Nostalaia revives cartoon cutie
Riding on the crest of the current
wave of nostalgia is Betty Boop, that
. campus cutie of the '30s. Yes, folks,
Betty Boop, her dog companion,
Bimbo, Kcko the down and their
animal friends, live music and action
sequences with Cab Calloway and
bouncing-ball Screen Songs will be
back on college campuses this year.
Max Fleischer, not exactly the
household word Walt Disney is,
created the "Boop Group" along with
the old Popeye cartoons. He also
produced such feature length cartoons
as Gulliver's Travels and Mr. Bug Goes
to Town. But where his rival, Disney,
aimed for realism in his cartoons,
Fleischer was a surrealist, an absurdist,
a visionary. "If it can be done in real
life, it's not animation," he said.
His Betty Boop cartoons bear out
his belief. Nothing ever stand still in a
Fleischer cartoon: objects which were
heretofore inanimate get up and walk
and talk. A spitoon smokes a cigar that
was thrown into it, a tree stump
chastely pulls Betty Boop's dress down
over her exposed panties. Bimbo the
dog constructs a motorcycle of two
sal amis, and so on.
Fleischer used a technique of
building his cartoons around realistic
situation-he's even deal with things
they don't dare deal with today, like
poverty, the depression,
homosexuality-and he's toss in heavy
doses of the absurd and impossible.
His unusual style grew out of the
experimentalism of the '20s, when
animators realized that the only limits
were those of their imaginations.
There was never a lack of imagination
in Fleischer's studios.
done wonek
Fleischer began his career as an
errand boy in the art department of
the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, where he
paid the paper $2 a week to let him
watch those working in the art
department. Before long they were
paying him $2 a week, and in four
years he was a staff cartoonist.
He later became photoengraver and
art editor of Popular Science Monthly.
He became interested in the mechanics
of animation. In 1917 he filmed his
brother dressed as a clown doing
acrobatic stunts; then, on a machine
he called a roto-scope, he traced the
clown figure frame by frame onto
sheets of paper. This scientific
approach worked so well that the
roto-scope is still used extensively in
modern animation.
In 1919, Fleischer formed the Out
of the Inkweel Inc., studios. Four
years later he produced the world's
first full length animated films. They
were serious mechanical efforts:
Einstein's Theory of Relativity and
Darwin's Theory of Evolution. Then in
1924 he produced a series of "follow
the bouncing ball" sing along Screen
Songs.
Betty Boop came along in 1932 as a
semi-canine partner to Bimbo, and she
evolved a year later into a human (her
long ears became hocp earrings.) But
she continued to pal around with her
talking animal friends.
Ivy Films has repackaged the Boop
films into a feature film retrospective
of Fleischer's outrageous, imaginative
cartoons. The Betty Boop Scandals of
1974 have been lauded by The Village
Voice and the ft oiling Stone, as well as
in local papers in towns where the film
has been shown. It has been
tentatively booked at Sheldon Art
Gallery later this spring.
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Cast members harmonize to traditional folk ballads in the University Theatre production
Dark of the Moon. ,
'Concert'
evolution
in jazz
Concert in Japan, by John
Coltrn.
When Jofm Coltrane di"d in
1967, he had barely begun his
travels through free jazz, ?
concept of avant garde
improvisation with pure style
as its cutting edge. His work
then seemed to progress from
logic almost to absurdity. I am
sure his break from tradition
would have led him ultimately
to another form of expression.
Concert in Japan was
recorded about a year before
Coltrane's dt3th. On it, he uses
many of the same musicians he
used c-n Med its t ions,
considered by many Coltrane
fans to be his best. Alice
Coltrane plays piano. Pharoah
Sanders accompanies Coltrane
on reeds and Jimny Garrison
plays bass. Also featured is
Rashied Alt, one of the most
manic drummers in jazz.
Sanders is the only really
weak artist on the album. His
squawking abandon adds
nothing and we actually hear
more of him than of Coltrane.
H? does do some nice bass
clarinet playing, however,
I'm not crazy about the
album, but it seems a necessary
artifact in the evolution of one
of the most overwhelming
influences jazz has had.
'Dark of Moon'
never sees light
Review by Dennis Ellermeir
Dark of the Moon, which opened Friday at Howel!
Theater is a mediocre production of a less than
masterful script by Howard Richardson and William
Berney.
The play suffers from many small irritations that
are not significant in themselves but, collectively, lead
tc a disappointing result.
The story is loosely based on the folk ballad
"Barbara Allen." John, a witch boy, falls in love with
Barbara and becomes human to court her. To
maintain his mortality, however, Barbara must be
faithful to him for a year. To rid the valley of
witchcraft, the townspeople rape Barbara Allen. She
dies and John again becomes a witch.
The script continually punches at profound
themes the essential loneliness of man and the
corruption of social institutions but fails to develop
any of them satisfactorily.
There are generous sprinklings of humor in the
portrayals of the mountain folk, but the humor often
is forced and inappropriate.
David Bee!, as John, speaks with correct Southern
pronunciation, but lacks the twang and cadence that
makes it sound like mountain talk.
In stressing John's devilish and boyish qualities,
Bell loses the force and power his character should
command.
His love for Barbara is not evidenced, save for
perfunctory hugs and hand holding. The lines are
empty without the meaningful gazes or displayed
consciousness of her presence.
Barbara Allen, played by Terry Baughan, comes
across with clarity and conviction. She has the depth
both to flirt girlishly and to express a profound sense
of loss at the still birth of her child. Her entire
demeanor shows the love she has for John.
Her acting at the beginning of the Revival Meeting
in the second act is the apex of her performance. She
sits in haughty pride on the sinners' bench and, in
slow silent metamorphosis, loses her sureness to
desperate doubt.
Baughan also garnished the production with it best
singing. The music gives Dark of The Moon a folksy
character, but it was so loosely integrated into the
story that the action always seemed to be stopping
for a song.
The supporting roles are all competently
conceived, although the mortals posess
more theatrical magic than the witches.
While passable entertainment, Dark of the Moon
fails to add sparkle to an evening.
Dark of the Moon continues throui March 9.
Tickets: Regular $2.00, Students $2.
Wednesday, march 6, 1374
page 6
daily ncbrsskon