''Betty Boop's Ups and Downs'' is a 1932

Fleischer Studios Fleischer Studios () is an American animation studio founded in 1929 by brothers Max and Dave Fleischer, who ran the pioneering company from its inception until its acquisition by Paramount Pictures, the parent company and the distributor of i ...

animated short Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anima ...

film, starring

Betty Boop Betty Boop is an animated cartoon character created by Max Fleischer, with help from animators including Grim Natwick.Pointer (2017) She originally appeared in the ''Talkartoon'' and ''Betty Boop'' film series, which were produced by Fleischer ...

. The short subject makes light of the rash of foreclosures and property auctions in the economic turmoil of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, together with some of the distinctive surrealism of the Fleischer style of this era.

Plot

A destitute Betty is evicted from her home, which has a "FOR SALE" sign beside it. After Bimbo hauls away Betty and her meager belongings in a horse-drawn cart, the vacant house starts to fall apart. The asking price on the sign goes down with each additional decay, which the chimney itself fixes, until the house is ramshackle and the asking price is "Or what have you?", which frustrates the chimney. The camera view then pulls back up into the air, showing all the houses in the town also have "For Sale" signs. The view continues up show all of North America "For Sale", and finally the whole Earth is for sale. The Earth goes up for auction with the Moon serving as auctioneer and the planets start bidding, singing to the tune of " London Bridge Is Falling Down". Mars and Venus bid first, but

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...

is the eventual buyer. He pulls a large horse-shoe magnet out from the Earth, eliminating the planet's gravity, just to see what happens. Buildings, trees, animals, and people including Betty start floating into the air with humorous effect. Finally a hand reaches out from the Earth and grabs the magnet back from Saturn. Gravity is restored, and everything and everybody return to the ground. A series of buildings fall atop Betty, but she avoids injury as she emerges from the top of the pile of buildings singing "Any old place upon this Earth is home sweet home to me".

References

External links

Betty Boop's Ups and Downs on Youtube

1932 films Betty Boop cartoons 1930s American animated films Great Depression films American black-and-white films 1932 animated films Paramount Pictures short films Fleischer Studios short films Short films directed by Dave Fleischer {{BettyBoop-animation-film-stub