An X-rated Popeye/Betty Boop cartoon....made by Fleischer!?!

J.E.Smith

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I got this suprising article by Disney trivia guru Jim Hill(http://www.jimhillmedia.com/main/index.htm)

In the April 11, 2003 edition of Jim's Q & A section "Why For?"(I can't direct link it, you'll have to look it up from the link above), Jim reported that Disney animators actually made a 10-15 second X-rated pencil test involving Jimmny Cricket and Tinker Bell. Jim then went on with this piece of trivia:

___________________________________________________________
Mind you, it wasn't just Disney employees that did this sort of thing. This short Tinker Bell and Jiminey Cricket sequence would probably seem positively tame in comparison with the one reel pornographic epic -- starring Popeye and Betty Boop, no less -- that Max Fleischer reportedly had produced back in September of 1938. This legendary film was allegedly created as sort of a coarse "Thank You" present to all those artists who agreed to come on down to Florida when the Fleischer Studio relocated from New York City to Miami, FL.

This particular cartoon -- according to those folks that I've interviewed who claimed to have attended the Fleischer "Welcome to Miami" party -- wasn't just 10 to 15 seconds of finished pencil work. No, this one reel wonder was supposedly fully inked and painted with detailed backgrounds full of stylized Florida landscapes. It also featured a full vocal track as well as a musical score. More importantly, it was said to be outrageously amusing ... with Betty Boop giving Popeye an extremely warm welcome for making the long trip down to Miami. (I'm told that a highlight of the film came when Popeye -- after an extremely strenuous session with Betty -- downed a can of spinach and ... well, you can guess the rest, can't you?)

That film -- to my knowledge -- was only shown once publicly at this "Welcome to Miami" party at Fleischer Studios. After that, Max reportedly locked the only copy of this toon away in the Fleischer Studio safe. (Though I've also heard tell that Max would occasionally screen the cartoon for special male visitors who were touring the Florida facility.) Once the Fleischer brothers were forced out of their own animation studio by Paramount Pictures executives in 1942, the reel reportedly dropped from sight. Lost to the ages, I suppose.

I don't suppose that any of you JHM readers out there might know what actually became of that Jiminey Cricket / Tinker Bell pornographic pencil footage and/or that one reel epic that Max Fleischer reportedly had made of Betty Boop and Popeye mating? If either of these two films were to ever resurface ... well, wouldn't that make one hell of a story?
_____________________________________________________________

I was wondering if Jerry Beck, Matthew, or any of the cartoon researchers here at ToonZone knew any of this supposed cartoon? Of course, you could always ask Jim if you have any questions on the matter.
 
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Jon Cooke

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Pietro said:
It sounds like a rumor - I could be wrong, though.

The naughty Popeye/Betty cartoon was also briefly mentioned in Leslie Cabarga's book THE FLEISCHER STORY.

-Jon
 

Sogturtle

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Jon Cooke said:
The naughty Popeye/Betty cartoon was also briefly mentioned in Leslie Cabarga's book THE FLEISCHER STORY.

-Jon


Jon~
I can add this to it all... I remember seeing an ad for XXX Popeye and Betty Boops (somewhere) long, long ago, which was doubtlesslly this critter. Some months back, I ever-so-briefly mentioned another XXX cartoon (made at Disney) but then deleted it immediately.
 

Pilmedium

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Then, those probably did exist, but I still have my doubts. They were not regular-release cartoons, and should probably stay lost and forgotten.
 

Matthew Hunter

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They sound like they could have existed. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if those studios had some animators with a twisted sense of humor. As inappropriate as it may be, the Popeye/Betty concept sounds really funny when you think about it...imagine what someone like John Kricfalusi would do with that :p .Lots of ugly drawings, sexual innuendos and funny animated gestures.
-Matthew
 

Mek

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Hmmm... sounds like an urban animation legend to me, but I could be wrong.

Still... animators do those sorta things? Yikes... :O
 

Jon Cooke

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Mekairinek said:
Hmmm... sounds like an urban animation legend to me, but I could be wrong.

Still... animators do those sorta things? Yikes... :O


The idea that the Fleischer animators made an x-rated cartoon as an inside joke really isn't that shocking. After all, lots of the Fleischer shorts, especially those early Betty Boops, are filled with rather naughty gags.



-Jon
 

Larry T

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X-rated Fleischer

I'm pretty sure the cartoon is called "Buried Treasure" and it was once available on a tape that contained about 14 "sex-toons" in the early eighties.

I saw this cartoon in Toronto at an animation festival. It was really nothing impressive, but did feature a Betty-Boopish looking girl-type creature and a Popeye-ish looking sailor doing pretty explicit things (what can happen through a hole in the wall.... YIKES!!). It was nowhere as entertaining as one of Fleischer's regular cartoons, tho- really, you all aren't missing anything.
 

J.E.Smith

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As Jim Hill stated:

If you actually WERE shocked when you read this story, I have just two words for you: GROW UP.

After all, the Nine Old Men -- indeed, the entire department over at Disney Feature Animation -- weren't saints. They were men. Guys who liked to smoke, drink, fart and swear. They were people who truly appreciated the female form. And if drawing a short scene where two of Disney's beloved icons got it on got a laugh ... well, so much the better.
 

Nelson

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In The Fleischer Story, there was a Fleischer news magazine that had the Flesicher cartoon characters all lauhging at Betty.One the back side of that magazine, Betty's bathing suit had a rip on her little bottom, as she tried to cover it up.Legend had it, that Betty Boop sexually harassed Popeye in one of these issues.
 

J. J. Hunsecker

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Larry T said:
I'm pretty sure the cartoon is called "Buried Treasure" and it was once available on a tape that contained about 14 "sex-toons" in the early eighties.

I saw this cartoon in Toronto at an animation festival. It was really nothing impressive, but did feature a Betty-Boopish looking girl-type creature and a Popeye-ish looking sailor doing pretty explicit things (what can happen through a hole in the wall.... YIKES!!). It was nowhere as entertaining as one of Fleischer's regular cartoons, tho- really, you all aren't missing anything.
I've seen "Buried Treasure" too, and I don't think it is the Fleischer film in question. "Buried Treasure" was made during the silent film era and supposedly Walter Lantz was one of the animators who worked on it! It does not star Popeye or Betty Boop, but rather a character named "Ever Ready" or something to that effect. It was so pornagraphic that American film labs refused to process it, and it had to be developed in Cuba (or so the rumors go).

I think the Betty Boop/Popeye film is something different as it was made in 1938 and was produced specifically by the Fleischers (no studio has taken credit for "Buried Treasure", which supposedly was made in New York City).
 
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Pietro

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Jon Cooke said:
The idea that the Fleischer animators made an x-rated cartoon as an inside joke really isn't that shocking. After all, lots of the Fleischer shorts, especially those early Betty Boops, are filled with rather naughty gags

Yeah, I gotta agree a lot of that Fleischer stuff was kinda dirty and pretty bizarre too especially "Swing You Sinners," now that one was really strange. I think Iwerks' Flip would top off Betty in terms of dirty gags. I find the secretary in 'The Office Boy" a bit more attractive than Betty.

I vaguely remember reading about that "Buried Treasure" cartoon somplace. I think it was in "Foribben Animation" by Karl Choen, I'm not sure.

Now that it's existence is confirmed, I would really enjoy seeing this dirty Fleischer classic:p

-Pietro:D
 

Thad Komorowski

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You can count me out for wanting to see this cartoon...:eek:

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned a naughty Woody Woodpecker cartoon existing...;) "Billion Dollar Boner" must've originally been an attempt to make Woody Woodpecker replace the Bunny in Playboy...:p
 

Daniel P

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Thad K said:
I'm surprised nobody's mentioned a naughty Woody Woodpecker cartoon existing...;) "Billion Dollar Boner" must've originally been an attempt to make Woody Woodpecker replace the Bunny in Playboy...:p
I have seen the title card to that cartoon. It is quite shocking: Billion Dollar Boner. I have not seen the cartoon itself.
 

Matthew Hunter

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By the way, joke cartoons where characters do naughty things are by no means uncommon. Bob Clampett directed a very short animated sequence for a WB gag reel featuring Porky Pig, in black and white, as a carpenter. He misses a nail and hammers his thumb, swearing "Oh son of a b-b-b-b-uh, gun! You thought I was gonna say SON OF A *****, didn't you?!" It's now pretty common in PD cartoon catalogs and among traders.

There have also been some internet parodies in the past, be they audio clips or badly animated Flash cartoons. Never seen one myself, but I understand most of them were quite disgusting.

-matthew
 

Pietro

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Matthew Hunter said:
There have also been some internet parodies in the past, be they audio clips or badly animated Flash cartoons. Never seen one myself, but I understand most of them were quite disgusting

Yeah, didn't somebody make an unauthorized LT Flash cartoon about the LT characters doing drugs or was that just a rumor?

-Pietro:confused:
 

Sketcher

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I doubt it's pornographic. It's probably just innuendos. I can'tr imagine the company showing pornos to their new employees ;)

There is a story about a scene in Snow White (or maybe it was Bambi) that was redone by the animators as a gag for themselves. The scene had the forest creature defecating.
 

rodney

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dacp3 said:
I have seen the title card to that cartoon. It is quite shocking: Billion Dollar Boner. I have not seen the cartoon itself.

I have. Boner didn't mean the same thing in those days as it does today. Billion Dollar Boner is no different from Boobs In the Woods in terms of content.

Now those unauthorized flash cartoons....I saw one of those once, but I'd feel bad describing it here. Pocahontas and a corncob. Draw your own conclusions. :eek:
 

Jon Cooke

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Thad K said:
You can count me out for wanting to see this cartoon...:eek:

I have to agree, I'm not really in a hurry to see a cartoon featuring Popeye naked (talk about a disturbing thought!). :eek:


-Jon
 

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