Studio: Fleischer Studios
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Produced by: Max Fleischer
Short Synopsis
Betty Boop plays Cinderella, the servant of two ugly stepsisters. She dresses them for the prince's ball and is left at home alone, singing that nobody loves her and that only in her dreams can she be a princess. Her fairy godmother appears and grants her wish: pumpkin, mice and rags are transformed into a coach, horses and a gown, and Betty is warned to be home by midnight. At the palace, a mallet-wielding Cupid gives Prince Charming a nudge, and he descends the grand staircase and is smitten at first sight. The two dance and sing; a crooner caricaturing Rudy Vallée sings at the ball. At midnight Betty runs out, losing her slipper. The prince proclaims that whoever fits the slipper will be his wife. Every maiden in the land queues up and fails, until Cinderella tries it on, and the two ride off to their wedding.
Why It Matters
- Betty is a redhead. This is the only Fleischer-era film in which she appears in colour, and the studio coloured her hair red to show off the process. Some scenes also use the Fleischers' Stereoptical process, which filmed flat animation cels in front of three-dimensional model sets, giving parts of the film a startling depth.
- It was the first Fleischer cartoon in colour and the first Paramount cartoon in colour, and it launched the Fleischers' Color Classics series, their answer to Disney's Silly Symphonies. Because Disney held exclusive rights to three-strip Technicolor until 1935, it was made in two-colour Cinecolor.
Notes and Trivia
- The original on-screen title was Betty Boop in Poor Cinderella.
- The Stereoptical process was used even more spectacularly in the two-reel Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor (1936).
- See also: Snow-White (1933), Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor (1936).