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.
Less good is that, thanks to the production code her sensuality is heavily muted, and it was like she had lost a large part of what made her such a unique character back then and what made her popular.
The best character in 'Honest Love and True' is the villain, one that manages to be entertaining as well as dastardly.
As ever in a Betty Boop cartoon, the animation is still incredibly good, the detail is immaculate, there are the typical imaginative moments and everything is beautifully drawn. Every bit as good and even better is the music, which is full of energy and lyrical elegance. The voice acting is good, and there are some cute and amusing moments.
However, 'Honest Love and True' is agreed strongly reminiscent of other melodrama-based Betty Boop cartoons such as 'No, No a Thousand Times No!!' and 'She Wronged Him Right', except that they were much more imaginative and they were funnier and clever. It is much tamer (in comparison to them and of the pre-Code Betty Boop cartoons), with not much of the creativity, surreal quality or daring risqué-ness of the older Betty Boop cartoons.
The story is pretty thin on the ground, doing very little new with a stale premise, and could have done with more energy, while the ending is slushy and the typical hero doesn't have much personality.
Overall, decent if not great. 6/10 Bethany Cox
