Be Human (film)

1936 American film

November 20, 1936 (1936-11-20)

Running time

6 minutes^[2]CountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglish

Be Human is a 1936 American animated short film starring Betty Boop and Grampy.^[3] It is now in the public domain.

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.^[4]

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.

Notes

^ Komorowski, Thad (September 15, 2014). "Fleischer Promo Art #16: "Betty Slays 'Em!"". Cartoon Research. Retrieved September 16, 2024.
^ ^a ^b ^c 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.
^ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 54–56. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
^ 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.