First things first, I personally thought that Melissa Fahn did a wonderful job of bringing Betty back to life. She was definitely no Mae Questel, but the delicate lilt of her voice more than adequately captured the child-like innocence and happy-go-lucky naiveté of the character, not that there's all that much character to capture if you think about it! This was certainly a lot more sweetness and light than most of Betty's actual cartoons, and felt to me like it may have been primarily intended for really little kids. They did manage to get some of the style right, but the animation of all the characters except for Betty Bimbo and Koko was absolutely terrible. Koko the Clown was still in black and white, which I thought was a really cool little touch. Overall the animation was simply too limited to even come close to matching the fluid wonder of the original films. Also the 'plot' was most lame and boring, but then again whoever watched any cartoon worth its salt for plot? For all intents and purposes, this mini-movie is her last ever adventure and it's not a complete disaster, and even though it fails, it at least tries to emulate the hypnotic, manic, spooky and timeless magic of the very greatest of the surreal Fleischer shorts of the 1930s-oh, you know the ones! They're the ones that lead all rational folks that set eyes on them to automatically assume that all the old-time animators of the Fleischer Studios must've been smoking some bad stokeys! The ones where not only are you looking at total craziness, but it's constantly being thrown at you and simply will not let up, the ones that are like trippy little fever dreams wherein beautiful monochromatic canvases give rise to ghosts, ghouls, and all manner of leering grimacing cackling things beyond imagining, leaping and warping and downright splattering across the screen in glorious spirals of Gothic mayhem usually in pursuit of Betty and her poor friends!!! It can be just a few moments, or can sometimes be the length of the entire animation, either way, there's absolutely nothing normal about them! They're so extreme and insanely surreal that to this very day they have yet to be granted the official release they so sorely deserve! So many of them still hold up so well, even today. And if 80 years hasn't rendered them dated, I doubt they ever will. Little works of such passionate dark art... Oh, sorry, I never get tired of talking about those fantastic classic old shows! Anywho, despite the heavy flaws I thought the animation captured just about enough of the spirit of the original themes to make it a nice homage and a good send off for our beloved goyl. And I loved the sweet and sincere sentiment of the "Believe in Yourself" message at the end. As simple as it is, that's still a very positive message and a relevant one I believe, in 1989 or anytime. And that's a great little epilogue for her as a character. The Fleischer brothers deserve a special place in the stars for creating Betty Boop, the coolest cartoon character of all time! I mean come on! She more than stood the test of time, and her legend will live on for many many decades to come as the subtly sexy, sassy queen of cartoon chaotica!!!
"Enough 'O this hooey!" A flawed, but fond farewell to sweet Betty...
29 September 2013
Warning: Spoilers