Ha! Ha! Ha! (1934)

Ha! Ha! Ha! Review

Ha! Ha! Ha! is a 1934 animated short film from the Betty Boop series. It is a terrific short.

After drawing Betty Boop, Max Fleischer leaves the studio. Betty and Koko try amateur dentistry, releasing enough laughing gas to convulse the real world. This is one of the most inventive Betty Boop shorts as it even incorporates live-action into the proceedings. Max Fleischer gets a cameo here and the final act set in a real city was fantastic.

Although even more could have been done with this amazing premise ripe with potential, for the most part this short delivered in humor and memorable scenarios. Betty herself is hilariously incompetent as a dentist and those scenes were so funny. The animation in this film is particularly innovative and very polished. The mixing of the two mediums was surprisingly accomplished for the time. Koko himself is wonderful here and very amusing in what might be his best role to date.

Ha! Ha! Ha! is a terrific Betty Boop short and one of the best in the series. The animation is superb and the premise is brilliant.

My Rating – 4.2