Lyrical Representation in "Betty Boop's Snow White" (1933)
A copy of the clip for this paper can be found on YouTube.com after searching Betty Boop. The clip in question begins as Koko and Bimbo enter the Mystery Cave. This paper is a visual description....
This paper will analyze the cartoon Betty Boop’s Snow White (1933), directed by Dave Fleischer, animated by Roland C. Crandall. The images from the cartoon serve to visually express and emphasize the lyrics and rhythm of Cab Calloway’s “St. James Infirmary Blues.” The structure of the image contains two planes of action. These planes are the foreground, where Koko performs, and the background, which displays the Mystery Cave. In order to structure the many synchronous visual and auditory elements, this paper divides the clip into sections based on the lyrics of the song.
The first shot of the clip is a tracking shot to the right containing Koko following Betty’s ice coffin as the seven dwarves carry her away. As the clown sings, “Let her go, let her go, oh bless her,” Bimbo walks to the right from offscreen left, jumps and sits on Betty’s coffin. All of the dwarves, Bimbo and Koko have shadows on the ground that change according to their positions. As the dwarves carry Betty to the right, their eyes roll, and feet and hands move to the rhythm of the song. Betty opens and closes her eyes to the music, as well. As Koko begins to say, “Oh, bless her,” the dwarves increase their pace and carry Betty offscreen right. This movement also occurs when a sign saying “Go” in the background passes parallel to Koko’s head. The remaining background image consists of a car, with skeletons as the passenger, driver and traffic conductor, who is in a barrel that the sign “GO” appears. Throughout this clip, diegetic sounds are present such as footsteps and a bump and slide noise, as Bimbo lands on Betty’s coffin.
The next lyric is, “wherever she may be.” As Koko sings the word “she,” his neck extends up then down, along with his collar and hat, to match the change in pitch. As the lyric ends, the Queen appears from offscreen left and begins to polish her hand mirror as Koko sings, “she will search this wide world over,” as a drawing of Earth passes by in the background. With the last word of the lyric “over.”, Queen places her mirror over Koko and lowers it, transforming him into a white ghost composed as a pair of legs wearing a torn coat. A siren-whistle ring noise occurs during this action.
As Koko sings, “but she’ll never find another sweet man like me,” the background contains framed portraits of demons. Koko dances in a circle and the queen flies overhead using her mirror as a witch’s broom. The queen travels to the right with her shadow passing along the ground behind Koko producing a difference of depth within the image. The next lyric, “Now, when I die, bury me in straight leg britches,” has an owl materialize and begin to fly over Koko’s head in a figure eight pattern to the beat of the song. By flying from the background left to foreground right, and vice versa, the motion, accompanied by a slide whistle sound, displays the amount of space within the image. During the lyric, “put on a box-back coat and Stetson hat,” the owl flying overhead transforms into a snake. During the last two lyrics, Koko’s pants fall down, coinciding with the word “britches,” and two arms reach out from the torn coat and pull them back up. During the “britches” line, two skeletons wearing pants are in the background, where one of them is half-buried in the water of the cave. This is followed by skeletons wearing hats and coats.
Koko then jumps onto his hands and stretches his legs out towards the top of the frame to create three interlaced circles that morph into links of a chain. This represents, “Put a twenty dollar gold piece on my watch chain,” as Koko’s head transforms into the gold piece, his eyes creating the two and zero, and his arms as links holding the piece. The flying snake overhead, morphs into a fish skeleton and begins traveling in circles behind the watch chain. The flying fish becomes a hairy skull with a top hat that resumes the original figure eight motion, as Koko’s legs return to the ground and he sings, “so you can let all the boys now I died standing pat.” The tracking in the shot ends and Koko jumps offscreen right and a cut occurs. The background image during the final two lyrics contains a skeleton pointing a revolver at another skeleton, which is holding five aces and wearing a watch chain.
A match-on-action occurs as Koko jumps into the foreground of the next tracking shot, while a skeleton with wings flying overhead creates another match-on-action with the previous flying skull. The background consists of a skeleton playing craps on a bed with six onlookers, as Koko sings, “then give me six crap-shootin’ pallbearers,” and walks around a pair of dice on the ground. The dice on the ground have rolled snake eyes, becoming a visual pun as the flying skeleton overhead becomes a snake. As Koko sings, “let a chorus girl sing me a song,” he spins and drops to his knees on the word “sing,” then looks shocked at something offscreen right. Lines shooting off his head emphasize this shock. In the background of the image, the chorus girl is a cow playing the piano on a stage as skeletons watch from boxed seats.
This paper will analyze the cartoon Betty Boop’s Snow White (1933), directed by Dave Fleischer, animated by Roland C. Crandall. The images from the cartoon serve to visually express and emphasize the lyrics and rhythm of Cab Calloway’s “St. James Infirmary Blues.” The structure of the image contains two planes of action. These planes are the foreground, where Koko performs, and the background, which displays the Mystery Cave. In order to structure the many synchronous visual and auditory elements, this paper divides the clip into sections based on the lyrics of the song.
The first shot of the clip is a tracking shot to the right containing Koko following Betty’s ice coffin as the seven dwarves carry her away. As the clown sings, “Let her go, let her go, oh bless her,” Bimbo walks to the right from offscreen left, jumps and sits on Betty’s coffin. All of the dwarves, Bimbo and Koko have shadows on the ground that change according to their positions. As the dwarves carry Betty to the right, their eyes roll, and feet and hands move to the rhythm of the song. Betty opens and closes her eyes to the music, as well. As Koko begins to say, “Oh, bless her,” the dwarves increase their pace and carry Betty offscreen right. This movement also occurs when a sign saying “Go” in the background passes parallel to Koko’s head. The remaining background image consists of a car, with skeletons as the passenger, driver and traffic conductor, who is in a barrel that the sign “GO” appears. Throughout this clip, diegetic sounds are present such as footsteps and a bump and slide noise, as Bimbo lands on Betty’s coffin.
The next lyric is, “wherever she may be.” As Koko sings the word “she,” his neck extends up then down, along with his collar and hat, to match the change in pitch. As the lyric ends, the Queen appears from offscreen left and begins to polish her hand mirror as Koko sings, “she will search this wide world over,” as a drawing of Earth passes by in the background. With the last word of the lyric “over.”, Queen places her mirror over Koko and lowers it, transforming him into a white ghost composed as a pair of legs wearing a torn coat. A siren-whistle ring noise occurs during this action.
As Koko sings, “but she’ll never find another sweet man like me,” the background contains framed portraits of demons. Koko dances in a circle and the queen flies overhead using her mirror as a witch’s broom. The queen travels to the right with her shadow passing along the ground behind Koko producing a difference of depth within the image. The next lyric, “Now, when I die, bury me in straight leg britches,” has an owl materialize and begin to fly over Koko’s head in a figure eight pattern to the beat of the song. By flying from the background left to foreground right, and vice versa, the motion, accompanied by a slide whistle sound, displays the amount of space within the image. During the lyric, “put on a box-back coat and Stetson hat,” the owl flying overhead transforms into a snake. During the last two lyrics, Koko’s pants fall down, coinciding with the word “britches,” and two arms reach out from the torn coat and pull them back up. During the “britches” line, two skeletons wearing pants are in the background, where one of them is half-buried in the water of the cave. This is followed by skeletons wearing hats and coats.
Koko then jumps onto his hands and stretches his legs out towards the top of the frame to create three interlaced circles that morph into links of a chain. This represents, “Put a twenty dollar gold piece on my watch chain,” as Koko’s head transforms into the gold piece, his eyes creating the two and zero, and his arms as links holding the piece. The flying snake overhead, morphs into a fish skeleton and begins traveling in circles behind the watch chain. The flying fish becomes a hairy skull with a top hat that resumes the original figure eight motion, as Koko’s legs return to the ground and he sings, “so you can let all the boys now I died standing pat.” The tracking in the shot ends and Koko jumps offscreen right and a cut occurs. The background image during the final two lyrics contains a skeleton pointing a revolver at another skeleton, which is holding five aces and wearing a watch chain.
A match-on-action occurs as Koko jumps into the foreground of the next tracking shot, while a skeleton with wings flying overhead creates another match-on-action with the previous flying skull. The background consists of a skeleton playing craps on a bed with six onlookers, as Koko sings, “then give me six crap-shootin’ pallbearers,” and walks around a pair of dice on the ground. The dice on the ground have rolled snake eyes, becoming a visual pun as the flying skeleton overhead becomes a snake. As Koko sings, “let a chorus girl sing me a song,” he spins and drops to his knees on the word “sing,” then looks shocked at something offscreen right. Lines shooting off his head emphasize this shock. In the background of the image, the chorus girl is a cow playing the piano on a stage as skeletons watch from boxed seats.
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