Customer Reviews

The Ultimate Betty Boop Collection

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Amazon has done a great job of listing the individual titles and dates above so I can keep this short. I was very excited to see another round of Betty Boop DVDs after first purchasing the two Goodtimes DVDs previously released (see my reviews on those). Here's my take on these:

On the pro side, I like that the films are listed in chronological order, giving a good historical perspective. The cover art and DVD menu background are aesthetically pleasing. The set includes one of Betty's most famous shorts, Poor Cinderella, her only appearance in color. This is the only DVD release to date I have found with this episode. Finally, the price for this set is very reasonable.

On the con side, Poor Cinderella is presented in B&W! The image quality is not terrible, but upon seeing this I realized how good the restoration was on the earlier Goodtimes discs. The audio is OK (given that no audio from this early talkie period is really very good), but captions would have been nice to aid in comprehension. The selection of titles on the second disc are all quite poor, even for the Hays Code period they cover. And many of those are repeats of those already put out on the Goodtimes discs, so if you own those I would only buy the first disc here in order to see Poor Cinderella. Finally, the DVD wasn't super user friendly, at least on my player, not allowing me to look at full time for the disc, and forcing you back to the main menu between episodes.

This is not an official release. For whatever reasons the 8-volume Betty Boop - The Definitive Collection [VHS] released 11 years ago on VHS & Laserdisc formats, the (so far) ultimate and remastered collection, remains unreleased by the copyright holder, Republic Pictures Home Video. The manufacturer of this set probably (and erroneously) believes these cartoons are in the public domain, and dumps second-rate product like this on an unknowledgable public. Well, now you're knowledgable. These are poor pirated copies. Avoid them, or be disappointed. We can hope that soon our beloved Betty will get the attention and production values that the recent 3-volume Fleischer "Popeye" DVD sets got last year.

Do yourself a favor-- buy the video box set, and if you really *must* have them on DVD transfer them to DVD yourself, most new computers with a DVD burner can do this with a minimum of fuss and effort.

This DVD shamefully turned the only color Betty Boop cartoon back into B & W. So much for historical accuracy. Anyway, my all-time favorite episode is "Minnie the Moocher" with the Full Cab Calloway prelude and song. Where is that?

BTW, I found a cartoon dvd in the dollar section at a local target and it included the original color episode of Poor Cinderella. Not bad for a dollar! :)

This collection carries it's title for a reason. It is indeed the ultimate. This collection contained fabulous episodes (All 25 of them). It's hard to find your favorite black and white classics with good qualities, but both DVDs had great sound and vision qualtiy which is hard to find in classics. This is a collection that no Betty Boop fan (better yet anyone) should go without.

Other reviewers have mentioned this DVD has Poor Cinderella in black & white - well for the original color version seek out the "Somewhere in Dreamland" DVD - ASIN: B0000687E3

I enjoyed these old black and white cartoons. They were hilarious and entertaining. In Betty's day, animation was truly an art form. I highly recommend this collection to any fan of Betty's.

This collection is a must for Betty Boop fans. This one made a great gift for a lovely friend who collects memorabilia from the Betty Boop era.

I do not feel eligible to review either of these Betty Boop Collections
because for some unknown reason neither did not operate on the DVD players we have. I did not return it because I absolutely love Amazon.com and do not hold hold Amazon responsible so I just gave them to a professor friend who probably had a better DVD player and some historical interest in the merchandise