Making Stars (1935)

Making Stars Review

Making Stars is a 1935 animated short film from the Betty Boop series. It is a pretty standard, but enjoyable flick.

Betty is the star of a stage revue of performing babies. The babies vary in ethnicities and nationalities, leading to many stereotypes. The Russian girl is bouncing, the Asian baby is a swordsman and the black babies of course love watermelon. That last bit was absolutely hilarious how insensitive it was, but we have to watch these movies in context as they are from the thirties after all.

Making Stars is a film in a long reign of movies where Betty stages a show of some kind, thus it felt unoriginal and uninspired. The babies are cute and some of their acts were quite memorable and fun, but Betty herself is forgettable in this instance and I wished for more of her signature humor and dialogue. The animation is nice, but lacking in surreal or truly artistic sensibilities.

Making Stars is a solid and charming stage revue short, but one that lacked originality and authenticity.

My Rating – 3.4