Poor Cinderella
About Poor Cinderella
Betty Boop plays Cinderella, kept home by two stepsisters who make her dress them for the prince's ball. She sings that nobody loves her. Her fairy godmother sends her off in a new dress, a carriage, and glass slippers, and tells her to leave by midnight. At the ball a mallet-wielding Cupid prods Prince Charming down the stairs. He dances with her. At midnight she runs and leaves a shoe. He says he will marry the woman it fits. She does. The stepsisters are still arguing when the end-title doors smack their heads together.
Cast & crew
More about Poor Cinderella
Dave Fleischer directed. Seymour Kneitel, Roland Crandall, and William Henning animated. Max Fleischer produced and presented the short. Paramount Pictures released Betty Boop in Poor Cinderella on 3 August 1934. It runs 10 minutes and is in two-strip Cinecolor, used because Walt Disney held exclusive rights to three-strip Technicolor from 1932 to 1935. Betty's hair is red for that process. Mae Questel and Bonnie Poe are the credited voices. It was Fleischer's first color cartoon, the only time Betty appears in color in the Fleischer era, and the first Paramount animated short in color.
Themes
Making
Fleischer could not get three-strip Technicolor, so the studio's first color short was two-strip Cinecolor, and Betty was drawn as a redhead to use the red record.
Technique
Shot in two-strip Cinecolor, with Stereoptical sets giving some scenes a deeper background than a painted cel.
Music
Murray Mencher, Jack Scholl, and Charles Tobias wrote the songs. A caricature of Rudy Vallée sings the title number at the ball. Phil Spitalny is credited for the recording.
Notes
- Some scenes use Fleischer's Stereoptical process, a 3-D set behind the cels.
- Rudy Vallée is caricatured, singing during the ball.
- Murray Mencher, Jack Scholl, and Charles Tobias wrote songs. Phil Spitalny is credited as recording director. Sammy Timberg is an uncredited music director.
- The stepsisters' last gag is the iris doors hitting both of them at once.
Scenes
- Cupid with a mallet pushes the prince down the staircase toward Betty.
- Midnight strikes. She runs and one shoe stays on the stair.
- The end-title doors knock the stepsisters' heads together.
Influenced by
- The Cinderella fairy tale
Also available
- Internet Archive (Betty_Boop_Poor_Cinderella_1934)
- Wikimedia Commons (Poor Cinderella (1934).webm)
