A good deal of the pre-Production Code Betty Boop cartoons are daring and creative, with content that makes one amazed at what's gotten away with. While the later Betty Boop cartoons made after the Code was enforced are still watchable and exceptionally well-made, they are so toned down that they feel bland.
Fleischer were responsible for some brilliant cartoons, some of them still among my favourites. Their visual style was 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.
Unexpectedly, the animation, as always, in 'The Swing School' is extremely good, being beautifully drawn, crisply shaded and meticulous in detail. The music is infectious, lush and dynamic.
'The Swing School' is pleasantly cute, especially the ending, Pudgy (one of Betty's better regular supporting characters in the later cartoons, after Grampy) is adorable and carries the cartoon decently, sharing charming chemistry with Betty. The voice acting is solid, the new voice actress for Betty is no match for Mae Questel but still fares quite well.
However, while pleasantly cute in places, parts of 'The Swing School' is so cutesy it gets on the wrong side of sweetly saccharine, enough to bring things down. This is further accentuated by this is practically the only emotion in the entire cartoon. There is a lack of laughs, which makes the lack of surreal, risqué or creative edge far less easier to ignore and forgive.
Story-wise, 'The Swing School' is as paper thin and formulaic as one can get and Betty could have had more to do, she is also pretty subdued here.
All in all, cute but bland. 6/10 Bethany Cox
