The character sheet for the Fleischer Studios cartoon, Betty Boop.
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Betty Boop
Debut: Dizzy Dishes (1930)
Voiced by: Margie Hines (1930–1932, 1938–1939), Ann Rothschild (1931–1933), Harriet Lee (1931, Mae Questel (1931–1938, 1988), Kate Wright (1932, 1938), Bonnie Poe (1933–1934), Alice Hamada (1934–1937), Victoria D'orazi (1980), Didi Conn (1982), Desirée Goyette (1985–1988), Mary Healey (1988), Melissa Fahn (1989, 2002, 2004–2008), Sandy Fox (Since 1991, official voice for King Syndicate worldwide), Sue Raney (1993), Cheryl Chase (2000), Michelle Goguen (2001), Lani Minella (2002), Nicole Van Giesen (2003), Shannon Cullem (2004), Cindy Robinson (2009–present, official commercials), LeAnne Broas (2010), Alex Borstein (2014), Heather Halley (2014), Camilla Bard (2014), Sarah Stiles (2016)
A flapper girl, looking for a good time and good at heart. Was gradually toned down post-1933, but is still remembered today as the peppy, cute youth of her early days.
- Abusive Parents: The short "Minnie the Moocher" has her being yelled at by her overbearing parents, who are demanding she eat an extremely unpleasant meal that they have put on the table—it's so nasty that when the flower who was trying to coax her to just take a bite tries the spoonful, it dies. This is probably why she prefers to live with her Grampy instead.
- Action Girl: In The Bum Bandit as the "Dangerous Nan McGrew", she was portrayed as a tough cowgirl.
- Ambiguously Jewish: Hinted at in "Minnie the Moocher".
- Anthropomorphic Shift: Originally appeared as a cartoon poodle, but gradually morphed into a cartoon human.
- Breakout Character: She was a secondary character in the old Bimbo cartoons, however she was so popular that she became the main character where's Bimbo would end up being Demoted to Extra.
- Character Catchphrase: "Boop-boop-a-doop!"
- Dude Magnet: Has it's ups and downs.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Betty was originally a dog; however, later her species was changed to a human. She also originally had red hair according to her only colored classic cartoon (Cinderella) but all later appearances give her black hair.
- The Flapper: She was born as a caricature of this.
- Forehead of Doom: Never commented on, but Betty Boop has a noticeably large forehead. Her design was the basis of the beginnings of the modern anime style.
- Friend to All Living Things: And pretty much everything in her world is living.
- Girly Girl: Betty embraces everything feminine in her era.
- Good Bad Girl: Betty's Iconic Outfit — a Sexy Backless and exposed garter on her left thigh — certainly isn't the sort of thing a good girl would wear in the era, and yet she's always sweet and kind.
- Hartman Hips: And how. It's frequently emphasized with poses like the one in the image above.
- Head-Turning Beauty: She got this reaction in most of her cartoons before the Hays Code kicked in.
- Iconic Outfit: As noted above: her Sexy Backless and exposed garter on her left thigh.
- Impossible Hourglass Figure: Betty Boop was described in a 1934 court case as: "combin[ing] in appearance the childish with the sophisticated — a large round baby face with big eyes and a nose like a button, framed in a somewhat careful coiffure, with a very small body of which perhaps the leading characteristic is the most self-confident little bust imaginable."
- Ink-Suit Actor: Her appearance and mannerisms are based on singer Helen Kane
. - Interspecies Romance: With Bimbo the Dog, after she became human.
- Little Black Dress: Betty's signature outfit is her black dress that she wore in the majority of her original cartoons. Now that she's no longer limited to black and white, she usually wears a red version of this dress.
- Loved by All: Nearly everyone loves Betty. Less sympathetic characters only like her for her looks, while most other characters also love her because she's so kind and innocent. When Betty is endangered by lustful villains in The Old Man of the Mountain and Boop-Oop-a-Doop, her friends rush in to save her. One of the only characters who hates her is the Queen in Snow White (1933), who envies Betty for being the fairest in the land.
- Morality Chain: To Koko and Bimbo, both were significantly nicer after her debut.
- Ms. Fanservice: She is regarded as one of the first and most famous sex symbols on the animated screen. Her popularity was drawn largely from adult audiences, and the cartoons, while seemingly surreal, contained many sexual and psychological elements.
- New Job as the Plot Demands: Even though she's usually a singer, Betty is often shown working at different jobs in her cartoons.
- Progressively Prettier: She went through such a process during her Art Evolution. She started out as an anthropomorphic dog, and somehow ended up a cute flapper girl.
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: A Trope Codifier alongside Bambi, considering theirs were the bases for Osamu Tezuka's, and by extension anime as a genre's, large eye style.
- Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Although it seems she was intended to be a Significant Green-Eyed Redhead, she's most often drawn with, and better known for having black hair.
- Sexy Backless Outfit: Often wears these types of dresses.
- Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: If Poor Cinderella, the only colored installment of her original shorts, is to be believed, Betty was intended to be a redhead. And it's highly likely to be the case since she was strongly based on silent film actress Clara Bow. Unfortunately later colorizations and merchandising changed it to Raven Hair, Ivory Skin.
- So Beautiful, It's a Curse: In shorts such as "Chess-Nuts", "Boop-Oop-a-Doop" and The Old Man of the Mountain has the bad guys lusting for her and ends up with Betty needing to be saved.
- Stocking Filler: Almost never seen without a garter on her left thigh (outside the post Hays cartoons). Some cartoons show her wearing stockings on her legs that aren't normally visible.
- The Tease: It follows with Good Bad Girl: Betty certainly dresses the part and has a flirtatious attitude to match, but she never goes too far.
- Token Human: She's often the only human in some of the shorts.
- Vague Age: She's either a teenager or young adult, depending on the short.
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: Betty combines this with Hammerspace, frequently pulling things out of the neckline of her Little Black Dress.
Bimbo
Debut: Hot Dog (1930)
Voiced by: Billy Murray (1930–1931), Claude Reese (1931–1933), Cab Calloway (1933; singing voice), Bradley Barker (1933), Dave Swanson (1980), Lionel Wilson (1985), Michael Bell (The Betty Boop Movie Mystery), David Babich (2014)
The initial star of the Max Fleischer Talkartoons series of sound cartoons, Bimbo is a anthropomorphic cartoon dog, bred of the stock rubber hose art style of the time and the Fleischer's answer to Mickey Mouse. Betty was initially created to be his girlfriend, but ended up becoming so popular that Talkartoons became her own series, with Bimbo getting into many escapades with her, some of which were romantic. However, once the Hays Office grew its claws in 1934, Bimbo was immediately abandoned due to the Codes rules against bestiality.
- All Men Are Perverts: Er, dogs anyway.
- Art Evolution: In his early appearances, the animators simply could not make up their minds as to how Bimbo should be drawn, resulting in him constantly changing design between shorts, until they settled into a final sweater outfit design.
- Big Guy, Little Guy: With Koko. Only marginally smarter than him, though.
- The Bus Came Back: Despite being abandoned in the mid-1930s, he still appears in merchandise with Betty, albeit with the romantic implications occasionally being downplayed or abandoned in favor of making him a friend of Betty. His name is rarely mentioned in merchandising though, due to how dated and unfortunate it can sound.
- Character Catchphrase: "Okay, colonel!"
- Chivalrous Pervert: After he and Betty became an Official Couple.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: As mentioned above, he was abandoned post-1933 due to the Hays Office objecting to Betty having Interspecies Romance with him.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Had white fur instead of black in many of his early cartoons.
- Exposed Animal Bellybutton: One of the earliest examples in animation.
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Usually just wears a sweater, gloves and shoes. His early Talkartoons appearances often had him wearing just shoes and a hat.
- Interspecies Romance: With Betty, after she became human.
- Meaningful Name: During the 1930s, anyways—back then, "Bimbo" was slang for "loser".
- Satellite Character: After Betty became a series regular, Bimbo was rarely seen without her company.
- Those Two Guys: With Koko in some cartoons.
Koko The Clown
Debut: The Tantalizing Fly (1919)
Voiced by: Gus Wickie (1933), Cab Calloway (singing voice), Larry Storch (1960-1961)
The original star of the Max Fleischer cartoon studio from the Out of the Inkwell series, Silent Age cartoon veteran Koko the Clown made occasional appearances in the shorts as a compatriot of Betty and Bimbo.
- Big Guy, Little Guy: With Bimbo.
- Black Bead Eyes: Koko is usually drawn this way and avoids the Pie-Eyed design of most other characters.
- Cartoon Creature: Koko may be a clown, but he's certainly not human—he's more of an ink creature.
- The Cameo: Briefly appeared in his small form in the short "Minnie the Moocher". Fittingly, Betty pulls out him of an inkwell when she reaches for a pen, a nod to his original series.
- Canon Immigrant: He was brought over directly from Fleischer's silent-era series Out of the Inkwell as a side character for this series.
- Chivalrous Pervert: Treats Betty with respect and readily defends her from sexual assault and other dangers. But he's also thirsty as hell and makes it pretty well known on a few different occasions.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Like Bimbo, he disappeared post Hayes Code.
- Hidden Depths: To spite being a Silent Protagonist he actually has a really good singing voice as shown in "Snow White".
- Non-Ironic Clown: His later appearances in the Betty Boop shorts tone down his rude behaviors, eventually making him into just a harmless, bumbling Nice Guy. He was more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold in the Out of the Inkwell shorts.
- Ship Tease: With Betty, his attraction to her was usually portrayed as one-sided but there were exceptions.
- Those Two Guys: When he teams up with Bimbo, such as in "Snow White".
Pudgy
Debut: Betty Boop's Little Pet (1934)
Voiced by: Mae Questel, Jack Mercer, Tom Smothers (1980)
After Betty was cleaned up by the Hays Office, animator Myron Waldman decided to give Betty a new friend, a moon-faced puppy named Pudgy, to replace Bimbo (a character whom Waldman despised). In a sense, Pudgy is Fleischer's answer to Walt Disney's Pluto, but arguably much cuter.
- Character Focus: Some episodes would be entirely centered around him.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: He was completely absent in The Romance of Betty Boop and Betty Boop's Hollywood Mystery. The former had him replaced with a parrot named Polly and the latter had the cast of characters before the Hayes Code came in (such as Bimbo and Koko would return).
- Comedic Spanking: Betty would often spank him when he does something bad. He also gets spanked by a flag while reeling it down in "Training Pigeons".
- Ironic Name: He's not really chubby for a dog named Pudgy.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: Befriends a small kitten in one episode.
- Precious Puppies: He's pretty adorable and this was part of the reason why he replaced Bimbo post Haye's Code.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Just look at the pup.
- The Speechless: He doesn't talk and mostly communicates in barking.
- Suddenly Voiced: Played for Laughs in "Not Now" when after being scratched by a cat, he comments, "He pulled a knife on me!"
Grampy
Voiced by: Jack Mercer (debately, 1935-1937)
Debut: Betty Boop and Grampy (1935)
Betty's grandpa, who happens to be a genius inventor.
- Ascended Extra: Was a recurring character of the later Betty Boop shorts, but was apparently liked enough to headline a Color Classics short "Christmas Comes But Once A Year".
- Big Damn Heroes: By virtue of Car Fu in "Be Human".
- Character Catchphrase: "Ahahahaah! I've got it!"
- Cool Old Guy: Just ask the orphans in the aforementioned "Christmas Comes But Once A Year".
- MacGyvering: A prominent example comes from the 1936 Color Classics short "Christmas Comes But Once a Year", wherein Grampy Mac Guyvers together several Christmas toys for a group of downtrodden orphans, using nothing more than common household items.
- Putting On My Thinking Cap: Grampy put on a literal thinking cap with a blinking Idea Bulb when he needed to do some deep thinking.
Sally Swing
Debut: Sally Swing (1938)
Voiced by: Rose Marie (1938)
Betty's gal pal. As Betty was based on the 1920s flapper-girl style, Sally was based on the then-current bobbysoxer trend.
- Alliterative Name: Sally Swing.
- Ascended Extra: Sally was announced in 1938 as an ongoing character intended for her own series of theatrical cartoons. While she only ended up making one appearance at the time, she did gain an unexpected degree of popularity among the fandom, resulting in her getting bumped up into being one of the main characters in the Dynamite Entertainment comic book series.
- Breakout Character: Even though she appeared in only one short in the Fleischer era, the concept of Betty having a BFF seems to have stuck with the fans. The first batch of comics upgraded her to a recurring character and the 2016 Dynamite Entertainment version practically made her the co-lead alongside Betty.
- Dreadful Musician: She's a terrible singer in the Dynamite Entertainment comics. Ironically in her only animated appearance, she was an amazing singer and dancer.
- Expy: A similar character named Sally Sweet appeared in Champion Comics, a year after Sally Swing's animated appearance.
- Fanservice Pack: Compared to her original short's rather homely appearance, Dynamite Comics' Sally easily matches Betty in terms of her sex appeal.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She's one of the nicest characters, maybe even nicer than Betty, with her fair hair to match.
- Innocent Blue Eyes
- Meaningful Name: She loves swing music.
- Ms. Fanservice: More so in her Dynamite Entertainment comic book appearance.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: She resembles Betty Grable.
- Rags to Riches: In her only animated appearance, she's gone from wash-woman to swing dance conductor.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: She started out as dowdy and in raggedy clothes at the start of her sole cartoon.
- True Blue Femininity: She wears blue in the Dynamite Entertainment comics.
Buzzy Boop
Debut: Buzzy Boop (1938)
Voiced by: Bonnie Poe (1938)
Betty's fearless and tomboyish young cousin. She only appeared in two shorts.
- Alliterative Name: Like her cousin Betty, Buzzy Boop.
- Genki Girl: She is full of energy.
- Girlish Pigtails
- Nice Girl: Just like her cousin. The first thing we see her doing is stick a man's toupee on his head with gum to keep it from slipping off and water withered flowers on a woman's hat.
- One of the Boys: The first thing she does after settling down at Betty's is wanting to hang out with the neighborhood boys.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Definitely the tomboy to Betty's girly girl.
