The Candid Candidate

"The Candid Candidate" is one of the best Betty Boop cartoons I have seen. It's very clever, quite original and fun. The film begins with Betty Boop singing a ditty in which he admonishes everyone to get out and vote for Grampy for mayor. He narrowly wins and is excited to get on the job. However, all sorts of nuts literally come crawling out of no where--demanding he fix something or another or ELSE! Well, Grampy is a great inventor and after using his thinking cap, he sets out to make the city wonderful. Here is where the film is at its best--with lots of totally nutty and clever inventions to make his people love him. If only we had REAL candidates like this--we'd sure vote for 'em! Overall, a very nice combination of terrific Fleischer Brothers animation and cleverness that you can't help but enjoy. Terrific when compared to the other rather saccharine cartoons of the day.

Betty Boop campaigns for Grampy to be the new mayor, and he wins by one vote. Betty gets everything in his office ready. But the moment Grampy sits down, the citizens come out from everywhere -- the chandelier, his desk drawer, behind a painting of a jackass -- to complain and to demand he fix things. Grampy is in his element. He finds novel ways to build a new bridge, fight fires, and stop drivers from ignoring the stoplight. He even improves ramshackle houses by pasting over them with posters of better looking houses. The subway train now goes directly into buildings, saving commuters the trouble of going outside. And the public fountain now serves beer.

Hooray for Grampy! As mayor, he gets to work on a much larger scale than usual. I particularly liked the fire-fighting gag (which I won't reveal). But anyone watching this for Betty Boop will be disappointed. She's hardly in it.

Bette Boop's beloved "Grampy" wins the mayoral race and finds out the job isn't as glamorous as he thought. He's not at his desk more than a minute when people are literally popping out of the woodwork with complaints. Do this, do that....and threats to have him lose his job, blah, blah, blah."

Even Betty gets in on it, asking "Well, what are gonna do? You better get your thinking cap on."

Grampy always comes up with ingenious solutions to everything. Every city could use this guy as mayor! This guy is a one-man miracle-maker, even coming up with an idea to stop rain from falling.

I especially enjoyed the beginning with Betty's campaign song and then Grampy's neat bicycle/lunch counter/cane contraption.

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. Her trademark pre-Code personality is toned down and she has very little to do here (her most memorable contribution being the catchy campaign song), but she is still cute, charming and fun.

'The Candid Candidate' is a Betty Boop cartoon where the star of the show is actually Grampy, a riotous and adorable character with ingenious inventions and solutions, especially the bicycle/lunch counter/cane. Anybody who loves those traits to Grampy (count me as one) will not be disappointed at all.

On top of that, the animation, as always, is extremely good, being beautifully drawn, crisply shaded and meticulous in detail. The music is infectious, lush and dynamic. 'The Candid Candidate' is very funny in spots such as the fire fighting gag, is wonderfully wild in pace and it is cute without being too saccharine. The voice is reliably good.

Most later post-Production cartoons come over as a little bland as a result of the lack of surreal and risqué edge. That edge is lacking here too, but 'The Candid Candidate' has more oomph than most Betty Boop cartoons this period due to some of its insane nature and that it's one of the funniest and more creative later Betty Boop cartoons.

In summary, very good, though one where Grampy fans will be delighted and Betty fans a little disappointed. 8/10 Bethany Cox