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 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. The character of Betty Boop, one of their most famous and prolific characters, may not be for all tastes and sadly not as popular now, but her sex appeal was quite daring for the time and to me there is an adorable sensual charm about her.
Luckily, her charm and cuteness is still there despite her ahead of the time personality being very toned down and her material not being strong enough for her comic timing to come through properly.
As always the animation is extremely good, very beautifully drawn and meticulous in detail, not to mention the very imaginatively rendered backgrounds. The music is infectious and dynamic with the action. The message is a good important one and makes its point well enough. The voice acting is good.
It is a shame however that a character as good as Grampy, who is generally one of the best Betty Boop supporting characters and stole the show in 'Betty Boop and Grampy' and 'Grampy's Indoor Outing', is saddled with material that is lacking in laughs and not particularly inventive.
'Be Human' is never funny and, although it was intended to be shocking, it does overboard with the disturbing brutality that it's almost sadistic. The surreal and risqué edge that was such a large part of the pre-Production Code Betty Boop cartoons' appeal are completely absent.
Overall, disturbing and not in a good way. 4/10 Bethany Cox
