Pudgy Picks a Fight! (1937)

Pudgy Picks a Fight! Review

Pudgy Picks a Fight! is a 1937 animated short film from the Betty Boop series. It is a pretty dark short.

Betty Boop is so delighted with her new fox fur that Pudgy the pup grows jealous and then he starts thinking that he killed the inanimate object. This is one of the darkest Betty Boop shorts that took Pudgy on an entirely different journey that explored his guilt and anxieties after thinking that he killed the imagined fox.

Those moments where Pudgy was having nightmares were deep and very thoughtful. It was quite touching seeing the poor pup have so much trouble sleeping and thinking that he did something wrong when he didn’t. This is one of his strongest stories, but the movie itself was technically far from great or innovative. The humor was of course lacking in what is an overly dramatic cartoon.

Pudgy Picks a Fight! has a terrific, darker than usual character arc for Pudgy, but the movie is also overly dramatic, though undeniably memorable.

My Rating – 3.8