Betty Boop for President

Like the title says, Betty Boop is running for president. Her message was a populist one of the era (smacking of the communist redistribution of the wealth pledge) as well as the legalization of booze. Throughout, there are a few funny bits (such as the impersonations as well as the argument between the Republicans and Democrats that uses a bit of naughty language they would NOT have allowed after the Production Code was strengthened in 1934). But there also is a lot of irrelevant material (bits that just seem to come out of nowhere) and an odd bit about an apparent homosexual that keep this from being a better and more cohesive cartoon. Not bad but not among the better outings of the Boopster.

With today being Election Day, I thought I'd watch some cartoons that reflect this important event. The title card says it all: "Max Fleischer Nominates Betty Boop for President". In this short, Betty says she'll help "split the money" for the poor as she changes faces (and voices) to become incumbent Herbert Hoover and previous candidate Al Smith. Her opponent is Mr. Nobody, a literal stick figure who lives up to his name so much, he causes the pitcher-whose face literally appears-to drink a glass of his own water! There's also a bizarre gag in which a big jailbird on the electric chair gets changed into something "swishy" courtesy of various makeup gadgets nearby! And then there's a weather operator, who resembles Grampy from later cartoons, that switches a giant umbrella to keep rain from going over New York! And how about when Betty addresses donkeys on one side and elephants on the other just before the elephants call their opposite side "asses"! LOL! With that, I highly recommend Betty Boop for President.

This is a wonderful mix of satire and the strangeness that could be found in the best of the early Fleischer shorts, particularly Betty Boop cartoons. A knowledge of 1930s politics helps with some of the jokes, but it's funny even if you don't know who Herbert Hoover or FDR were. These shorts are exceptionally fine work in many cases and are always enjoyable to watch, at least through 1934 or so. Even the ones done later are reasonably good, even if Warner Brothers and MGM had by then surpassed what the Fleischers were doing. In print and available. Well worth watching. Most recommended.

Betty Boop for President (1932)

*** (out of 4)

It's funny to watch this animated short from 1932 because it really does play out like a music video from the 80's. The "song" here would deal with Betty singing to become your next President and talking about the various things she would do for the country. She's running against someone calling himself Mr. Nobody who of course is making a lot of fake promises. This here is a pretty catchy little gem that manages to make you smile as well as keep you entertained throughout the running time. The animation itself is of high quality as you'd expect but it's the song that really makes this seem so fresh and original. Fans of Betty Boop will certainly enjoy this one.

This "movie" is made up of spliced-together classic Fliescher shorts with the audio track replaced with bad dialogue which means the lipsynch is completely off (naturally).

Characters who previously had no voices were given voices and Betty is the only character who sounds anything like the previous voice acting and the animation quality is inconsistent since they use shorts from many different eras of Betty Boop cartoons.

This movie would be slightly more valuable if it had the intact audio, since it is the visuals (though cut to pieces) from lots of wonderful classic Boop cartoons. This movie feels very forced and is really only worth watching for gag value.