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Betty Boop in Poor Cinderella

Betty Boop is Cinderella — red-haired, for once — scrubbing the hearth, singing that nobody loves her, then riding a pumpkin coach to the prince’s ball. Max and Dave Fleischer’s 1934 short is the only color Betty Boop cartoon of the Fleischer era (two-strip Cinecolor, because Disney had locked up Technicolor) and the first of their Color Classics. Art Deco sets, the Fleischers’ tabletop “stereoptical” depth trick, a fairy godmother, glass slippers, and midnight: the old tale filtered through pre-Code cartoon swing. Mae Questel’s voice, the title song, and a palace that looks like a nightclub make it the jewel of Betty’s later, slightly tamer years. A public-domain one-reeler that still looks like jewelry.

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