Betty Boop and Grampy

An occasional co-star in the Betty Boop cartoons was Grampy--and I sure wish they'd put him in more of these films. No matter what, I always seem to smile when the cartoon is complete thanks to this delightful character.

The cartoon begins with Grampy sending Betty a note--asking her to bring some friends to his place for a party. Along the way, she asks two movers, a fireman and a cop--all who are in the middle of VERY important jobs. Regardless, they drop everything and accompany Betty. At Grampy's house, he demonstrates several goofy inventions and serves punch and cake. Then, using his thinking cap, he figures out a way to make music so everyone can dance. And, while it's only dancing, I couldn't help but smile as I watched the old coot dance! A simple and sweet little cartoon from start to finish, it's got great imagination, terrific animation (I loved the 3-D look at the beginning) and the music will make your toes tap. What more could you want from a cartoon?

The Betty Boop series of shorts were wonderful Grampy is probably my favorite secondary character. Koko was probably the strongest supporting character in the series, but I like Grampy more. This is his cartoon, hands down. He did that more than once in the series. While not the best of the series, one of the better ones certainly. The bulk of the series is in print and available and well worth having. Recommended.

Betty gets a telegram from Grampy to come over to his house "for a little party" and "come right over and bring the gang," he adds. "Ohh," she shrieks, and puts on her hat and heads right over. As she is singing about "Gramy's house" while strutting down the street, she is joined by people who overhear her lyrics and tag along. They literally drop everything (i.e. piano) and follow her.

The rest of the cartoon shows the amazing inventions in Grampy's house and, believe me, they are a hoot to see and hear (such as the clever way he produces music for the party.)

This is great stuff - a "feel-good" cartoon, if I ever saw one.

This is a fun little Boop short that really stars Grampy.

Grampy is an eccentric old man that by today's standards might come off as a little creepy. Nonetheless, he's a man with great charm... and gadgets. On Betty's way to Grampy's house, she invites all the easily attracted men in her path and humorous antics follow.

I still can't figure out why Grampy's house is so far away from the road!

I'd recommend this short for it's creativity and good music alone.

Betty Boop and Grampy (1936)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Grampy invites Betty Boop and a couple others to his house so that they can see the crazy inventions he has come up with. This includes a chandelier that comes down to serve punch, a special cake cutter and a flute that can play itself when put into a tea pot. BETTY BOOP AND GRAMPY isn't one of the better shorts in the series but there's still enough here that will keeps fans entertained. I think the highlight is a musical number that happens towards the end of the film as the music itself is quite catchy and I also thought that the little dance sequences were fun. The quality of the animation is top-notch as one would expect and I thought there was quite a bit of imagination in use and especially during the finale. There really aren't as many big laughs as one would have hoped for but there's no question that this contains some rather pre-code sexuality from Betty Boop, which was a little surprising considering this came out after the code started to be stricter.