Betty Boop's Prize Show

The Production Code was bearing down on Betty Boop and she was no longer the sexy miss whose garters were likely to fall at any moment. Now she is an actress in a old time melodrama, kidnapped by the silk-hat-and-cape-wearing villain and rescued by handsome sheriff.

Although the setting and the gags in this one are just fine and should command the attention of children and adults -- I enjoyed Betty when a pre-schooler and more than half a century later, am still amused -- I am disappointed nonetheless. Betty's charm always lay in her burlesque raucousness. Now it was gone. People still wanted to see Betty and her cartoons would prosper for another half dozen years, but with a rising number of variable supporting characters. Yes, this is a good cartoon, but earlier she had sometimes been brilliant. She never again would be.

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.

Less good is that, thanks to the production code her sensuality is heavily muted, and it was like she had lost a large part of what made her such a unique character back then and what made her popular.

'Betty Boop's Prize Show' does boast very good animation, as ever being rich in detail and beautifully drawn. The music is infectious and beautifully and cleverly orchestrated, putting one in a good mood and enhances the action wonderfully.

Enough of 'Betty Boop's Prize Show' has cuteness and charm, while the characters are lively enough and show good chemistry with Betty and the voice acting is good.

However, if anybody enjoyed the pre-code Betty Boop cartoons for being creative visually, 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 cartoon, they will be disappointed in 'Betty Boop's Prize Show'. Because all of those are missing here, so in comparison to before everything feels very safe, tame and dare one say it...bland.

Judging it on its own entity too, the content is thin and only has the odd minor bit of amusement. The story is not just not much of one, but also pretty clichéd, something that the Betty Boop cartoons tended to not be.

Overall, well made but disappointing, with what made the Betty Boop cartoons so interesting before missing. 6/10 Bethany Cox