A Language All My Own

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 good news is that she has not lost her charm, she is still cute and her comic timing is good.

While it was said in the first paragraph that the later Betty Boop cartoons were bland in comparison to the pre-Code ones there were exceptions. 'A Language All My Own' is one of them, even if missing the risqué and surreal edge of before and being light in plot (not unusual for Betty Boop).

The animation is beautifully drawn and detailed and the music infectious and dynamic. The voice acting is good.

On top of that, 'A Language All My Own' is one of the funniest and more inventive later Betty Boop cartoons, there is some very funny content here and timed with a lot of wit and imagination. There are stereotypes here but nothing at all to get offended over.

In summary, very nice cartoon and one of Betty Boop's best later cartoons. 8/10 Bethany Cox

My score of 8 is relative to other cartoons of the 1930s. I don't think it's really fair to compare this cartoon to the stuff of the 1940s and 50s, as Looney Tunes, Disney and MGM were making amazing cartoon shorts in this era. During the 30s, cutesy singing stuff was pretty common--and doesn't hold up as well as these later cartoons. However, this Betty Boop cartoon, for a singing one, is awfully good due to nice animation (the Fleischers were known for this) and clever gags.

This cartoon, according to IMDb, was made to thank the huge support the Boop shorts was receiving from the Japanese. So, Betty finishes a show in America and flies to Japan to thank them. Once there, she and the audience have a bit sing-a-long and the film ends.

"A Language All My Own" is very interesting because compared to the day, the Japanese people are portrayed well--not as the typical stereotypical giant-toothed folks with thick glasses (I have no idea why this image was so popular at that time). This is very nice but I am also sure that the studio shelved the cartoon during WWII, as the American people DID want outrageous stereotypes of the Japanese at that time! Worth seeing because it's so catchy and cute. So, if you are curious enough to watch it, it can be downloaded for free at archive.org--a site often linked to IMDb pages.

Like each short films of Betty Boop, provocative at whole. For airplaine between fly and bird, for the song , not special but sounding in hear=d for a time after the end of episode, for the portrait of Japan. Short, just nice, reminding the differences between the time of her and us.

This is primarily one song-and-dance routine by Betty, but I really enjoyed the prelude, so to speak, in which she finished one act and flew in her own plane all the way over to Japan for the big number. The airplane made me laugh out loud several times, sprouting legs and running down the runway, getting ahead of itself mid-flight, etc. There were a lot of good sight gags with that plane.

Then, Betty performs the title song to a sold-out audience in Japan and leaves. The song is good and so is the presentation, with little dancing people-lamps and other props. Betty sang song "catchy" tunes in her day.

This is entertaining.....all of it.