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Betty Boop The Essential Collection Volume 4 (1 Viewer)

Timothy E

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Betty Boop The Essential Collection Volume 4

The Fleischer Brothers' Betty Boop returns in Betty Boop The Essential Collection Volume 4 licensed by Olive Films. All 13 shorts in this collection are presented in chronological order highlighting the evolution and transition of animation style and character from 1932 through 1938.

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Studio: Paramount

Distributed By: Olive

Video Resolution and Encode: 1080P/AVC

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1

Audio: English 1.0 DTS-HDMA (Mono)

Subtitles: None

Rating: Not Rated

Run Time: 1 Hr. 21 Min.

Package Includes: Blu-ray

Amaray

Disc Type: BD25 (single layer)

Region: A

Release Date: 09/30/2014

MSRP: $29.95




The Production Rating: 4/5

Betty Boop began as a character in 1930 in the Fleischer Brothers Talkartoon series. By 1932, the Talkartoon series became the Betty Boop series with Stopping the Show, included as the first short in this Volume 4 of the Essential Collection release by Olive Films. Betty also successfully launched Popeye in his animated career with the Fleischers in Popeye the Sailor, which was nominally a Betty Boop cartoon although she barely appeared in it. The Betty Boop cartoons produced by the Fleischers wound down in the late 1930s as the flapper era style represented by Betty had long since transitioned into the swing era. The final cartoon in this collection, Sally Swing(1938), represented the studios' effort to create a swing era counterpart to Betty. Mae Questel(Olive Oyl) portrayed Betty Boop in most, if not all, of these shorts.Betty experienced a revival of interest in the 1950s as feature films and theatrical shorts were scooped up by the medium of television. In 1955, the Betty Boop shorts were sold to UM & M TV Corporation. At this time, the Paramount logo on most of the shorts was replaced with the logo of the UM & M TV Corporation by the unfortunate method of splicing into the original negatives. (Two of the shorts in this collection retain the Paramount logo, while the rest have the logo of the UM & M TV Corporation.)The shorts in this collection consist of the following:Stopping the Show(1932): This short has Betty imitating other stars, and singing the Helen Kane song "That's My Weakness Now." The song was reportedly cut from prints in the 1930s after Helen Kane unsuccessfully sued the studio for unfair competition. Curiously, the short uses images of the other stars imitated, Fanny Brice and Maurice Chevalier. It is possible that the short originally included the image of Helen Kane. Although Kane's image is not in evidence in this short, the song "That's My Weakness Now" is still warbled by Betty.Snow White(1933): This short has Cab Calloway singing the "Saint James Infirmary Blues." This is one of 2 shorts in this collection with the original Paramount logo.Parade of the Wooden Soldiers(1934): This short includes a brief live action vignette of Rubinoff and his orchestra.She Wronged Him Right(1934): The title is a play on words of Mae West's She Done Him Wrong(1933).Red Hot Mamma(1934): Betty enters the gates of Hell through her fireplace and sings "Hell's Bells."Poor Cinderella(1934): This short was produced in Cinecolor and includes some rotoscoping. (Disney had an exclusive license on the use of Technicolor in animation until 1935.) This short also retains the original Paramount logo.There's Something About A Soldier(1934): Betty recruits her beau Fearless Fred into the war on mosquitos.When My Ship Comes In(1934): An audience fantasy in which Betty wins the lottery and fights back against the Great Depression.Zula Hula(1937): Betty the aviator crash lands her plane on an island with cannibals.Riding the Rails(1938): Betty's dog Pudgy has his own adventures in the subway.The Swing School(1938): Pudgy perseveres at Betty Boop's Music School For Animals.Pudgy The Watchman(1938): Betty hires an exterminator to get rid of the mice that Pudgy is failing to eliminate.Sally Swing(1938): Betty is redesigned in a short that introduces Sally Swing, voiced by Rose Marie.


Video Rating: 3.5/5 3D Rating: NA

Betty Boop The Essential Collection Volume 4 presents its 13 shorts in the 1.33:1 aspect ratio in the AVC codec. Ironically, the UM & M Television Corporation credits that were cut into the negatives in 1955 show more damage than the body of the shorts. It is, of course, entirely possible that restoration efforts went into the animation rather than into the anachronistic credits. As the UM & M credits segue into the original Fleischer cartoon opening credits, there is much more print damage evident in emulsion scratches than in the animation sequences. Two of the shorts, Snow White and Poor Cinderella, have the original opening and closing credits with the Paramount Studios logo.The video presentation of these shorts is excellent, especially considering what the original negatives must have endured in 80 years. The scratches apparent in the openings of the shorts seem to disappear in motion in the animation. Fine film grain is apparent in a way that enhances detail rather than obscuring it. Blacks are solid but tend towards the gray end of the spectrum, which also preserves detail rather than concealing it. The lone Cinecolor entry, Poor Cinderella, seems to display more print damage than the remaining shorts, but even then such scratches are minimal and not distracting. The Cinecolor hues are probably more prone to show print damage than the black and white shorts.



Audio Rating: 4/5

The mono DTS-HD audio may not be flawless but it preserves the music and dialogue in as close to what passed for high fidelity in the 1930s as possible. It can be said that these shorts probably never sounded better than they do today, even if the dynamic range falls short of 21st Century standards. Some background hiss is audible occasionally.


Special Features Rating: 0/5

There are no special features on this edition.


Overall Rating: 3.5/5

The Fleischer Studios' animation is remembered today for creating some of the greatest animation of all time. Anyone who considers themselves a fan of classic animation will want Betty Boop The Essential Collections Volumes 1 through 4 in their collection. The quality video and audio presentation in Volume 4 surpasses what one would reasonably expect of these shorts. Animation aficionados will be anxious to see if these collections sell well enough for Olive Films to release further collections including the public domain Betty Boop shorts in 1080p.


Reviewed By: Timothy E


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JoHud

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I agree with the review overall, though I'm not sure I get the rationale of giving the audio a 1/5 solely because it's an early talkie. The sound was clear as a bell on this disc, which very important given how much the Fleischers relied on off-the-cuff mumbling and ad-libs that often aren't as audible as the regular scripted dialogue.
 

Timothy E

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Joe, thanks for pointing that out. Although letter grades are subjective, I intended to give it a 4 out of 5 because I agree with your opinion that the sound was clear as a bell, even if not in surround sound (which was not introduced until a few years later.) Somewhere along the line, the incorrect number slipped through when the review was posted, which has now been corrected.
 

bigshot

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I'm betting Snow White is cropped at either the top or bottom or both.
 

Mike Frezon

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Timothy E said:
Joe, thanks for pointing that out. Although letter grades are subjective, I intended to give it a 4 out of 5 because I agree with your opinion that the sound was clear as a bell, even if not in surround sound (which was not introduced until a few years later.) Somewhere along the line, the incorrect number slipped through when the review was posted, which has now been corrected.
Timothy: Just a heads up. I'm still seeing the audio grade as a 1/5. I'm also not finding this review in the listing of Blu-ray Reviews found in the "Review" drop-down at the top of any HTF page.

I've also included a link in this week's RoundUp. Thanks for the review! :biggrin:
 

Adam Gregorich

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Mike Frezon said:
Timothy: Just a heads up. I'm still seeing the audio grade as a 1/5. I'm also not finding this review in the listing of Blu-ray Reviews found in the "Review" drop-down at the top of any HTF page.

I've also included a link in this week's RoundUp. Thanks for the review! :biggrin:
Thanks for the WRU link Mike. Because Tim said it would be a 4, I updated the audio and tagged it so it should show in the filter.
 

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