Dir. Dave Fleischer
Unofficial Rule #1 of this blog - An object is only an object if it isn't sentient. So as much as I'd like to discuss Roy Batty, he's an android that is More Human Than Human, and is off the table for specific discussion. The same goes for magically enhanced candlesticks, possessed bedframes, or simple-minded robots. So far, this rule hasn't caused too much aggravation, that was until Betty Boop walked into my life.
Even the earliest shorts featuring Betty Boop are beautifully animated, improving in on-screen detail and richness as they go. Fleischer Studios have gone down in history for these short Betty Boop animations, alongside their Popeye, and Superman shorts, and it isn't hard to see why. In Fleischer cartoons, there is a sparkling life to almost every object on screen. Focusing on 1934's Red Hot Mamma, we open on Betty Boop (Bonnie Poe) asleep in her cold house. There's an immediate dynamism as the wind blows the curtains into the house. Boop awakens, frozen, and shuts the windows.
We follow two perched birds as they fly inside to the fireplace. Atop the fireplace, a clock visibly shivers, as the hands of the clock anthropomorphise, rub themselves warmer, and don a pair of gloves. Boop throws some logs and coal into the fireplace, and the flame from her lamp comes alive, jumping into the fire, lighting it. The birds begin to sweat, and spin on the grate, visually transforming into rotisserie chicken; the candles melt; the thermometer fills to the top, and begins to sweat mercury; the igloo inside a painting melts, and the painted man removes his warm winter coat. Every single object has a verisimilitude, and express some sort of sentient action, hence, making any post on this blog about Betty Boop hard to write!
Most of the Boop shorts share this dynamism in their animation, with Snow White in particular having constant action from the characters and objects on screen. These details are a likely contributor to the long life these shorts have had in the public consciousness, with their influences being felt particularly in the Disney films that would follow them. Many of the Fleischer animators did eventually move to Disney, so this may not be so surprising. Sticking with Red Hot Mamma however, there are more pleasures to be enjoyed in the sounds of non-sentient objects.
Betty Boop dreams from the intense heat that she's entering into Hell itself. As she fearfully struts inwards, even here a sentient flame with two legs follows her. At one point she trips, falling into a rope and accidentally ringing the bells of Hell. Here, the music begins to specifically synchronise with the events on screen. As each burst of flame from underneath booms outwards, the brass section of the orchestra booms with it in tune. After Betty falls into a pit, a bell continues to ring, but in time with the now jazzy music.
As 'Freshmen' fall into hell, horned devils zip them into a suit, place horns above their head, and tails upon their butts, all done in tune with the music. Just as the animators bring boring everyday objects to life with verve, so too do they inject the sentient devils with an extra spark in synchronising their movement to the music, making them so enjoyable to watch. Everyone likes a good tune after all, and a synchronised dance even more. Like a pre-cursor to a music video, the short continues as we see two devils ring a metal hoop, calling for firemen. As the fire-devils enter, they ring a bell, matching the tune which summoned them.
Words obviously don't do justice to the joy of seeing such beautiful animation paired with great, jazzy music. The diegetic rings of the bell enhance the music, giving movement not only to the fire-devils and their truck, but the film itself. Even for a short, the time flies by watching it. The flipped perspective of Hell adds another playful twist, as here we see the 'hose' is in fact a dragon spitting fire, burning the 'Freshmen' into blackened devils. Later we see an ice-cream cone of fire, licked by a large demon, and swallowed with glee. What was good is now evil, and what was cold is now hot.
Boop sings from within a ring of fire a song titled Hell's Bells, as the now off-screen bells ring with her. She dances away, countering two balls of flame with punctuated moves of the hip, as trumpets join her in sync. Three demons continue the beat of the bell-ringing, this time as their tails strike the floor with electronic, Morse code beeps, a fantastically inventive bit of sound design.
The film enters its conclusion as the devils round on Boop with interest, to which she gives them a literal cold shoulder, visualised as an ice cube, freezing them whole. Her ice-cold stare does the same to the large demon, a stream of ice from her eyes. Betty Boop literally freezes over Hell, and the devils flee, leaving Betty to awake to the cold, her door having been blown off its hinges by the wind. She returns to bed, as blanket after blanket falls atop her, and signs off with her signature catchphrase "Boop-oop-a-doop"!
If you haven't already guessed, I love every second of this short film. The Fleischers and their animators are rightfully remembered as masters of their craft, and are masters of film. Silent movies, not pre-dating this short by too many years, rarely had the opportunity to synchronise music with the events on screen due to the nature of its performance done live (in most cases). To ask for specificity would be to risk out-of-sync moments ruining the film. But with sound, and the power of animation, the Fleischers were able in Red Hot Mamma, and many of their other shorts, to use synchronisation as a boon to inventive story-telling and film-making. Ballet did it before them, theatre did it before them, but they were among the first, and the best, in their pioneering work to show just what animation could do when paired with music. The fact that their films have stood the test of time, and are as funny and as joyful as when they were first screened, is a testament to this. Hell's bells indeed!
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