Betty Boop: The Definitive Collection #1: Limit.Ed [LV28070]



1997 / NTSC / 28070 / B&W / Appox. 386 Minutes / Not Rated / Released by Republic Entertainment Inc.

This is a “Limited Edition” 4 disc box set featuring some of the best cartoons from the Fleischer Studios, featuring Betty Boop. It contains 53 cartoons as well as an introduction from Max Fleischer's son, Richard. (For those who don't know Max and Dave Fleischer ran the animation studio that produced these cartoons. Richard was a live action director in his own right.) Discs 1-3 contain content on both sides, while disc 4 only has cartoons on side A. One can view the progression of the character, as she started out as a supporting character for a dog named Bimbo in the first few entries, and grew into a star -- one of the first to deal with sex in the animation world. (In fact, the Boop cartoons would incur the wrath of the Hays Office, and after 1934 Betty would change from a saucy flapper to a dull house frau. The latter type of cartoons appear in volume 2, though.) Disc 1 contains Betty’s debut cartoon “Dizzy Dishes”, when she was supposed to be a dog, rather than a young human. (She had dog ears and a black button nose in her original design. eventually the dog ears became hoop earrings.) Some nice, weird early ‘30s animation in cartoons like Mysterious Mose. In my opinion, Disc 2 contains the most entertaining cartoons, and the ones that contain the surreal strangeness the Fleischer studio was known for: Minnie the Moocher, Snow White, The Old Man of the Mountain, Bimbo’s Initiation (a clip of which is seen in Twilight Zone: The Movie), and Crazy Town. The weakest cartoons are on Disc 3, Side 2 Musical Madness. Basically these are music videos with Betty as the interstitial material holding it together. They feature live action of a then current pop star singing a song, intercut with animation of Betty Boop and Bimbo reacting to them. Disc 4 contains Betty’s only appearance in color, “Poor Cinderella” (1934). It was shot in a two strip Cinecolor process, so everything’s mostly red or blue -- Betty even sports red hair, instead of her usual brunette locks. http://archive.org/details/bb_poor_cinderella


Image Quality: The back of the box reads “Digitally Processed” and one should take that as a warning. The cartoons at first appear clean, free of dirt and scratches, with fine contrast. In fact, the best I’ve ever seen these cartoons look. Side A on Disc 1 is okay, but then things go horribly wrong starting on side 2. Whenever the characters move quickly it becomes apparent that DVNR (Digital Video Noise Reduction) has been heavily applied to the cartoons. DVNR can have horrible effects on live action films but it looks even worse on an animated cartoon, since the computer program mistakes the ink lines for scratches and tries to “erase” them! Maybe some people won't notice this, but it appears obvious to me, and I find it annoying. (’99 article about DVNR ruining cartoons.)

Strangest of all, on Disc 3 Side B, the cartoon “Romantic Melodies” is not the original version of the cartoon. Instead the version presented here is one that was recolored and edited in the 1970s, yet on the box set they present it in black and white! (During the ‘70s many companies that held the rights to these old black and white cartoons sent them to South Korea to be retraced and painted in color.) One can tell it’s a recolored cartoon because the drawings are sloppier than in the original version, details are missing, and background signs are misspelled. (What looks like the beginning of the word delicatessen on a shop window in one scene is incorrectly spelled as “delafates” in the recolored one.)
Definitive Collection version on the left. Original on the right.

You can see more of the problems with the set here, from someone who made it a project to transfer them to DVD: http://atlas.kennesaw.edu/~dhirschl/boop/


Sound Quality: The cartoons are presented in mono. Nothing distinguished here, and most cartoons sound alright. Boop-Oop-A-Doop sounds a little distorted in the beginning, like a warped record playing.


Final Thoughts: The fact is, despite the many flaws of this set it is still the only way to get most of these cartoons on home video if you live in a region 1 country. It’s definitely a mixed bag, and if you can live with the horrible DVNR then you can’t do much better but to collect this set (if you can find it at a cheap price). There are two other LD sets of Betty Boop cartoons: Betty Boop 60th Anniversary Editions #1 & 2. The quality of the prints used contain many scratches, and the discs have a softer image. The only Boop cartoons available on region 1 DVDs are cheap public domain outfits with poor quality prints. You can also order several DVD sets from France if you have an all region DVD or BD player, but there are rumors that those cartoons were taken directly from the laserdisc masters and contain DVNR too. (I can’t confirm that though. They might be great for all I know.) http://www.amazon.fr/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?__mk_fr_FR=%C5M%C5Z%D5%D1&url=search-alias%3Ddvd&field-keywords=betty+boop&x=0&y=0

There are also rumors that Olive Films is supposed to be releasing about 66 Betty Boop cartoons from the Republic film library (which would represent all the Betty Boop cartoons not in the public domain) in HD (I’m guessing that means Blu-ray). However, if it’s true they’re only going to be releasing the non-PD cartoons then the collection will be missing many of the classic titles available on this LaserDisc set. http://www.toonzone.net/forums/showthread.php?293381-Olive-Films-to-release-Betty-Boop

that's pretty amazing with redoing the cartoons in the 70s.
i didn't know about that.
thanks for posting the pictures.

Producer Fred Ladd was responsible for those. (An interview with Ladd here): http://cztoondb.tripod.com/cztoondb/laddqaart.htm
I remember seeing very bad recolored Looney Tunes in the early '70s, and not realizing that they weren't originally like that. (They were redrawn in the late '60s by Color Systems Inc.) When I finally saw the black and white versions it was a revelation. The animation and drawing was so much better in the original version. The recolored ones were done by hacks, and they didn't trace every drawing. (This was before computer colorization so the cartoons had to be retraced and painted by hand.) Sometimes the characters would "freeze" mid sentence or mid stride for a few seconds, since someone didn't redraw all the animation drawings. The choice of colors was strange, too. Lots of purple and magenta. I recall Daffy Duck's body was painted brown and his neck ring was pink, for instance. It was as if nothing was allowed to be left black or white in those versions.

I had always assumed that the cartoons were redrawn in South Korea (since most of American animated shows had outsourced to that country by the '70s) but in doing some research I found out that production was actually done in New York City and Los Angeles!

http://cztoondb.tripod.com/cztoondb/looneytunes/index.htm

some of the cartoons in this set Cartoons That Time Forgot #2: From The Van Beuren Studios (1993) [ID2553DS]
have a feel that they may not be original, i believe it was about 2-3 of the black and white ones.

they had a funny look to them, i'll have to watch it again to see.

The Van Beuren cartoons in color always bear the name "Rainbow Parade". (Here's a list of the Van Beuren cartoons under that label): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Parade

Van Beuren was one of those animation studios located in New York City in the '30s, like Terrytoons and The Fleischers were. Out of all the animation studios in the Depression era, Van Beuren made the crudest cartoons. The drawings were sloppy, and the characters often changed design from scene to scene, depending on who animated it. Animation director Burt Gillett was hired away from Disney's to run Van Beuren in 1934, in a last ditch attempt to make slicker cartoons. Gillett turned out to be insane though (according to Shamus Culhane's autobiography, "Talking Animals and Other People".) The studio closed in 1936.

So it's possible some of the earlier black and white Van Beuren cartoons appear odd or sloppy, that they weren't necessarily recolored. However, if you know the titles in question perhaps I could tell you for sure whether or not they were originally in black and white?

well, i just scanned through them now and i was mistaken.
all are old and original, they may or may not have some DVNR i really don't know what to look for.
but there are lots of rough prints in that 2 disc set.

anyway thanks again for posting the info on this and the tex avery set.
i'm going to track that one down, didn't buy it new and forget to search on the bay for it.

Cartoons with too much DVNR usually have the inklines smeared. The computer process assumes the inklines are scratches on the film and erases the parts that don't match up with the previous frame. You can see this happening on fast actions or camera pans. Some examples below from various DVDs:

From the Tom & Jerry Spotlight Collection DVD


From the Droopy DVD set




The tops of Bugs's ears disappear from the Golden Collection Looney Tunes DVD


Even The Simpsons suffers from it!

that's really horrible to see some of these cartoons, even new ones like that.

i can't believe what some of the sites that you posted say was done but sometimes
you can't fight age.
i look forward to seeing your other reviews of cartoon LDs.

and i'll look for the DVNR, it's that these things are new to me
i guess that is what they did to the early 2000 DVD of metropolis that i didn't like.
everything was clear but fuzzy at the same time and i just thought it was the DVD but
it's how they transfer it.

DVNR is the lazy man's restoration tool.


Thanks! I'd like to review the Happy Harmonies set next, but that will take some time. I recall that the cartoons were not in such good condition as the Tex Avery box set.

the cartoons are great though!!!