User reviews

After Van Beuren decided not to renew their contract with King Features Syndicate for their comic strip, "The Little King", Max and Dave Fleischer decided to try Otto Soglow's creation as a potential star for their series by testing him with their star Betty Boop. Here, his majesty and his queen are at the opera which the king is bored of to death. So he goes further down the street (where we see the wonderful tabletop 3-D backgrounds the Fleischers were starting to use at this time) to see Ms. Boop in a cowgirl outfit with horse in tow. In no time at all, the king sells pretzels and performs with Betty and the horse. I'll stop there and say how funny and entertaining this animated short was. The only demerit here is the voice used for this childlike king but that's it. So on that note, I highly recommend Betty Boop and the Little King.

'The Little King' was a very successful cartoon from the 1930s-1970s (when the creator, Otto Soglow, died). When it debuted, it ran in "The New Yorker" magazine and was also made into cartoons by the Van Buren Studio. However, by 1936, the strip was now in Hearst newspapers and made one appearance with Fleischer Brothers Studio in "Betty Boop and the Little King". Unlike the strip, in this Betty Boop cartoon, the King actually speaks a bit.

The cartoon begins with the King at a performance of the world's worst (and largest chested) singer. He's utterly bored and sneaks off to the Burlesque theater to watch Betty Boop perform. He has a lovely time--that is, until the Queen discovers he's gone and goes to bring him back! All in all, this is a very cute cartoon. It also features some of the best animation the Fleischers could muster--with some great 3-D effects. Well done and well worth your time.

The little king is at an opera when a soprano begins to belt out a horrible aria. He becomes bored and sneaks out of theatre. He goes to a music hall where Betty Boop is performing. She is adorned in Western gear and does some singing. Meanwhile, the king continues to interrupt things, at one point buying fifty dollars worth of the plot .

We are at the Imperial Opera House where there is a special performance for the king and queen of this unknown place. The royalty take their bows, and a huge-chested opera singer leads off what we see of the performance. In no time, the king is not happy and sneaks off. Down the road, he sees a poster outside a theater of Betty Boop. so he goes inside to investigate. Hey, it looks better than that opera.

This little king is really a cool guy. In the theater, a vendor is selling pretzels. The king buys all of them and then distributes them free to the other people. Betty starts her show, rides a horse around a small ring a few times (Bronco Betty?) and the kings goes on-stage and asks if he can ride the horse. He's a little rough with the horse, but then changes positions and lets the horse ride him!! (This is kind of a strange story, to be honest.)

Meanwhile, the crabby queen finally notices the king is gone from the opera house and goes to get him. And - talk about strange - you should see the ending!

Soglow's 'Little King' meets Betty Boop, and the results are a delight. Those familiar with the comic-strip King know of his propensity to try anything he sees his subjects doing -- and in this cartoon, he ends up selling pretzels to members of Betty's audience and even joining Betty's 'Wild West' act. The animation is Fleischer-good; the laughs are Soglow-great.

Betty Boop and the Little King (1936)

** (out of 4)

Betty Boop is performing on stage while The Little King is in the audience trying out a few new things. He ends up falling for Betty but his wife isn't going to let that happen. I guess some would attack me for saying this but I really didn't find The Little King character to be all that entertaining. The film gets off to a pretty good start with the King seeing a man selling pretzels so he decides to buy all of them up so that he can sell them himself. Sadly this is where the entertainment stopped as we see the King getting into all sorts of trouble and of course he eventually runs into Betty. Fleischer and company were clearly using this short to try and sell The Little King character onto people but overall I just don't think the film worked very well. The King just isn't interesting enough to take any of the spotlight away from Betty and another problem is that there's really no funny material here. As you'd expect, the animation is top-notch as usual and Boop is as cute as ever but this here just isn't enough to really sell the movie.

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. The good news is that she has not lost her charm, she is still cute and her comic timing is good.

While it was said in the first paragraph that the later Betty Boop cartoons were bland in comparison to the pre-Code ones there were exceptions. Although lacking the surreal and risqué edge of the pre-Code Betty Boop cartoons and with a somewhat thin story that kicks into gear once Betty appears, 'Betty Boop and the Little King' is another one of the exceptions.

The animation is beautifully drawn and detailed, complete with some truly impressive 3D effects, and the music is infectious and dynamic with a tremendous lushness and energy. The King is amusing enough, maybe not as charismatic as Betty but he is cool and lively.

Voice acting is good, while the cartoon is also very cute with material that amuses while never reaching hilarity.

On the whole, good cartoon but see a pre-Betty Boop cartoon for the real deal if you want to know what the fuss is about. 8/10 Bethany Cox

A short episode about a king bored by the aria belted by soprano, his trip in town and discover of a music hall show, Betty Boop as atraction and the horse as basic attraction for king and the presence of too authoritarian queen . A short film, amusing and real nice, in which, after so many decades, the correct queen can be the basic to only attraction. Because royalty remains royalty and the effort of a gifted soprano must be respected.