Betty Boop in "Betty Boop's Bamboo Isle" (1937). Drawing by Mike Harney.
The Betty Boop character is the property of King Features Syndicate.
The Betty Boop cartoons were some of the best-drawn of the 1930s. Many animation techniques still used today were pioneered by Fleischer Studios. We all owe a lot of entertainment to those animators.
Below is a list of all the Betty Boop cartoons I'm aware of, with the exception of the, um, very adult Betty Boop and Popeye short said to have been contributed to by all the animators to celebrate the studio's move to Florida. Cash offers and promises of firstborn will be made for a copy of said cartoon.
If you see a color Betty Boop cartoon, it's likely a colorized one remade in the '60s. Only a couple of the originals were done in color. These '60s knock-offs were done in the Far East animation equivalent of "chop shops." They enlarged individual frames of 8 and 16mm reels of the cartoons, then traced them onto cels and invented color schemes. They did not have access to original cels, of course (standard operating procedure for most studios in the '30s was to wash and reuse cels), and the quality of these colorized versions is very poor indeed. Watch an original black and white Betty Boop cartoon next to a colorized version and it may just make you ill. Backgrounds are vastly simplified to the point of...well, pointlessness, live actors such as Louis Armstrong are erased, and entire scenes are cut, amongst innumerable other wince-producing things.
See The Fleischer Story by Leslie Cabarga for the story of Fleischer Studios, from its birth on Long Island through its heyday and much too early demise in Miami.
TAPE CARTOON TITLE YEAR TAPE CARTOON TITLE YEAR
Betty Boop's Prize Show 1930 + Barnacle Bill 1934
Keep in Style 1930 Mysterious Mose 1935
When My Ship Comes In 1930 The Bum Bandit 1935
*2 Baby Be Good 1931 +1 Silly Scandals 1935
Taking the Blame 1931 +1 Bimbo's Initiation 1935
X Stop That Noise 1931 Betty Coed 1935
X Swat the Fly 1931 Bimbo's Express 1935
B*3 No! No! A Thousand Times 1931 Minding the Baby 1935
No!! X Mask-a-Raid 1935
*2 A Little Soap and Water 1931 Jack and the Beanstalk 1935
A Language All My Own 1931 +1 Dizzy Red Riding Hood 1935
+2 Betty Boop and Grampy 1931 Any Rags 1935
X Judge for a Day 1931 +1 Boop-Oop-A-Doop 1936
Making Stars 1932 +2 Minnie the Moocher 1936
X Betty Boop with Henry 1932 X Swim or Sink [aka SOS] 1936
B Little Nobody 1932 X Crazy Town 1936
X Betty Boop and the Little 1932 The Dancing Fool 1936
King +1 Chess-Nuts 1936
+2 Not Now 1932 A Hunting We Will Go 1936
X Betty Boop and Little Jimmy 1932 Admission Free 1936
B*3 We Did It 1932 The Betty Boop Limited 1936
*3 A Song a Day 1932 Rudy Vallee Melodies 1936
X More Pep 1932 Stopping the Show 1936
X You're Not Built That Way 1932 +2 Betty Boop Bizzy Bee 1936
X Happy You and Merry Me 1932 Betty Boop, M.D. 1936
*3 Training Pigeons 1932 +1 Betty Boop's Bamboo Isle 1937
A Grampy's Indoor Outing 1932 Betty Boop's Ups and Downs 1937
B*2+2 Be Human 1932 X Betty Boop for President 1937
*1 Making Friends 1932 +1 I'll Be Glad When You're 1937
X House Cleaning Blues 1932 Dead You Rascal You
*3 Whoops! I'm a Cowboy 1932 Betty Boop's Museum 1937
The Hot Air Salesman 1932 B*2 Betty Boop's Ker-choo 1937
Pudgy Takes a Bow-Wow 1932 X Betty Boop's Crazy 1937
Pudgy Picks a Fight 1933 Inventions
+2 The Impractical Joker 1933 X Is My Palm Read 1937
Ding Dong Doggie 1933 Ha! Ha! Ha! 1937
The Candid Candidate 1933 +1 Snow White 1937
Service With a Smile 1933 X Betty Boop's Birthday Party 1937
The New Deal Show 1933 +1 Betty Boop's May Party 1937
X The Foxy Hunter 1933 +2 Betty Boop's Big Boss 1938
Zula Hula 1933 +2 Mother Goose Land 1938
Riding the Rails 1933 X Popeye the Sailor 1938
Be Up to Date 1933 +1 The Old Man of the Mountain 1938
Honest Love and True 1933 +1 I Heard 1938
+ Out of the Inkwell 1933 +1 Morning Noon and Night 1938
X Swing School 1933 X Betty Boop's Halloween 1938
Pudgy and the Lost Kitten 1933 Party
Buzzy Boop 1933 +2 Parade of the Wooden 1938
Pudgy the Watchman 1934 Soldiers
Buzzy Boop at the Concert 1934 +2 She Wronged Him Right 1938
Sally Swing 1934 X Red Hot Mamma 1938
*1 On With the New 1934 +2 Betty in Blunderland 1938
Pudgy in Thrills and Chills 1934 +1 Betty Boop's Rise to Fame 1938
*3 My Friend the Monkey 1934 X Betty Boop's Trial 1939
X So Does an Automobile 1934 Betty Boop's Lifeguard 1939
X Musical Mountaineers 1934 Poor Cinderella 1939
*3 The Scared Crows 1934 +2 There's Something About a 1939
X Rhythm on the Reservation 1934 Soldier
Dizzy Dishes 1934 Betty Boop's Little Pal 1939
Video legend:
+ "Betty Boop Special Collector's Edition," Volumes 1-2
B "The Best of Betty Boop"
* "Betty Boop Festival," Volumes 1-3
A "Animation in the 30's"
The best of the videos shown in the legend are the Collector's Edition volumes, released by Republic Pictures and still available on videotape and laserdisc. They produced these volumes from the original 35mm negatives of the cartoons and the quality is absolutely outstanding.
Entire contents © 1995-2003 by Mike Harney. World rights reserved. Steve Allen, this means you.