The issues of prostitution and child pornography were not far from critics' thoughts. In his "New York Times" review Vincent Canby wrote: "Mr. Malle, the French director ... has made some controversial films in his time but none, I suspect, that is likely to upset convention quite as much as this one – and mostly for the wrong reasons. Though the setting is a whorehouse, and the lens through which we see everything is Violet, who ... herself becomes one of Nell's chief attractions, "Pretty Baby" is neither about child prostitution nor is it pornographic." Canby ended his review with the claim that "Pretty Baby" is "... the most imaginative, most intelligent, and most original film of the year to date."