Pudgy and the Lost Kitten

"Pudgy and the Lost Kitten" is one of the final Betty Boop cartoons made by the Fleischer Brothers--the series wrapping up in 1939. And, in this film you can see that much of the edge of the earlier Betty Boop cartoons is missing. It begins with Betty's dog, Pudgy, seeing a hungry kitten outside. He feels sorry for it and brings it home—but soon the friendship between Pudgy and the kitten sours, as the kitten eats EVERYTHING—including poor Pudgy's food. Later, Pudgy goes out looking for the kitten's mother—so hopefully he can get rid of the little pest.

As I said in the summary, this one is a bit too saccharinely sweet for me. Missing is an edge and in its place is cute animation and cutesy characters—something that make for a relatively bland cartoon. The animation, though black & white, is quite nice but the story is a bit on the thin side. Worth seeing if you are a die-hard Betty Boop fan—otherwise you could do a lot better.

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 animation, as always, in 'Pudgy and the Lost Kitten' is extremely good, being beautifully drawn, crisply shaded and meticulous in detail. The music is infectious, lush and dynamic.

'Pudgy and the Lost Kitten' is pleasantly cute, Pudgy (one of Betty's better regular supporting characters in the later cartoons, after Grampy) and the kitten are adorable characters and they and their chemistry carry the cartoon decently. The voice acting is solid, the new voice actress for Betty is no match for Mae Questel but still fares quite well.

However, while pleasantly cute in places, parts of 'Pudgy and the Lost Kitten' is so cutesy it gets on the wrong side of sweetly saccharine, enough to bring things down. This is further accentuated by this is practically the only emotion in the entire cartoon. There is a lack of laughs, which makes the lack of surreal, risqué or creative edge far less easier to ignore and forgive.

Story-wise, 'Pudgy and the Lost Kitten' is as paper thin and formulaic as one can get and sadly Betty is barely in it, not only is her screen time limited and her personality toned down comparatively to before but she has very little to do.

All in all, cute but bland. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Pudgy and the lost kitten starts off with betty boop and pudgy the dog the simularitys are that a little kitten called myron and his mother make a return and they previously were seen in the Betty Boop Cartoon feature Happy you and merry me.

Im not sure why the kitten is named myron, it might be a reference to myron waldman who worked with the fleischer studios on quite a few Cartoons including the Betty Boop series.

Kate wright seems to be doing the role of Betty Boop as said before mae Questel Quit when she refused to move with the fleischer studios and the voice you hear surly isn't Maes, besides it sounds nothing like mae questel. The biggest flaw is that Betty Boop is hardley seen she disappears most of the time, but she has some great quotes, the episode revolves around pudgy the dog and myron the cat like i stated it has a few simularitys to the other Betty Boop Cartoon from (1936) happy you and merry me.

This is a Great cartoon and if you love pudgy the dog i suggest you watch the cartoon, i give this a 6/10.