Betty Boop's Rise to Fame: A weird, fun little scrapbook

Is it worth your time?

If you have any soft spot for the rubber-hose animation style, absolutely. It is a quick, painless watch that doesn't overstay its welcome. If you are looking for a grounded narrative, well, you are definitely looking in the wrong place. This isn't Whom the Gods Destroy, and it’s not trying to be.

The whole thing feels like a meta-commentary before that was even a thing people cared about. Watching Max Fleischer talk to a reporter feels slightly stiff, but then we get the clips, and suddenly the screen just pops with that frantic, surreal energy only these cartoons had.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Betty Boop's Rise to Fame (1934) through its definitive frames.

The Fleischer Magic

There is something inherently unsettling about the way these characters move. Their limbs go from solid to liquid in a heartbeat. It makes Paris at Midnight look like a slow-motion study by comparison. The ink-line jitter is just hypnotic.

• The music. Obviously. You cannot talk about this without mentioning the soundtrack.
• Cab Calloway’s rotoscoped movements are still a trip to watch, even after all these years.
• The way the reporter just sort of sits there, nodding like a bobblehead.

Some of the transitions between the live-action interview and the animated segments are, uh, a bit rough. It feels like they were glued together with tape and hope. But does that matter? Not really. It adds to the charm, like finding an old, scratchy record in a bin.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Betty Boop's Rise to Fame (1934) through its definitive frames.

I kept waiting for a plot to kick in, but it just never does. It’s a highlight reel, really. You get to see the evolution of the character without having to sit through a dry documentary style. It’s just, here is Betty, she dances, she’s weird, you like her. Done.

There is this one moment in the second segment where the background just goes completely bonkers. It has that same chaotic vibe you get in Fashionable Fakers, where the world is just a playground for the animator's most feverish daydreams. It is delightful and slightly terrifying all at once. 😵‍💫

Is it a masterpiece? No. Is it a good way to spend a few minutes if you want your brain to feel like it’s vibrating? You bet. It feels like the antithesis of something like The Mother Heart. It doesn’t want your tears; it wants your undivided, slightly confused attention.

Also, I’m pretty sure the reporter is just a cardboard cutout in some shots. I might be imagining it, but the lighting is so flat. It’s these little, imperfections that make me love this stuff more than the polished, soulless modern junk.