The Farmerette (1932)

Just perfect...

An Exercise In Nonsense

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

While I am usually quite hesitant to watch any of the Van Beuren Studio cartoons (since they are usually pretty awful), I decided to give "The Farmerette" a look. Why? Because from what I'd read, it was a deliberate ripoff of the Betty Boop cartoons and even featured one* of the voice actors (Margie Hines) who voiced Betty! So is this a ripoff? Well, yes. I think it's pretty obvious. The voice clearly is Betty and the character is rather similar. Interestingly, the character is a cat--and originally, Betty was a dog (yes, she really was a b---- in a few of the original cartoons).More importantly, is this cartoon any good? Well, no. It's absolute crap. The animation quality is so bad that Van Beuren really should have hired some professional artists instead of letting a precocious monkey do the animation! Well, at least it LOOKED that quality. And, additionally, the cartoon just isn't funny or worth your time. Of interest only for animation freaks like myself who are curious about these things. Not the worst cartoon ever made but certainly one I'd have been ashamed to have been associated with in any way! *Margie Hines, Ann Little, Mae Questel and Bonnie Poe all did the voice for Betty in the original Fleischer Brothers cartoons. Interestingly, the Fleischers didn't appear angry that Hines did "The Farmerette" and used her quite a few times after 1932 for more Betty Boop cartoons. I have never understood, however, why so many ladies did the voices--especially since Questel (who did the most Betty cartoons) also was working for them doing the voice of Olive Oyl for MOST of these Popeye cartoons (145). Who did the rest? A few were done by Bonnie Poe (6) and Margie Hines (33)!

The Farmerette (1932) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Decent animated short from RKO has a farmer hiring a sexy lady to come to the farm to try and get the animals to work better. The lady, looking like a cat, uses her swing and jazz moves to motivate the animals into working. THE FARMERETTE is a rather bizarre cartoon because you have to wonder why the filmmakers weren't sued by the people who owned Betty Boop. The female character here sounds exactly like her and I guess it should come as no shock since Maggie Hines did the vocal work here. Even more shocking is that the cat clearly has the facial structure and eyes of Betty Boop so you have to wonder how they got away with it. Either way, I think that bizarre little situation actually makes the film a lot more entertaining than it would have been otherwise. For the most part I liked the lead character and thought she brought some fun to the picture. I thought the animation for the most part was very good but I think it would have helped had the actual animals been a bit more entertaining. The final joke with the hay on the tractor was a good one though.

There was no information on the film nor here on the title page of IMDb about who did the voicework, but I swear it's the same voice as the woman who did "Betty Boop," but since it's a rival company it had to be someone imitating her. At any rate, it's a great imitation of Mae Questel because this voice is a dead-ringer for our famous Bette.VanBeuren apparently were looking for someone to compete with The Fleischer Brother's Betty Boop character. Here, it's a cat who applies for the job of "farmerette." She has the big eyelashes, the short skirt, and the famous Boop giggle. She announces herself to the farmer with, "Here I am, big boy!" He points to all the animals on his farm who are lazily snoring away everywhere. "Can you put this farm back on its feet," he asks her."Can I? Watch me!" So, we do. We watch the feline Betty Boop strut her stuff. Less than a minute after she sings, all the animals are so pumped they go back to work and help the farm. In the end, this is "okay," but please - there is only ONE Betty Boop and that's the way it ought to stay!

Van Beueren was experimenting with lead cartoon characters at this stage. They had a pretty good musical series with their 'Tom & Jerry', which had nothing to do with cats and mice, but were two barfly-ish looking individuals who appeared in a number of good black and white cartoons -- check out PENCIL MANIA if you have this chance.This one was intended as a direct response to Fleischer's Betty Boop -- instead of being a dog, she's a cat, but it's still the Helen Kane style of singing. She does 'Some of These Days' and 'How You Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm' and for my money, you can leave them there. For completists only.