Betty Boop's Hallowe'en Party (1933) User Reviews

One bad tempered gorilla

[theowinthrop · 7/10 · 26 January 2007]

This has it's moments as an early Pre-code Betty Boop. On Halloween a scarecrow finds a printed invitation to Betty's house for a party. He shows up, and after warming himself he assists her in setting up her home. Like most of the plots of Fleischer's cartoons, the initial structure is jettisoned for new incidents and characters to take over. The last we see of the Scarecrow is his putting up wall pictures of witches and black cats from special paint cans labeled "witch paint" and "cat paint". He flicks these on the walls, and the witches appear on brooms while the cats appear with their backs humped up. Betty is shown coring pumpkins (actually a cat descends with a device to do the coring, but Betty acts tired after each one is cored).

Soon the guests arrive, and we see them bobbing for apples - one gets knocked out by an apple he is supposed to catch with his teeth. Then, about two thirds of the way through the cartoon, we see a gorilla arrive. YOU TUBE suggests that this particular cartoon was taken off the television shows of the 1950s and 1960s because it is a racial stereotype (presumably for African - Americans), but it does need stretching to see that. The idea of a gorilla as a symbol for a Black male is an old one, but this gorilla has nothing suggestive of what racial stereotyping would suggest. It just is a bullying gorilla, who first hits a tree (hurting a behind that suddenly appears), and blackening the eyes of a inoffensive owl. He then sees the party, and appropriates all the apples in a bobbing for apples. But soon he is being pursued by goblins and witches, apparently directed at him by a mysterious big cat. He is eventually chased out of the party, to the happiness of the other guests. But was that supposed to suggest the stereotypical superstition associated with male African-Americans too? I still find it quite a stretch.

It is not a bad cartoon, but not one of the best efforts by Fleischer's studio.

Good Halloween fun with Betty Boop

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 8 January 2017]

'Betty Boop's Halloween Party' may not be one of the best Betty Boop cartoons. This said, it is still a very good cartoon in many ways, despite having a title that can easily mislead people.

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 flaws are few, but as said the title is misleading. The party only takes up a very small portion of the cartoon and it's over too soon and is not as memorable as when 'Betty Boop's Halloween Party' becomes spookier and more imaginative. There are too many characters somewhat, and some are better than others.

However the Halloween atmosphere is great, the visuals help give the cartoon a spookiness and much of it is wonderfully bizarre and deliciously surreal. The black and white animation is extremely good, smooth, meticulously detailed and well drawn with the black and white not looking too primitive. A lot of it is actually very imaginative as well, some of the most inventive, fantastically surreal and eye-popping of the early Betty Boop cartoons to me. The music is both atmospheric and infectious.

It's never a dull cartoon either, and the spirit of Halloween is incredibly well evoked, as well as some welcome humour, even if it is more risqué in other Betty Boop cartoons. The voice acting is fine.

Overall, good Halloween fun. 8/10 Bethany Cox

It's the witching hour at Betty's house - Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!

[Foreverisacastironmess123 · 7/10 · 28 October 2013]

I try quitting the Boop but she just keeps pulling me right back in! Oh, that old bobblehead Betty! She never could quite keep herself out of bizarre and super-freaky situations in her weird and wonderful little monochrome world! Who wouldn't ever wanna love to go to *her* Halloween party? I know I would! I loved the impressive detailed opening scene and the effect with the clouds passing over the full moon and taking on new and uncanny Halloweeny shapes! The scarecrow reminded me a little of another one that features in an awesome scene in a great Ub Iwerks animation called "Jack Frost." I like all the clever and inventive little ways in which Betty gets all her festive decorations for the party done! I really enjoy the scene where she lights the pumpkins, the lighting makes them look really diabolic! It's always so cool the way everything that happens is in a beat, the sense of rhythm with everyone constantly rocking in one big motion always helps a lot to make these kinds of shorts fun. Being pre-code, as well as a Halloween-themed short I was expecting some really crazy kooky psychedelic, all the denizens of hell type s**t! But this wasn't hardly spooky or surreal at all, nothing like the truly special and infamous best Fleisher shorts that all fans of them know about. It's still a good one though, the animation and detail of everything is noticeably well done. Even though it never quite degenerates into an explosive monsterfest, it does get pretty great towards the end as all the Halloween decorations come to life and creepy ghosts swirling around in the dark scare the bejeezus out of the mean, party-crashing Frankenstein-like gorilla who I thought was really lame, until he hightails it the heck outta there! And it was a nice twist at the end when it's revealed that the mysterious black cat who unleashed all the mayhem upon the gorilla was really Betty in a costume! Did not see that one coming, if nothing else, these particular weird old shorts were always unpredictable. I thought the ring around the cat's foot was a charming touch. ::: I heard this one was banned because around the three minutes and ten seconds mark you can see her undergarments.. I've seen a coloured version of this that if you look closer at, you can tell that the cartoon itself has been carefully redrawn as well. And in my opinion that doesn't do this antiquated and distinctive animation style any favours. It looks more special in the black and white in a unique and vital way. It's like looking at crude copies of old classic paintings that lack the subtlety and texture of the originals. And there's no way in a million years all Betty Boop cartoons end on a positive note, that's total bull. But oh well, who cares! See ya, Happy Halloween y'all!!!

Underaware

[tedg · 11 March 2005]

I really like some of these Betty Boop cartoons. Many of the early ones deal with the overlap of evil, sex and hallucinogens, often mixed with jazz and Black men. This is one of the tamer ones in terms of the evil tone: she's in control where often she isn't.

But it is worth seeing quite apart from that because it is pre-code Betty. The animator had a real sense of sexual movement, and in spite of her dog's face this is one enticing body. When she calls the demon-bears to her party, she does so by bending over and wiggling her panty- covered butt at us three times. That wouldn't happen in a couple years.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

This animated short raises sobering questions about AI . . .

[oscaralbert · 6/10 · 27 December 2019]

. . . as one of the guests at BETTY BOOP'S HALLOWE'EN PARTY demonstrates some sort of black paint possessing more than its share of so-called Artificial Intelligence. When this sort of ebony liquid is slathered onto Betty's walls (via a flick of the wrist splashing a glob of the dark magic onto a surface), the conglomeration of droplets immediately assumes the shape of a witch on a broomstick OR a black cat. This versatile viscous substance not only has the ability to form whichever of these two shapes is called for, but also includes built in programming causing it to alternate between these two holiday-appropriate designs (which requires some sort of wireless communication to be going on between all the particles of paint). There is no reason to assume that the inventor of the brand of pigment in Betty's can is limited to just one hue, or only two designs. Rather, it is easier to imagine that some Leonardo, Junior, will roam urban streets some day, tagging his territory every 50 feet by splashing the decaying bricks with a "Mona Lisa" or "Salvator Mundi." (This will beg the question, who is the greatest "artist"--Pops Da Vinci, who labored for months over each of his onesies, or Junior, who created the AI substance able to recreate an infinite number of Mona's instantaneously with flicks of his wrist.) Obviously, there's much more to BETTY BOOP'S HALLOWE'EN PARTY than initially meets the eye.

I liked this one...

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 19 August 2013]

When I downloaded this film for free from archive.org, it indicated this was a so-called 'banned cartoon'. Well, I really cannot see why this would be the case. I know that the Pre-Code version of Betty Boop (before mid-1934) was sexier than the later one---though so many Boop cartoons feature this sexier cartoon and weren't listed as banned on the site. Or, perhaps there was something objectionable and that portion was excised. All I know is that I noticed nothing objectionable in this cute cartoon.

The cartoon, not surprisingly, is about Betty Boop having a Halloween party. It goes from her and some friends preparing, the party itself and a nasty gorilla* crashing the party and terrorizing everyone. Fortunately, like all Boop cartoons, it ends on a positive note.

All in all, this is a fun cartoon. A bit dated perhaps but still fun. Like all these cartoons, the animation quality is terrific and there is a wacky sense of humor that was pure 1930s fun. If you do see the cartoon, you might notice an NRA symbol at the beginning—this was to indicate the film was in compliance with the National Recovery Act—a piece of legislation that was ruled unconstitutional and so was only BRIEFLY seen tacked on to the beginning of some films in 1933.

*This is the same gorilla that was the villain in "The Herring Murder Case" which debuted two years earlier.

They are having fun, we not really

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 29 August 2016]

"Betty Boop's Hallowe'en Party" is one of the shorter Betty Boop cartoons at 6.5 minutes. It is from the year 1933 and of course it is another Fleischer Studios production. Betty likes to party and has invited all her friends over for Halloween. The first half of the film is basically the preparation, then the party begins and finally a villain shows up to destroy the fun, but Betty scares him away. Nothing scary about this little movie though despite the time of the year that offers some scares occasionally. The title is a bit of a lie as there is probably only a minute actually dealing with the party itself and this minutes is not really funny or entertaining. Same can be said about everything before and afterward. This was not a good Betty Boop cartoon. It had so many characters, but they did so little with them. Not recommended.

Great Precode Party

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 8 December 2018]

Betty is quite stunning in this one. She gets ready for a Halloween party with the help of a scarecrow. The making of the jack-o-lanterns is really fun. Everyone is playing games until the obligatory gorilla appears. It takes some doing to deal with him. This is sharp animation and it tells a fun story.

A classic Betty Boop cartoon for Halloween

[ja_kitty_71 · 10/10 · 21 October 2022]

This is a classic Betty Boop cartoon that I love. And Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. In this cartoon, Betty hosts a Halloween party, but then, just when the fun was getting good, a party-crashing gorilla nearly ruins everything. But he will soon learn not to be a mean bully on Halloween night. That's all I could tell you. Spoilers, you know.

I also want to point out that I found it odd that no one was dressed up for Betty's Halloween party. As I always point out in my reviews, I don't have any particular scene I like because I love this cartoon from beginning to end and it's great for Halloween.