Rudy Vallee Melodies

The songs that Rudy Vallee sings in this are not terribly well known almost 70 years later. This is understandable, because there isn't anything special or memorable about them. The cartoon is first-rate, but the rest is a boring waste of time. There is a cute interaction between Betty Boop and Rudy Vallee, but the rest is a total loss except for the animation. In print and available on a tape worth getting for everything else on it but this. Watch the animation here, but when the ball starts bouncing, watch only if you are suffering insomnia, as this will cure you of that fairly swiftly. For Betty Boop/Fleischer diehards.

I enjoyed the music, but ended up speeding up the slow songs to 1.5x and the school fight song to 1.25x speed. It made them WAY better, and made the old timey warble of Rudy Vallee tolerable. As a Betty Boop short, it contains the usual little gags that are just amazing to see, because of how tight the jokes could be. Plus, there's a brief appearance of one of the first probably-LBGTQ+ animated characters, a rarity both then and especially now.

This is probably best watched within a batch of other Betty Boop or classic cartoons, because it ranks near the absolute bottom of Boop's pantheon of shorts, but I still recommend it highly and I'd gladly watch it again.

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. That charm, sensuality and adorable factor is not lost anywhere here, nor her comic timing. She definitely makes 'Rudy Vallee Melodies' watchable and her and the animated parts stop the cartoon from falling into total doom.

'Rudy Vallee Melodies' is to me one of the weaker animated/live action Betty Boop with live action performers cartoons. It's generally pretty forgettable and average and not enough of it gels.

Granted, the animation is outstanding, everything is beautifully and meticulously drawn and the whole cartoon is rich in visual detail and imagination. Every bit as good is the music score, which delivers on the energy, lusciousness and infectiousness, great for putting anybody in a good mood.

Betty does steal the show, the animated parts are very well done as an overall whole and there are amusing and charming moments even if there is a lack of invention. Vallee does perform very well and is an earthy presence like he was in 'Kitty in Kansas City', a significantly better cartoon.

Sadly, the live action parts let 'Rudy Vallee Melodies' down. A big problem when it is far more prominent than the animation.

On the most part, despite Vallee and his cute interaction with Betty, the live action is really dull in pacing and none of it is imaginative, funny or memorable. Not that the cartoon was inventive exactly to begin with and for early Betty Boop it is pretty tame which makes things feel bland.

Concluding, worth a one-time watch but doesn't really gel. 5/10 Bethany Cox