Betty Boop with Henry the Funniest Living American

Betty Boop with Henry the Funniest Living American (1935)

*** (out of 4)

Henry walks into Betty Boop's pet store with two cents and wants to buy Pudgy but Betty tells him that the dog is two dollars. Feeling bad for the kid, Betty agrees to give him the dog if he'll watch the store while she's gone but this turns into a disaster. Henry certainly isn't the funniest living American so the title pretty much lies but I think the short has enough laughs and imagination to make it worth sitting through. I really thought the song Betty sings about everyone having a pet was quite catchy and I thought it really set the film off into a good charming time. Once Henry takes over the laughs really start because of his various adventures with the animals. The majority of the time he's feeding the birds by planting the seeds on his head but the funniest moment happens when him and a monkey get into a fight. The film has some great imagination at work and especially once Betty gets back to the store and notices that her birds are gone. How Henry gets them back is a pretty funny sequence. Fans of these shorts will certainly get a kick out of this one as the jokes really do work and there's the typical great animation.

This is going to be fairly similarly worded to some of my other reviews for the Betty Boop cartoons made after the Production Code, as they all have the same strengths and flaws pretty much.

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, with the risqué and surreal edge and creativity of the pre-Code cartoons gone, 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.

In one of her cartoons made after the Production Code was put in place, Betty Boop stars with Henry in a cartoon that is nowhere near among her best (though certainly steps up from her previous cartoon 'Making Stars' which was very much a misfire), and she herself is past prime but cute and amusing enough with some inventive moments.

'Betty Boop with Henry the Funniest Living American' is very cute with the animals, and there are amusing moments such as the lengths Henry goes through to get the birds back and some good imagination in the visuals and timing. The animation is beautifully drawn and detailed and the music infectious and dynamic. The voice acting is good.

Henry gives the cartoon some fun and he doesn't veer on the wrong side of annoying or freaky, if never really living up to the cartoon's deceptively hyperbolic title. The animals are nice.

On the other hand, although Betty hasn't lost her charm or sense of comedy (and she works well with Henry), what made her such a popular and prolific character (her sensuality and sex appeal, with daringly risqué material) at the time is heavily muted as a result of the Code so she does feel somewhat bland.

Similarly the cartoon in general in comparison to her pre-Code cartoons. 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. More creativity and more consistent humour would have been more welcome, as well as a story with more variation and material.

Overall, cute and amusing but not representative of Betty Boop at her best. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Henry is walking along the streets when he spots "Betty Boop's Pet Shop." In the window is a cute little puppy who Henry would love to own. He goes into the store, where Betty is singing, "Everybody ought to have a pet....." Unfortunately, Henry only has two cents and the dog costs two dollars.

Betty makes a deal with the disappointed young boy. If he'll watch the story while she goes on an errand, she'll give him the puppy. Henry then takes charge and has a unique way of feeding the birds.

After what looks like a bad incident which cost Henry the dog, he uses that unique method of bird-feeding to give the story a happy ending. I guess "cute' would be the best way to describe this animated short in which Henry, not Betty, is the star.

This cute animated short features two comic icons - Betty Boop and Henry.

Henry is the bald, slightly portly boy from the comics who never speaks.

Well here he does speak!

He wants to get a puppy from Betty Boop's pet store, and when he is left to mind the store - some hilarious hijinks ensue.

Betty sings a song about pets, Henry gets in a battle with birds and a monkey, but everything works out in the end.

The silent one-panel cartoon Henry comes to Fleischer Studios, billed as "The world's funniest human" in this dull little cartoon. Betty, long past her prime, thanks to the Production Code, is running a pet shop and leaves Henry in charge for far too long -- five minutes. A bore.