Long before Jessica Rabbit uttered that
immortal line, even cartoon pinups were
struggling. Today the animated cheesecake has
gone through some changes.
In the 1950’s
sex wasn’t so obvious and trying to air sex
was very illegal to almost impossible. In
Come Max Fleischer and Tex Avery to kick some
sexy into kids cartoons. I can still hear J.
Edgar shutter in his grave.
Betty Boop - The Mother of Cartoon
Cheesecake
Based on the exaggeratedly adorable voice and
looks of 1920 scat singer Helen Kale (the
originator of the boop-poo-pidoo-poo line in
the hit, later covered by Marilyn Monroe “I
Want to Be Loved by You” ), Betty Boop burst
on to the scene at the end of 1930. Wikipedia
says:
Betty Boop is important to animation
history for being the first cartoon
character to fully represent a sexual
woman. Other female cartoon characters of
the same period showed their panties
regularly, like Minnie Mouse, but were not
fully defined in a woman's form. All other
cartoon "girls" were merely clones of their
male co-stars, with alterations in costume
with the addition of eyelashes and a female
voice. Betty Boop wore short dresses, high
heels, and a garter belt. Her breasts were
suggested with a low, contoured bodice that
showed cleavage. In her cartoons, male
characters tried to sneak peeks at her
while she's changing, or simply walking
along minding her own business.
Around the mid 30’s Betty had
been tamed by The Production Code Censorship.
Turned into well-dressed housewife/career
girl, Betty never survived beyond 1937. Of
course, we all know Betty from her huge
merchandise
revival, which began in the 1980’s!
Red Hot Riding Hood - Rebelling Against
Tradition
Created by Preston Blair in 1943, this little
cartoon hottie was inspired by Betty Grable.
The short was directed by Tex Avery. Avery
was a rebel in he’s own field, stretching the
limits as far as he could, both in animation
and story telling.
Jessica Rabbit - Bringing Sexy
Back
Appearing, for the first time, in 1988, in
the landmark film “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?”
Jessica Rabbit changed the face of female
cartoons forever, proving there are many ways
to exaggerate a cartoon and make a point.
Jessica is a mixture of many retro pinups,
such as Veronica
Lake and Ritta
Hayworth. If you look closely at Red
Hot Riding Hood, you can definitely spot
some Preston Blair influences, in her
debut performance, as well.
Holli Wood - Imagination has Left the
Building
(Sorry for the terrible sound, it’s the only
clip I could find )
Preston Blair Lives, or maybe, he’s joining
J. Edgar in the grave-rolling scene. “Cool
World” signifies the decadence of cartoons,
as we knew them. Holli Wood looks very much
like Red Hot Riding Hood, in her debut song
and dance, but lives no room for the
imagination.
Drawn Together - The Death of Betty Boop
and the Rise of Foxxy Love
Pinups Just aren’t
what they used to be. Some will lament,
some will just roll with the times. But
Drawn
Together makes a point with it’s
over-wight Betty-Boop look-a-like, Toot
Braunstein, and it’s new sex-symbol
Foxxy Love. While Toot is the pathetic
and out of date character, Foxxy is a
super cool modern woman. Diversity shows
and that’s another blessed addition to
the cartoon pinup, as far as I’m
concerned. However, I’ve yet to see a
new sexy classic, the likes of Jessica
Rabbit, taking center stage.
Waiting for the next classic cartoon pinup,
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