Best Betty Boop DVD?

[Bob K]

Originally Posted by Gasmask Ted

The Platinum cartoons have irritating introductions and outros attached to each cartoon, and at least some have Platinum bugs imposed on the cartoons. I looked at the first 30 seconds of Betty Boop and the Little King on the 600 and the Platinum. They seem to be from the same source, ultimately, as the dust and scratches on the cartoons appear identical. The Platinum version cuts off the NTA screen at the beginning (tho they add their own extremely disruptive animated screen at the beginning), and a few seconds of music along with it. I did not notice any added digital issues on the 600. So, based on that quick review of a random 30 seconds, the prints look essentially the same, but Platinum has added their own crap to it and removed some of the source material.

At least the Platinum set's Disc 1 has some of the great "pre-code" shorts from the early 1930's. Despite the legitimate issues mentioned, I think this is a good start, to get some decent earlier Betty cartoons, rather than the ones I have seen on other PD sets (including the 600), which are mostly the less interesting ones with Pudgy, Grampy, etc.

I also agree with the comments about the Republic VHS set. Owning that set was one of the main reasons I bought a new VCR a few years back, when my other VCR died...

[mulroz]

Originally Posted by Gasmask Ted

How are you defining best?

There are 41 Betty Boop cartoons on the Mill Creek 600 compilation, which can be easily obtained for under $20, and which will provide you a great deal of other cartoons as well.

Ted, I agree with you completely. By the way, this box is one of the best Felix PD collections as well.

[FleischerFan]

I agree with those who say the best choice would be to find a copy of the "Definitive Collection" VHS set and make your own transfers to DVD.

Short of that, if you're dilligent enough using the Internet, you can locate people who have nearly complete collections of Betty Boop with perfectly acceptable copies of the films available on DVD.

And Jerry Beck offers up a few of the harder to find Boop titles on one of his "Lost Fleischer" discs available through his Garage Sale.

[zavkram]

I own the Platinum set and have no serious complaints about the picture and sound quality. Having owned many "bargain-basement" DVD compilations in the past, I've become somewhat "desensitized" to those annoying little superimpositions that appear on many a PD disc. This compilation serves me well until an official release of BB cartoons ever becomes available.

[Ray Pointer]

BETTY BOOP on DVD. I guess this record never wears out. All the oldies but goodies!

[Gasmask Ted]

Bob, there are 11 cartoons on the Platinum not on the 600 (several of them iconic), and 29 on the 600 not on the Platinum. You can get the Platinum for under $7 new and shipped from Amazon shops, and you can get the 600 for under $14 new and shipped from Amazon shops. If the OP can afford the $21, I think maybe he should view them collectively as a set and buy both. If he can only afford $7, he should get the Platinum. If he can only afford $14, I think he should get the 600 due to all its additional content and the fact that he can view almost all (all?) the omissions at Archive.org until he has the additional $7 for the Platinum set. (edit: the OP is listed as in Uruguay; this will alter the pricing calculus).

[MarkTheShark]

Well, since you're stuck going the public domain route, might I suggest looking for an old Brentwood DVD set from a few years back called "The Ultimate Cartoon Collection." It has a yellow cover with pics of Mighty Mouse, Woody Woodpecker, Little Lulu, Baby Huey, The Three Stooges and Betty Boop on the front cover. This came out five years ago and I assume is out of print/deleted since Brentwood is out of the DVD business. Anyway, there are a bunch of Boops on there and they all look and sound better (to my eyes/ears) than any of these other PD collections (at least the ones I've seen). There are some oddities -- for instance, "Betty Boop's Crazy Inventions" starts with the UM&M logo but has a Paramount copyright line in the titles. By the way -- on my copy at least, the titles listed on the back cover are incorrect. Here are the Betty Boops on this set (they are on Side A of the second disc):

Betty Boop's Crazy Inventions
A Language All My Own
Making Stars
A Song A Day
Betty Boop With Henry, The Funniest Living American
Betty Boop And Little Jimmy
Judge For A Day
Betty Boop's Rise To Fame

...not a whole lot of bang for your buck, but I thought this was worth mentioning since again, the quality on these cartoons is the best I have seen on a public domain release so far. Maybe they were copied from some past official release, maybe a Laserdisc.

[cpdavison]

matiasdf:

HERE is a link to a web page about another fellow's search to find and then ultimately create the "definitive" Betty Boop DVD collection.

It won't really help you, as far as pointing you in the direction of the best commercially-available PD set, but I thought you might find it interesting.

FWIW

Craig D.

[matiasdf]

And what about the Special Collector Edition LD sets that were released years before the Definitive Collection set? I´ve read that they were not DVNR´d so drastically.

[J. J. Hunsecker]

Originally Posted by matiasdf

And what about the Special Collector Edition LD sets that were released years before the Definitive Collection set? I´ve read that they were not DVNR´d so drastically.

They aren't, but the prints are old and show their age.