This is going to be fairly similarly worded to some of my other reviews for the Betty Boop cartoons made after the Production Code, as they all have the same strengths and flaws pretty much.
A good deal of the pre-Production Code Betty Boop cartoons are daring and creative, with content that makes one amazed at what's gotten away with. While the later Betty Boop cartoons made after the Code was enforced are still watchable and exceptionally well-made, they are so toned down, with the risqué and surreal edge and creativity of the pre-Code cartoons gone, that they feel bland.
Fleischer were responsible for some brilliant cartoons, some of them still among my favourites. Their visual style was often stunning and some of the most imaginative and ahead of its time in animation.
In one of her cartoons made after the Production Code was put in place, Betty Boop stars with Henry in a cartoon that is nowhere near among her best (though certainly steps up from her previous cartoon 'Making Stars' which was very much a misfire), and she herself is past prime but cute and amusing enough with some inventive moments.
'Betty Boop with Henry the Funniest Living American' is very cute with the animals, and there are amusing moments such as the lengths Henry goes through to get the birds back and some good imagination in the visuals and timing. The animation is beautifully drawn and detailed and the music infectious and dynamic. The voice acting is good.
Henry gives the cartoon some fun and he doesn't veer on the wrong side of annoying or freaky, if never really living up to the cartoon's deceptively hyperbolic title. The animals are nice.
On the other hand, although Betty hasn't lost her charm or sense of comedy (and she works well with Henry), what made her such a popular and prolific character (her sensuality and sex appeal, with daringly risqué material) at the time is heavily muted as a result of the Code so she does feel somewhat bland.
Similarly the cartoon in general in comparison to her pre-Code cartoons. If anybody enjoyed the pre-code Betty Boop cartoons for being wonderfully surreal and for its daring risqué content that was ahead of the time back in the 30s and wouldn't be seen a lot now in cartoons, they will be disappointed here. Both are missing which gives a rather tame. More creativity and more consistent humour would have been more welcome, as well as a story with more variation and material.
Overall, cute and amusing but not representative of Betty Boop at her best. 6/10 Bethany Cox
