Morning, Noon and Night

Like in so many of the early Betty Boop cartoons, this one features a bit of film showing a known musician from the period. In this case, the famed violinist Rubinoff is doing the score for this Betty Boop cartoon.

Like many of the Boop cartoons, it's not exactly heavy on plot. It shows a group of nasty cats who call themselves the 'Tom Katz Social Club' coming to the farm in their jalopy. They are just looking for trouble and the little farm animals are afraid. So, Betty gets them to gang up on these hooligans and beat the stuffing out of them—a nice and effective way to deal with bullies! However, there really are few laughs in this one and apart from showing kids the best way to deal with bullies, the only other thing this one really has going for it is the nice (as usual) Fleischer Brothers animation—particularly the 3-D effect and attention to details. Not a great cartoon but decent—and worth seeing for Betty Boop aficionados.

Rubinoff and his orchestra provide the classical violin music early on for this Betty Boop animated short which begins with the sun rising. The sun has a block of ice on his head and says, "I don't feel so hot today."

We then see a very clever sight gag: a hen laying eggs. When she gets up, each egg is lying in a small bed before it hatches. Following that are other sights and sounds of the morning as flowers and birds awaken. One bird, a goose, is the milk-man who delivers tiny bottles to bird houses.

As everyone is waking up and starting the morning, the villains enter in the form of the Tom- Cat Social Club, four big cats who go chasing all the little birds. That's the bulk of this cartoon, that chase and the fowl all coming together to chase away the bad cats. In all, nothing super but definitely entertaining.

This short features Rubinoff, who was on the Eddie Cantor radio program, basically the equivalent of a cross between what Ed McMahon and Doc Severinson were for Johnny Carson. The animation is good, even if the storyline was a bit long in the tooth even in 1933. Enjoyable for the sight gags. Well worth watching. In print and available. Recommended.

Not one of the best Betty Boop cartoons, not by a long shot. SAtill a good cartoon in many ways and not deserving completely of its reasonably forgotten status, in comparison to most Betty Boop cartoons.

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.

Although sadly she is basically a supporting character with not much to do, her appearance still epitomises charm, sensuality and the adorable factor. The story is very thin, even for a cartoon with Betty Boop, and while cute 'Morning Noon and Night' again for a cartoon featuring Betty is pretty safe and tame and in the few sporadic parts it's only amusing.

Betty telling how to deal with bullies is invaluable and avoids being too preachy or patronising, even if it's something that isn't that new for us.

The animation is still incredibly good, the detail is immaculate, there are the typical imaginative moments and everything is beautifully drawn. Every bit as good and even better is the music, which is full of energy and lyrical elegance, and accessible to anybody. The supporting characters are decent enough, while the voice acting suits the characters and cartoon well. The efficient pacing help keep 'Morning Noon and Night' consistently engaging.

All in all, decent cartoon but not great. 7/10 Bethany Cox