Betty Boop

Betty Boop
Talkartoons/Betty Boop character
A cartoon flapper with neotenous features with short curly black hair and wearing a short black dress
Betty Boop in 1932
First appearance
Dizzy Dishes (1930)
Created byMax Fleischer
Grim Natwick
Portrayed byJasmine Amy Rogers (2023-2025 on stage and cast album)
Voiced by

Post-Golden Age

In-universe information
SpeciesHuman (although an anthropomorphic French poodle in her first appearance)
GenderFemale
FamilyPudgy (pet)
Buzzy Boop (cousin)
Grampy (grandfather)
Significant other
Bimbo (boyfriend)

Betty Boop is a cartoon character created by Max Fleischer. A precursor to the character, drawn by Grim Natwick, played a small role in the 1930 film Dizzy Dishes. Over time, and thanks to contributions from several Fleischer animators, including Seymour Kneitel, Myron Waldman, Willard Bowsky, and Bernie Wolf, that initial canine-inspired songstress evolved into the character now known as Betty Boop. She originally appeared in the Talkartoon and Betty Boop film series, which were produced by Fleischer Studios and released by Paramount Pictures. She was featured in 90 theatrical cartoons between 1930 and 1939. She has also been featured in comic strips and prolific mass merchandising throughout the decades, and two television specials in the 1980s. In 2025, Boop! The Musical debuted on Broadway.

A caricature of a Jazz Age flapper, Betty Boop was described in a 1934 court case as "combin[ing] in appearance the childish with the sophisticated—a large, round baby face with big eyes and a nose like a button, framed in a somewhat careful coiffure, with a very small body of which perhaps the leading characteristic is the most self-confident little bust imaginable". She was toned down in the mid-1930s to appear more modest as a result of the Hays Code, causing her to be overshadowed in favor of other Fleischer series. Betty Boop is one of the world's best-known and most popular cartoon characters.