Be Human (film)

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Be Human
Directed by Dave Fleischer
Produced by Max Fleischer
Starring Mae Questel
(Betty Boop)
Everett Clark
(Grampy) [1] [2]
Gus Wickie
(Abusive Farmer)
Jack Mercer
(Horse, Pig) [3]
Music by Sammy Timberg [2]
Animation by Lillian Friedman
Myron Waldman
Color process Black-and-white
Production
company
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date
  • November 20, 1936 (1936-11-20)
Running time
6 minutes [2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Be Human is a 1936 American animated short film starring Betty Boop and Grampy. [4] It is now in the public domain.

Contents

Plot

Betty Boop is incensed at her farmer neighbor's cruelty to his animals. But the inventive Grampy knows how to teach him a lesson.

The abusive farmer has been compared to Billy Joe Gregg, who abused numerous cows and calves at the Conklin Dairy Farms in Ohio in 2010. [5]

Song

The cartoon features the song Be Human sung by Betty Boop accompanying herself on piano. Instrumental renditions of the song are also prominent throughout the cartoon. When the animal-abusing farmer winds up on Grampy's punishment treadmill, a phonograph recording of Grampy's voice is heard singing the song.

See also

Notes

  1. Komorowski, Thad (September 15, 2014). "Fleischer Promo Art #16: "Betty Slays 'Em!"". Cartoon Research. Retrieved September 16, 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 Webb, Graham (2011). The Animated Film Encyclopedia: A Complete Guide to American Shorts, Features and Sequences (1900-1999). McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 34. ISBN   978-0-7864-4985-9.
  3. "Be Human (1936)…Betty Boop Cartoon Video". YouTube: Hollywood Classics. April 28, 2021.
  4. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 54–56. ISBN   0-8160-3831-7 . Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  5. Hunt, Andrew (August 26, 2010). "Betty Boop & Grampy: Two Pioneering Animal Rights Activists!" . Retrieved June 28, 2011. ... Betty Boop and her partner in crime, Grampy, as a couple of Depression-era animal rights activists who relentlessly go after a mean goon of a farmer who's abusing his animals.