Boop-oop-a-doop is back!
Quinta Brunson is making a Betty Boop movie, which honestly feels like a genuinely inspired use of Hollywood’s remake obsession
The Emmy winner is developing and starring in a feature film about Betty Boop, the jazz age cartoon icon who has been winking her way through pop culture since 1930.
Instead of simply turning Betty into another live-action nostalgia exercise, the film will focus on the relationship between Betty and her creator, Max Fleischer.
The story will examine what happens when an artist’s most famous creation becomes bigger than he ever imagined.
So rather than “what if cartoon, but real,” the concept asks a much more interesting question: what does it feel like to watch your doodle become immortal?
Betty Boop was one of animation’s earliest superstars, appearing in more than 100 shorts.
She has remained culturally omnipresent through licensing deals, fashion collaborations and the recent Broadway musical BOOP! The Musical, but she has not led a theatrical film since the 1930s.
That drought is now ending, and she is returning with Brunson at the helm.
Brunson said she was surprised by how much story remained untold behind the famous character.
“Betty Boop is one of our nation’s most beloved cartoon characters, yet somehow still remains pleasantly niche.” She said, adding that the film will be “refreshing, subversive, and timeless.”
Those three words also happen to describe Brunson’s best work.
If all goes to plan, Betty Boop may finally get the cinematic comeback she’s deserved for nearly a century.
And, for once, the words ‘live-action adaptation’ aren’t immediately followed by a sigh.
