![]() The new cartoon is part of what Jennifer Wolfe of Animation World Network called “a larger Betty Boop campaign,” signaling that the character is experiencing a cultural resurgence. “When Max Fleischer dipped his pen into the inkwell,” Caruso continued, evoking the Viennese-American animator who created the legendary cartoon character, “out came a masterpiece that would influence generations of artists, animators, musicians, and fashion designers.” “As a cartoonist, I consider Betty Boop the eighth wonder of the world,” Frank Caruso, the vice-president of comics and cartoons syndicate King Features, said in February when asked about the surreal new animated short, Betty Goes A-Posen, a three-part collaboration with the fashion designer. She’s sexy, independent - and well aware of both, something that has made her iconic since her debut as a character 87 years ago. She rescues the designer Zac Posen - who is ensnared in monstrous vines - with nothing but a glare, and turns men arguing on the sidewalk into grinning fools with a wink and a smile. And, like Family Guy, there are lots of blink-and-you'll-miss-them sight gags, such as the genres on the bar jukebox (''Montage'', ''Inspirational'').In her first cartoon in nearly three decades, which appeared online in February, Betty Boop steps out of a car into a windy street, her short black dress flaring. ![]() Things don't end well, as Cleveland and his friends steal the Goochland mascot, the ''wooden wife'' of a former president (''that Birch bitch'', as Federline calls her) - evidence there's still a certain surreal streak running through The Cleveland Show. The season opener is a Halloween episode, although it's more of a backdrop than the main storyline - and allows set-ups for the aforementioned prostitute gags, as well as allowing for several pop-cultural references ( Saw, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th), as fans of MacFarlane's know as a trademark of Family Guy.Ĭleveland and his friends watch a football game in nearby Goochland, the traditional rivals of their town, Stoolbend (shades of The Simpsons' Springfield versus Shelbyville?), and when they lose badly, Cleveland's gang gets into a feud with his ''previously established rival'' Chet Butler and his gang. But it's not so nice as to be a ''family'' comedy (there's an alarming amount of whore gags in tonight's episode, for example), although it follows a more traditional sitcom-style story arc. While similar in style - and Cleveland's family is a cut-and-paste black version of the Griffins, complete with a talking animal - The Cleveland Show is nowhere near as caustic as Family Guy. Tonight is the first episode of the fourth season, so the show does have some fans - perhaps people who find the fast, sometimes too-surreal pace of Family Guy too much. ![]() It still receives mixed reviews - and unadulterated pannings on many fan sites - but The Cleveland Show has outlasted Scott Baio in the spinoff stakes.
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