Good story, Not enough for a whole film

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The first must-see film of the year.

Poor Cinderella is a cartoon so good(to me it is easily one of Betty Boop's best) that I got the feeling that more of her cartoons should have been in colour. The animation is wonderful, it has Fleischer's style all over and is one of the best-looking Betty Boop cartoons. There is beautiful use of colour, everything is designed and drawn in a way that a lot of care and effort went into making them(as usual with Fleischer) and there is even a very realistic quality in places- if not quite on the same level as other Fleischer cartoons like Somewhere in Dreamland- that is unlike anything seen before personally other than Fleischer Studios. Animation-wise, the transformation/preparing for the ball scene was especially clever.Poor Cinderella has great music too with another memorable title song that repeats itself more than once. The rest of the music is very tuneful and lush in orchestration, other than the title my favourite was the Fairy Godmother song. Poor Cinderella is a cleverly written cartoon. It is charming and adorable, without falling into too much sentimental schmaltz, but there are also some funny moments like the Cupid hitting the Prince on the head and especially the end with the step-sisters(one of the funniest moments of any Fleischer cartoon in my opinion) as well as a couple of somewhat surreal ones like with the pumpkin(in fact the whole transformation sequence).Fidelity-wise, Poor Cinderella follows just the basic outline of the story(apart from the omission of the step-mother), structurally though it is very faithful, but has a real magic, fun and charm of its own. The characters are all engaging, there have never been a sexier Cinderella in animation or possibly anywhere than Betty Boop, the step-sisters are hilarious and who wouldn't want a Fairy Godmother after seeing her portrayed here? Bonnie Poe's voicing for Betty Boop is great and I fell in love with the soothing sound of the Fairy Godmother's singing voice. Overall, if you love Betty Boop you'll have no problem liking Poor Cinderella, it, to me and several others, is one of her best and more than just historical interest(apparently her only colour cartoon, or at least with Fleischer involved, correct if wrong). 10/10 Bethany Cox

This is one of favorite Betty Boop cartoons, and also "Cinderella" is one of my favorite fairy stories. I also would like to point out that this short was made 16 years ago before Disney's animated theatrical version.Like I said I love animation from Fleischer Studios (also from Disney, Hanna/Barbera, Rankin/Bass and Studio Ghilbi from Japan) and Betty Boop is one of my favorite cartoon characters beside Bugs Bunny, Tweety, Pepe le Pew of Looney Tunes and Disney's Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. I love the ballroom scene, where Betty/Cinderella and The Prince dance (until midnight that is). And I also love the main title song :"I'm just a poor Cinderella Nobody loves me it seems And like a poor Cinderella I find my romance in dreams.For that's where I meet my Prince Charming When I'm with him, cares stay away I'm just a poor Cinderella But I'll be a princess someday!"

This is the only color cartoon we have of the delicious Miss Boop, incidentally made on the cusp of when the Hayes Code was enforced. So we have her at her bouncing sexist. And we discover that she is a redhead! Pretty much all the material that Disney later covered in his feature cartoons had been done in a Boop version first, and with more energy. I think if Fleischer had arranged the backing to make feature cartoons, we'd now be visiting BoopLand in California, Florida and Paris.Oh, there's another unique thing here. Betty does her trademarked butt dancing but when with her prince at the ball, has an equally sexy smooth ballroom dance. I think it is the only non-jazzy dance in all the Boop cartoons.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

If I had to produce a list of the twenty best classic cartoons of all time, it would take me well over an hour to produce it, but this would be an absolute inclusion. I hate to give any film a 10-out of-10, but I have to with this one. Max and Dave Fleischer never quite reached the depths, in shorts of course, that Disney did with either 'The Band Concert' or 'Skeleton Dance' or especially 'Wyken, Blynken, And Nod', but this is definitely one of their three best, and two of those are in the Color Classics series. The Fleishcer's never quite recovered after Disney made 'Snow White' and they made their two average, but box-office dud, features (with one glaring exception-the three color Popeye's they did). What else? This cartoon is in two-color Technicolor (it says Cinecolor in some prints) and Betty has red hair, as well as a voice not by Mae, like we usually hear. What we get in this cartoon is an-all-around classic, one worth watching by any stretch of the imagination. The film runs 7 minutes, and the best print is one the 'Somewhere In Dreamland' DVD, which you should buy right now if you don't have.