Betty Boop's Ups and Downs Review: Six Minutes of Pure, Beautiful Nonsense

If you have exactly six minutes to spare today, you should absolutely watch this. It is perfect for anyone who loves weird, rubbery old animation where logic goes to die. If you need a plot that makes sense, though, you will probably hate it. 🌀

This is Betty Boop's Ups and Downs from 1932. It is basically a fever dream put on paper.

The whole thing starts because Betty thinks everything on Earth is up for sale. Next thing you know, there is a literal sign on the planet saying "For Sale" and an auctioneer with a nose so big it has its own zip code is selling the globe.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Betty Boop's Ups and Downs (1932) through its definitive frames.

The moon buys Earth for a single dollar. Yes, one dollar.

When Gravity Quits

Once the moon takes over, he decides to pull gravity away. This is where the Fleischer brothers' animators just went wild with their ink pens.

Suddenly, everyone starts floating. But it is not like nice, graceful floating like in space movies. It is chaotic and slightly stressful.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Betty Boop's Ups and Downs (1932) through its definitive frames.

People are trying to hold onto their houses. A guy's pants fly off because even his clothes do not want to stay down. There is a weirdly specific moment where a dog gets stretched out like a piece of warm taffy. I had to pause and rewatch that part because it looked so painful but funny.

It reminds me of the wild, lawless energy you find in early cinema, like the slapstick in The Patsy. Nobody was worried about realism back then. They just wanted to make you laugh or gasp.

"Going, going, gone!"

Betty herself does not actually do much in this one. She mostly just squeaks and floats around, showing off her trademark garter belt while holding onto a tree.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Betty Boop's Ups and Downs (1932) through its definitive frames.

The Small Stuff

Here are some random things I noticed while watching this on my laptop:

• The auctioneer's gavel is alive and makes a weird squeaking noise.
• The music has this incredible hot-jazz rhythm that makes you want to bounce in your chair.
• There is a magnet gag that makes absolutely no scientific sense but is brilliant anyway.
• The background characters look like they were drawn by three different people who did not talk to each other.

The ending is very abrupt. Like, the cartoon just decides it is done and stops. You do not get a big lesson or a neat wrap-up.

Honestly, we need more movies like this today. Just pure, unadulterated nonsense that does not try to teach us a lesson or setup a sequel like The Last Frontier did back in the day with its serial format. It is just six minutes of creative fun.

Go find it on YouTube. It is free, it is fast, and it will definately make your day a little weirder. 🚀