The Romance of Betty Boop 1985

[The Boop oop a Doop Girl]

A color cartoon made for television by many of the same people who brought us "Charlie Brown" specials, The Romance of Betty Boop (1985) is supposedly set in 1939. Opening credits are shown on signs outside Club Bubble as we hear Betty singing on the soundtrack "Just Give 'Em Your Boop Oop a Doop," not bad really.

Betty is voiced by singer-composer Desiree Goyette, pretty damned well done too, even if not the equal of Mae Questel. The original music is co-written by Goyette & her husband Ed Bogas. It's not always quite period-correct but none of the music's bad, & the original bits don't necessarily pale when heard back to back with classic tunes.

Some of the background sets are very beautiful, sometimes like Victorian wood engravings for the New York city streets. Except for Betty herself, the animation looks very 1980s & does not capture the Fleischer spirit, but it's pretty decent even so.

Betty sells shoes by day, performs in the club by night. We first see her heading home from her day job, singing a swing tune with lyrics such as "Betty Boop is my name/ Boop oop a doop is my game."

On the street near her apartment, she encounters a butcher who knows her well, who gives her a gift of meat, then he along with all the ladies hanging out on the ghetto street sing "My Dear Mr Shane."

She enters her steam-heated apartment where she has a pet parrot (Frank Buxton). The parrot is excited that his mistress is home. She's so tired, but prepares herself a meal, & has a lengthy dialogue with the parrot.

She picks up a gossip magazine called Blab! & the cover features millionaire playboy Waldo Van Lavish (Derek McGrath) with his "debutante tramps."

Betty's never met Waldo but apparently has a crush. A life of two jobs is hard even if one of the jobs is what she likes to do. Marrying a millionaire playboy would be easier. An attitude the real Betty never once possessed when David & Max Fleischer put her in films.