Snow-White (1933 film)
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This film has been preserved in the National Film Registry in 1994. | ||
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Snow-White (also known as Betty Boop in Snow-White) is a 1933 American animated short in the Betty Boop series from Max Fleischer's Fleischer Studios, being the 14th Betty Boop cartoon overall. The film, which took six months to complete, is considered both Roland Crandall's masterwork and an important milestone of the Golden age of American animation.
Why It Rocks
- Modern viewers will likely notice the cartoon's surrealism, its hot jazz elements, and its rotoscoping.
- Some of the 20th century's most vibrant art forms collide in this short, with the Fleischer Brothers offering a gritty, sexy alternative to the sunny, rural animation by Walt Disney, MGM and Warner Bros.
- Crandall was very clever with the fairy tale settings, which show up in the details of the Wicked Queen's castle, the dwarfs' cave.
- Within the dwarfs' cave, a long-legged Calloway sings the mournful "St. James Infirmary Blues" -- a tale of sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll. While singing Calloway’s animated figure transforms itself to describe the lyrics, briefly turning into a watch chain and a bottle of booze. As if such dazzling rotoscoped animation weren't enough, a background filled with macabre images slides steadily by, fighting for attention with the action in the foreground. The cartoon makes full use of the medium of animation, and a model of the classic “rubber hose” cartoon style of the early 1930s.
- Betty Boop was one of the most popular creations of animation during the 1930s, especially since her generous, free-spirited and optimistic nature pretty much made her an antidote to the bad news occurring in America within that decade. This particular short is the second of three Fleischer pictures featuring Cab Calloway, and probably the best.
- It also includes KoKo (a rather eerie cartoon star for the 20th century) and Bimbo
- The overall short was animated by one man, Roland Crandall, over a 6-month period, and yet it still manages to maintain a consistency and beauty, a lot of attention to detail.
- While a lot of the Fleischer Brothers' cartoons follow Dave Fleischer's theory that every scene should have a gag, this particular short stretches his gag theory to its limits, while at the same time, combining elements of the familiar fairy tale with "St. James Infirmary", a 1930s song as mentioned above
Reception
Over the years, the short's been considered important milestone of the Golden age of American animation.
It was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1994. The same year, it was voted #19 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field.