The Farmerette (1932)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Decent animated short from RKO has a farmer hiring a sexy lady to come to the farm to try and get the animals to work better. The lady, looking like a cat, uses her swing and jazz moves to motivate the animals into working. THE FARMERETTE is a rather bizarre cartoon because you have to wonder why the filmmakers weren't sued by the people who owned Betty Boop. The female character here sounds exactly like her and I guess it should come as no shock since Maggie Hines did the vocal work here. Even more shocking is that the cat clearly has the facial structure and eyes of Betty Boop so you have to wonder how they got away with it. Either way, I think that bizarre little situation actually makes the film a lot more entertaining than it would have been otherwise. For the most part I liked the lead character and thought she brought some fun to the picture. I thought the animation for the most part was very good but I think it would have helped had the actual animals been a bit more entertaining. The final joke with the hay on the tractor was a good one though.