Poor Cinderella
Poor Cinderella
| 03 August 1934 (USA)
Poor Cinderella Trailers

In the only Betty Boop color cartoon, Cinderella (Betty) goes to the ball thanks to her fairy godmother. Later, only her foot fits the glass slipper.

Reviews
Protraph Lack of good storyline.
SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."
Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...
Kirpianuscus Betty Boop as Cinderella. an idea who seems strange but this short animation is the ideal proof for define it as inspired. because all is nice - the songs, the dance, the short story preserving essence of fairy tale and the colors, the technique and the ingenuity of Betty. at first, naive, it is the perfect illustration of significant episode of animation history.
MartinHafer This is the first color film from the Fleischer Studio and it's in something called "Cinecolor"--which appears to be a variation on 2-color Technicolor. Unlike the older 2-color Technicolor, the film seems to have a lot of blues and a slightly greater color spectrum. It is easier on the eyes than the older process but it truly isn't full color--the full spectrum is missing. This cannot be confused with the rich and vibrant colors of true Technicolor--a more expensive process that was also being introduced around the same time. Not surprisingly, Technicolor became the dominant color process, as it simply looked nicer and wasn't mostly orange. Now despite these limitations, this Betty Boop cartoon is nice to look at because like many of the Fleischer cartoons, there were very lovely line drawings and a nice 3-D look to the backgrounds (something this studio specialized in). These help you overlook the orange hue on most everything.Clearly this in an innovative film, though I also think it suffers from two major problems. First, although it's a Betty Boop cartoon, it's an amazingly "by the book" rendition of the old story. There isn't much new or exciting to the tale. Second, if you are not a fan of Boop, you also might not be all that impressed--simply because she's a rather dull character compared to animated characters from the 40s and 50s (which had a lot more personality). However, compared to competing contemporary cartoons of the era, this is a fairly good short. While nowhere near the quality of most Disney cartoons, compared to Warner Brothers and the other studios, it is clearly technically superior. Worth a look if you are a film historian or want to see a better than average cartoon of the 1930s.By the way, I saw this film on the DVD entitled "Cartoon Crazys: And The Envelope Please". This is a rather poor compilation of supposedly award winning and nominated films. Poor because several of the films are very lame and are NOT award nominated, the prints are rather bad and parts of some of the cartoons are missing! This might account for the extreme redness of the cartoon, as it could use a good restoration. Cinecolor and Two-Color Technicolor films often get an even more orange look over time but clean up quite beautifully.
Son_of_Mansfield Betty Boop, fetching even in rags, meets her prince thanks to her fairy godmother. Similar elements of the movie are here, but the short stands in it's own. There are wicked stepsisters, but no stepmother. The animation of the mice and lizards transforming to horses and coachmen is very reminiscent of the Disney movie. The music would fit in that movie, but adds to the short's charm. I really liked the Cupid who banged the prince on the head with a mallet when he first glimpsed Betty. The talking pumpkin is a little scary with it's jagged teeth and deep voice. The ending is happy of course with Betty reunited with her slipper and her prince. While this short can't match that movie's completeness and gloss, this is a very enjoyable short for lovers of the classic story. This is the only color Betty Boop cartoon that I have seen and hopefully not the only one in existence.
JaJWM Long before Rodgers and Hammerstein had the idea of musicalizing Cinderella, Betty Boop made the midnight pumpkin change tunefully, with verve, sex and good story editing. The plot is trimmed to its essentials, the splendid backgrounds may have influenced the Disney Beauty and the Beast, and the closing shot of the Pinocchio-nosed sisters wraps everything up with a laugh.