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. That charm, sensuality and adorable factor is not lost anywhere here, nor her comic timing. The live-action performers support her nicely.'Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning' is not quite among the best Betty Boop/Fleischer animated/live action with live-performers cartoons, while also not the worst. It's not great or a masterpiece, but it's pretty good.Admittedly, the story is flimsy, barely existent even and wouldn't have said no to more animation perhaps.It is agreed that the beginning doesn't hold up very well. A lot of things are done really well however, great even.The animation is outstanding, everything is beautifully and meticulously drawn and the whole cartoon is rich in visual detail and imagination. Every bit as good is the music score, which delivers on the energy, lusciousness and infectiousness, great for putting anybody in a good mood.On top of these, 'Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning' is very amusing and charming, the setting is vibrantly rendered and some of the material is surprisingly ahead of its time. The gags are rarely less than amusing and timed with a lot of energy. The live action looks good, blends with the animation well and doesn't feel dull.Concluding, well worth watching if not a must. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning (1932)*** (out of 4)The Fleischer Studio produced a number of these animated short films where the "bouncing ball" would have audience members singing together. The story starts off on an Army base where the sun comes up and the men there just aren't ready to get up. This leads to Betty Boop introducing the bouncing ball and then we get a song by The Wandering Minstrels. If you're a fan of this series then you'll certainly enjoy this short because there are a lot of good moments in it. For starters, the animation is terrific just like you'd expect from the series. Next up is the fact that the story itself is quite good and the Army camp makes for a good setting. Finally, the duo singing actually do a very good job and the song itself is quite catchy. I've seen several of these shorts and this here was the first time where i really wanted to sing along.

This is a short in the Screen Song series which features a cameo by Betty Boop. There will be spoilers ahead:Unlike most of the other Screen Songs, this one has the live action musical performers (The Wandering Minstrels) opening up the short with the title song. The duo are actually fairly good singers and blend well together, but this opening bit is seriously dated and features the two singing part of the verse in dialects. It's less than impressive.The animation opens on an army camp and starts with the sun blowing a wake up call on a bugle. We see a tree and a cannon waking up and then we see the soldiers and various items waking up, talking and complaining about it being early and cold and so on. There's a really good section where the troops move to the formation in their cots and answer roll call from a prone position. The sergeant is calling roll in between snoozes! The best action sequence shows the troops moving rapidly en masse to the mess, with some good sight gags involving trees and a pair of cliffs. They pour into the mess shack and you see a cook moving down a row with a coffee pot, pouring out coffee into cups regardless of what a soldier asks for and dropping in a sugar cube. The payoff to the gag is predictable but funny.Then Betty Boop comes out and starts the audience singalong, with the "bouncing ball" cuing the lyrics for the audience. The words are framed by a mix of animation and live action and the short finishes off with an animated segment which includes a hike.This short is available here and there and is worth watching once.

A forgotten singing Duo called The Wandering Minstrels (Les Reis and Artie Dunn) sing this classic Irving Berlin Song while this cartoon depicts an army about to wake up for the day. There are several gags depicting beds moving by themselves, alarm clocks ringing in tune, the ting on the bell trying to sleep while he's ringing, and one person marching ahead while his twin does the same behind and vice versa. Betty Boop appears as a nurse who sings to us to follow the bouncing ball. As with most Max Fleisher cartunes, the bouncing ball is the tip of an electric stick that glows from behind a screen in order to point the words we are supposed to sing to. Near the end, the ball is replaced by a cartoon character (or more) walking on the words. The unique Fleisher humor shines through in these early Screen Song shorts.