Animation as Rebellion and Sexual Propaganda

Betty Boop, The Failed Femme Fatale of Animation

When I was growing up, Betty Boop was one of my favorite cartoon characters. My parents bought me tapes of her cartoons in black and white, some with dialogue and some with only music, and I would watch them entranced by the unrealistic yet seemingly possible stories and movement. They also bought me Betty Boop watches, cups, and clothes. After reading William Mortiz essay “Animation”, I see the subtle inappropriateness of my parents’ choice to encourage my viewing of Betty Boop cartoons.

Betty gained her stardom from the Willard Bowsky and Ted Sears hit Mysterious Moose, a story about “sexy Betty Bop falling in love with a seemingly magical Bimbo, who dances to Cab Calloway music but turns out to be an automaton; Bimbo’s mysterious charm stems partly from his continuous transformations, which follow a narrative logic, as when his masked heart shoots out to ‘steal’ Betty’s” (Mortiz 268). From the very beginning the best adjective to describe Boop was “sexy” and her inability to get around this description is what lead to her eventual demise, but that will come later.

After her first film, Boop starred in Minnie the Moocher, a result of Bowsky teaming up with Ralph Sommerville. In this film “Betty runs away from home because of her authoritarian parents, but encounters in a cave where she hides a ‘spook’ who brings the title song alive with images that demonstrate the evil wiles of the city and the ungrateful behavior of children: when kittens suck a mother cat dry, she offers them a bottle, which they transform into a hookah, while ghostly criminals re-enact cycles of crime, walking through prison bars, enjoying electrocution, and scoffing at the authorities as they begin their antics over again” (Mortiz 268). It is here that my parents’ choice to let me watch Betty Boop really comes into question, seeing as her second feature employed a number of unacceptable society wrongs. Cartoon characters enjoying hookah, committing crimes, enjoying the punishment meant to deter their deeds, and mocking the authorities that try to keep them in line, are not the type of role models that should be put on screen for children to watch. They are rebellious and unsuitable.

In her later years Boop became a casualty of the production code, which surprisingly enough targeted her sexuality more than anything, but quickly lead to her demise (Mortiz 268). Without her sexual presence, Boop fails to maintain a distinguishable character or capture the audience’s attention. She was unfortunately unable to adapt to the innuendos of the femme fatales in live action films at the time and therefore faded form the public eye.

International Sexuality in Animation

It was not only in the United States that animation characters where sexual, however. Anthony Gross, a British painter residing in Paris, created Joie de Vivre which “catches the essence of the art deco inter-war decades” (Mortiz 274), but also maintains a very sensual flow of movement (very similar to that of Betty Boop) by the two women. Gross also comes dangerously close to lifting their skirts too far up in his use of clothing as an extension of their movement. He even turns them into flowers at one point, further building on their all white outfits, to establish their pure and virginal visual status.

Animation as an Excuse for Social Rebellion

In Germany the rebellion prior to World War II was less sexual and more aimed at fighting the oppression coming from the Nazi’s. As Germany became poor and more secluded from the world, the government ordered studios to make animations to fill the gap created by the lack of Disney films being imported. Hans Fischkoesen, who had been working with animation in advertising, stepped up to the challenge, and created three German animations that would stand the test of time (Mortiz 274). “Fischerkoesen was an anti-Nazi pacifist, and he managed to charge all three films with a subversive message, which because of the films’ technical brilliance, could not be suppressed” (Mortiz 274). The films employed Jazz, which had been outlawed at the time in Germany, as well as story lines that spoke strongly against the complacency of German citizens (Mortiz 274). The fact that the Nazi’s dismissed Frischkoesen’s treasonous themes and music is a statement to the accomplishments of his animations. Under a regime as notorious as Germany approaching World War II nothing was allowed to slide if it offended the government, so these animations stand in a league of their own, where art actually outweighs the law.

Aesopic

According to the American Heritage Dictionary of English Language Fourth Edition, Aesopic means:

1. Relating to or characteristic of the animal fables of Aesop

2. Using or having ambiguous or allegorical meanings, especially to elude political censorship

The word was first used to describe the types of strategies used by European filmmakers in the post-war era on page 633 in Marek Hendrkowski’s Essay “Changing States in East Central Europe”.

In the segment “Aesopic Film Language”, Hendrkowski discusses the necessity filmmakers found to use “subtle metaphors, symbols, allusions, subtext,and understatements” (632). In cinema, allegories are often used in place of blunt statements as both a way of entertaining audiences, but also in some cases a method of disguised communication under an oppressive government.

The idea also transfers into animation itself because many times animals are used as the primary characters in cartoons to tell children stories that have a deeper lesson and therefore become an allegory.

Work Cited

Hendrkowski, Marek. “Changing States in East Central Europe”. The Oxford History of world Cinema: The Definitive History of Cinema Worldwide. Ed. Geoffrey Nowell-Smith. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. 267-275. Print.

Mortiz, William. “Animation”. The Oxford History of World Cinema: The Definitive History of Cinema Worldwide. Ed. Geoffrey Nowell-Smith. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. 267-275. Print.