Baby Be Good (1935)

Baby Be Good Review

Baby Be Good is a 1935 animated short film from the Betty Boop series. It is a very endearing flick.

Betty Boop actually has a child in this one, which was unexpected and odd. She probably had a child with Fred as the kid looks exactly like the two of them. The movie is framed by a fairy tale that teaches the boy how to behave better. The boy in the tale destroys things, tortures animals and wrecks havoc everywhere until he is chased by a lion. Eventually, he corrects everything through repeated animation in reverse.

That sequence was obviously lazy, but it worked as it was unexpected and fitted the context of the story deftly. The animation is phenomenal throughout, but in that moment it was at its most inventive. The boy is cute and memorable while Betty is just as wonderful and good-natured in the motherly role as she always was. The movie is familiarly plotted (it was clearly inspired by ‘Pinocchio’), but it teaches an important lesson to children, thus it’s perfect for them.

Baby Be Good has an aura of familiarity to it, but it’s so well done and so endearing that it ended up being a wonderful little short.

My Rating – 3.9