ReFrederator Blog

Welcome to the wonderful world of ReFrederator. Fred, Eric and Dave are allowing me to post my two cents - which I’ll do on occasion - or maybe I’ll just post a cool image relating the the cartoons presented this week.

The picture above is from POOR CINDERELLA (1934) which you’ll be seeing later this week. This was Max Fleischer’s first seroius attempt to compete with Walt Disney. Fleischer had been beating Disney with innovation after innovation - sound cartoons, feature length films, three dimensional backdrops, educational & commercial animation - but it was Disney who was winning the awards and achieving international success (due to his great strengths in storytelling, and innovative personality animation).

By 1934, Fleischer was producing the biggest cartoon star of the decade - Popeye The Sailor. On a roll, Fleischer put everything he had into Poor Cinderella - including his leading lady Betty Boop, his new “Stereo-Optical Process”, a wonderful original song, and the 2-Color (red & Blue) Cinecolor process. Everything, in fact, except Mae Questel (the regular voice of Betty Boop).

And look at that background painting. The whole film is loaded with such elaborate detail and eye candy. It’s much too much to take in with one viewing. Now, thanks to ReFrederator, we can now watch such classics over and over again on the subway, at the beach, in line at the post office, and - more than likely - at work.

For that I’ll be eternally grateful.

Jerry Beck