Why Not a Black Betty Boop?
Matt Walsh is steamed up that African-American auteur Quinta Brunson is making a live action Betty Boop movie starring herself.
Matt Walsh tweets:
I presume they’ll be shooting Ms. Brunson up with Ozempic until she can fit into Betty Boop’s dress.
Brunson is the multi-talented actress and writer who created, writes, and stars in the hit ABC sit-com Abbott Elementary.
As of last year, the first iteration of Betty Boop in 1930 as a sort of terrifying humanoid poodle is in the public domain after 95 years.
Betty was drawn by Grim Natwick at the request of Fleischer Studios’ owner Max Fleischer.
Fortunately, her less nightmarish mature 1932 look as an actual cartoon cutie-pie is on its way toward being free for everybody to exploit by next year.
The grandson of Max Fleischer is rushing to make some money off Betty Boop before public domain fully onslaughts. Last year, Boop: The Musical debuted on Broadway and ran for 112 performances. The New York Times theater critic Jesse Green summed up:
Betty Boop, if not the earliest cartoons she appears in, is still under copyright protection. No doubt the Fleischer heirs, with one eye on “Barbie,” would like to exploit their biggest star before she goes bust. Fair enough; who wouldn’t? But a merch grab — in the lobby a plushie Pudgy goes for $35 — is not the same as a musical. The answer to “why?” should not come from mere marketeers.
Unfortunately, Betty Boop really isn’t all that great compared to what came soon after. Cartoons were pretty primitive in the early 1930s. Most classic Betty Boops were in black and white, and they strike me as meh compared to the amazing stuff Disney, Looney Tunes, and MGM were doing a few years later.
For example, Bugs Bunny was first rolled out in 1938 and was more or less perfected by Tex Avery and Mel Blanc in 1940. So Bugs is about a decade away from the public domain. So is Batman, who is probably currently the most valuable IP not yet in the public domain (which Dracula, Frankenstein, and Sherlock Holmes already are).
Also, females are less culturally nostalgic than males, unless it’s something they had a personal connection with, like their Barbies. Women like the Next Big Thing more than something they were told was once popular.
That said, this Betty Boop race-change reboot seems …
Paywall here.
