Studio: Fleischer Studios
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Short Synopsis
A magic mirror declares Betty Boop the fairest in the land, and the jealous Queen orders her guards, Koko the Clown and Bimbo, to take Betty away and execute her. In the forest, weeping, they can't go through with it and destroy their own weapons, but they fall into a pit before they can set her free. Betty escapes, only to fall into a frozen river; the ice closes around her into a solid block, a coffin of ice, which slides away and is carried by the seven dwarfs to a cave. The Queen, using the mirror, transforms herself into a witch and follows. In the cave, she turns Koko into a ghostly figure, and Koko sings "St. James Infirmary" in Cab Calloway's voice, his body stretching and changing shape with each line of the song. Betty's ice coffin is freed and shattered, and Betty, Koko and Bimbo turn the tables on the witch, transforming her into a dragon and pulling her inside out before they dance away together.
Why It Matters
- Koko's "St. James Infirmary" is the reason to watch. Rotoscoped from footage of Calloway dancing, the ghost glides and slides with the singer's own moves, some of which look uncannily like the much later moonwalk, while the background melts and transforms on every beat.
- Roland Crandall animated almost the whole film himself, as a reward from the studio for years of loyal work, and spent six months on it. It was added to the National Film Registry in 1994 and voted number 19 in The 50 Greatest Cartoons the same year, and it is regarded as one of the Fleischers' masterpieces.
Notes and Trivia
- Paramount renewed the copyright in 1961, so unlike many Fleischer shorts it is not in the public domain.
- See also: Minnie the Moocher (1932), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).