Betty Boop and the Little King

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.

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.

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.

'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.