Baby Be Good

A nice mother - side of Betty Boop, the terrible Little Jimmy, a moraal lesson in which a hungry lion is more useful than a fairy and the reasonable end. You know each element but the mix of creepy , bad actions and nice moral are enough for a sort of educational - but not realistic story.

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.

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. Here, she is a more moralistic character, but does it very well admittedly.

The animation is still very good, 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.

'Baby Be Good's' story is more eventful and has more imagination than most later Betty Boop cartoons, with more creative ideas. The whole reversal idea was cleverly done.

However, 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 and bland feel here in 'Baby Be Good'.

More problematic are a too conveniently pat ending, that robs the viewer of seeing Little Jimmy getting what he deserved, and Little Jimmy himself, a "cutesy"-intended character that's actually insufferably irritating and unintentionally creepy.

On the whole, not bad but misses too much of what was so good before with Betty Boop before the production code. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Baby Be Good (1935)

** (out of 4)

Betty Boop is taking care of a baby boy who is constantly causing trouble. After he paints her cat, Betty sits him down for a story about a baby boy who is constantly doing bad things until he is visited by a fairy (played by Betty of course). BABY BE GOOD is a short I had mixed feelings about. On one hand, there's all sorts of imagination going on and especially in the fantasy sequence where we see the boy doing all sorts of bad things from tying a can to a dog's tail to breaking windows to cutting a man's hair. There's some pretty fun stuff going on but the biggest problem is that none of it is really that funny because the kid himself is just so annoying. Instead of the fairy talking to the little one you really wish she'd find a belt! The ending of the picture really doesn't work either as the kid is basically told he has to take back everything he's done and this is when the film just plays in reverse. I guess the filmmakers thought this was going to be clever but it just doesn't work and again it's rather unfunny. BABY BE GOOD is certainly a mixed short that's only recommended to Betty fans who want to see all of her films.

This cartoon was ok. It was cute. What are grown men doing watching girl's cartoons, I don't know. I surfed onto this. Why is every other review referring to the baby girl as 1) a boy? 2) A creep and other insult words? She was not an annoying character unlike Bugs Bunny or Tom & Jerry or Tweety bird, those are insufferable! 3) What is everyone talking about "older Betty Boop"?? Older than what? This is 1935, FCOL!

And no, there is no such thing as "ahead of your time"! Obviously a lot of people are clueless about the past, otherwise no one would ever use such ridiculous and "fantastic" hyperbole wording. So this is the 2nd BB cartoon I've watched. The other was about getting some sleep in a noisy town and going to the countryside. (I might have seen another.) I don't get this cartoon. It's pretty much for girls. I mean do these reviewers also watch "Hello Kitty" cartoons and "My Little Pony"?? Never mind!

I just feel like everyone is bonkers outta da Twilight Zone here, so I'm giving it an 8/10 to fix the idiot's reviews. And to the other idiot: there is no giving 2 out of 4 stars, you're giving 2 out of 10, you idiot! There's no need to type nonsense, just use the button here and click the stars. PS: WHO in their right mind has ever rated something out of 4 stars? It's always and without fail always been either out of 10 stars or, elsewhere, out of 5. (Remember youtube's star system? 5/5 good 1/5 bad.)

There you go. Because when there's too many dummies posting smack, I have to counter-post. The end.

Betty is baby sitting a really unlikable little boy who is unkind and snotty. Whenever Betty leaves the bedroom, the boy starts acting up. So Betty tells him a story of a young child who is quite naughty and eventually goes overboard. It is a moral tale, but it still leaves the little creep in charge.