Wednesday, October 24, 2007

"You can go as far as you like with me in my merry Oldsmobile...."


Olive Oyl resembling lady is harassed by a villain and rescued by a young heroic man in his Oldsmobile.
Shocking for its times this lecherous cartoon produced by the Fleischer Brothers (Betty Boop)advertises Oldsmobile.
Men of innovation, the Fleischers had been creating short 'follow the bouncing ball' sing-along films since the mid-1920's, and the series would continue until 1938, well after Betty Boop and Popeye had become screen superstars. It seems natural that you'd go to such a source of creativity for some effective advertising production, but perhaps Olds Motor Works had not quite anticipated the level of zaniness on display here. Rampant voyeurism and suggestive candy consumption are the order of the day, aided and abetted by the Fleischer system of ad-libbing. Note that most of the dialogue in the early portion of the film is spoken without the characters' lips moving. That's because the voices were recorded AFTER the animation was completed, and improvisation was encouraged (Jack Mercer was a master of this style as Popeye). The Fleischer cartoons hold up very well today; the styles would change, but energy was uniform throughout their studio's work, and their enthusiasm is easy to sense.(via Internet Archives)

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