's Rise to Fame: 18 May
Betty Boop's Trial: 15 June
Betty Boop's Life Guard: 13 July
Poor Cinderella: 3 August: First of the Color Classics series of cartoons, only Betty Boop cartoon in color. *
Henry, the Funniest Living American: 22 November: A Cross Over with Carl Anderson's "Henry" comic strip.
Little Nobody: 18 December
1936
Betty Boop and the Little King: 31 January: A Cross Over with the then popular Newspaper Comic character The Little King.
Not Now: 28 February
Betty Boop and Little Jimmy: 27 March
We Did It: 24 April
A Song A Day!: 22 May
More Pep: 19 June
You're Not Built That Way: 17 July
Happy You and Merry Me: 21 August
Training Pigeons: 18 September
Grampy's Indoor Outing: 16 October
Be Human: 20 November
Making Friends: 18 December
1937
House Cleaning Blues: 15 January
Whoops! I'm a Cowboy: 12 February
The Hot Air Salesman: 12 March
Pudgy Takes a Bow-Wow: 9 April
Pudgy Picks a Fight!: 14 May
The Impractical Joker: 18 June
Ding Dong Doggie: 23 July
The Candid Candidate: 27 August
Service with a Smile: 23 September
The New Deal Show: 22 October
The Foxy Hunter: 26 November
Zula Hula: 24 December
1938
Riding the Rails: 28 January
Be Up to Date: 25 February
Honest Love and True: 25 March
Out of the Inkwell: 22 April: An attempt at reviving the classic Fleischer series, although Ko-Ko does not appear in it.
The Swing School: 27 May
The Lost Kitten: 24 June
Buzzy Boop: 29 July
Pudgy the Watchman: 12 August
Buzzy Boop at the Concert: August 16
September Sally Swing: 14 October
On With the New: 2 December
Thrills and Chills: 23 December
1939
My Friend the Monkey: 28 January
So Does an Automobile: 31 March
Musical Mountaineers: May 12
May The Scared Crows: 9 June
Rhythm on the Reservation: 7 July
Yip Yip Yippy: 11 August
1985
The Romance of Betty Boop: A made-for-tv special.
1988
Who Framed Roger Rabbit: Makes a cameo in the Ink & Paint Club, claiming that while things had been slow since she went to color, she's still got it. She makes another cameo with the crowd of toons during the ending.
1989
Betty Boop's Hollywood Mystery: A made-for-tv special.
Tropes found in Betty Boop cartoons include:
Action Mom: "The Bum Bandit" has Betty (or Nan as she's called in this one) as a badass with seventeen kids.
Ambiguously Jewish: Betty might be jewish, and is hinted at in "Minnie the Moocher". The Fleischers were Jewish as well, so that could only support the case.
Ascended Extra: Ever heard of Bimbo? No? Bimbo was Fleischer's humanized dog hero starting in 1929. In 1930, Betty Boop appeared briefly as Bimbo's love interest (as an anthropomorphic dog) and quickly became a star. Bye, Bimbo. Hello, Betty.
Broken Aesop: "Be Human" has been criticized for its ending, in which the farmer who has been whipping his animals gets whipped himself by Grampy's machine. So beating someone up is okay as long as you're on the good side.
Car Fu: Used by Grampy to catch the abusive farmer in "Be Human".
Cash Cow Franchise: Betty Boop still appears on a lot of merchandise, despite the fact that a large number of the people buying the merchandise have probably never watched a Betty Boop cartoon in their lives.
Deranged Animation: The shorts from 1930-1933 had some very wacky animation, typical of the work of Fleischer Studios. By the mid to late 40's, this was either toned down considerably or thrown out altogether.
Digital Destruction: The "Definitive Collection" series of VHS tapes brings together almost all of Betty's original theatrical cartoons—but at the price of some of the most blatant DVNR ravaging of any old cartoon restoration!
Distressed Damsel: Betty every now and then for very obvious reasons.
Early Installment Weirdness: The early shorts were much looser in terms of animation (this was due to Grim Natwick being the only person who could draw her at first, and when he left the other animators had to stick to model sheets, which stiffened Betty up) and Betty was an anthropomorphised french poodle.
Expy: The 50's Herman And Katnip short "Of Mice and Magic" had a very blatant stand-in for Betty called "Louise" who was a mouse. Her design and mannerisms were basically the same as Betty's, but adjusted to have bits of a cartoon mouse — also, there was the fact that she was voiced by Mae Questel, Betty's voice actress, who used her Betty voice for Louise.
Funny Animal: Betty Boop, initially. Betty's doggy pal, Bimbo, was the studio star at the time of Betty's creation. Betty was created to function as Bimbo's girlfriend, so initially she had a black nose and dog ears. After about 10 cartoons, these features vanished, leaving Betty human, though Bimbo is still quite plainly interested in her.
Public Domain Animation: Several of her cartoons have slipped into the the Public Domain, so it's not uncommon to see some of her old cartoons compiled onto Dollar Store DVD sets.
Rotoscoping: Cab Calloway's dance moves were rotoscoped for his appearances in the cartoons, most famously as a dancing walrus. Calloway loved it and was said to have fallen out of his seat in convulsive laughter upon first viewing his animated Odobenus rosmarus counterpart.
Calloway loved the cartoons that featured his songs ("Snow White", "Minnie the Moocher" and "The Old Man of the Mountain") for another reason as well; he had stated that his concerts enjoyed higher ticket sales in cities where the Betty Boop cartoons played before. Betty Boop became his "advance woman", introducing movie audiences to his musical style.
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