BCDB: Cartoon Reviews: Poor Cinderella

The first Color Classic might well be the best in the series. The sterioptical sequences are marvelous and the masterful animation of the fairy godmother stand out. While this cartoon falls back on some of the typical Fleischer "clowniness"; the obvious importance Max and Dave placed on this production are evident in nearly every scene. Little Ann Little one of the early voices of Betty Boop in real life had red hair, and she told me that is why they colored her hair red. If this is the case, or the fact that Cinecolor was used to me is a moot point. Phil Spitalny's score is lovely to listen to, and Leo. Fiest and Co. Released the sheet music to the title song with Fliescher artwork on the cover. All in all this is another superior piece of animated film-making from not just an animators standpoint, but an inventors standpoint as well.

Poor Cinderella was the first entry in this color series produced from 1934 to 1940. It stars BETTY BOOP in her only color appearance in what has the tone of a small feature. This cartoon runs a full 10 minutes where the average cartoon short was generally only 7 minutes. It has the feel of a cartoon musical version of an Ernst Lubitsch costume feature, and gives indications of Fleischer's interest in producing animated features. Eventhough it is essentially a straight forward telling of the familiar story, it uses beautiful songs and music and manages to include many of the comical cartoon elements that are true to Fleischer animation, such as a pumkin singing about his joy not to be cut up for pumkin pie. And let us not forget, the obvious opportunity to have the top of Betty's gown slip down when the coach hit a bump. It is interesting to see how a limited color pallet was used, having only the hues of red and blue and their combinations to work with. In addition, the use of the three dimensional background system, known as The Stereoptical Process is used to great effect. There is also a beautiful waltz scene using Fleischer's rotoscope process. In all, it's a wonderful cartoon that doesn't take itself too seriously, but is certainly enjoyable to see, and a nice alternative to the Disney type of fairy tale.