Fleischer were responsible for some brilliant cartoons, some of them still among my favourites. Their visual style 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 charm, sensuality and adorability factors can be seen throughout 'Betty Boop's Ups and Downs', and she is a joy to watch. So is amusing Bimbo.
Furthermore, the black and white animation is very good, smooth, meticulously detailed and well drawn with the black and white not looking too primitive. A lot of it is actually very imaginative and impressively surreal. Even better is the music, which is rousing, catchy and unquestionably accessible to anybody who loves or is familiar with the compositional style. Loved the use of "London Bridge is Falling Down", with different lyrics in the bidding scene between the planets.
'Betty Boop's Ups and Downs' is one of the funniest and cleverest of the 1932 Betty Boop cartoons. The gags with Earth being put up for sale and the one with the gravity as a consequence of the result of the bidding. The bidding sequence between the planets is inventive and wonderfully strange. It's also a charming cartoon, with much with say about the rash of foreclosures and property auctions in the economic turmoil of the Great Depression, and while it is odd it's done inventively and doesn't feel out of kilter.
As always, there is not much wrong here, though it's the thin plotting of the story that comes off least. Sense is cast to the wind also here, but anybody familiar with Betty Boop will be used to this by now and have accepted by now also that there is no point looking for sense in a series of cartoons that was never intended to have it.
In conclusion, strange but entertaining. 8/10 Bethany Cox
