Bimbo's Initiation
We are the members of Do-It-Or-Die!
Dee-I, Dee-I, Dee-I!
Watch us make Bimbo, as easy as pie!
Dee-I, Dee-I, Dee-I!
We are, tough you bet!
Filled with college pep!
Bring him on, we cry!
Dee-I, Dee-I, Dee-I!
B! I! M! B! O! BIMBO!—The opening song.
Voted No. 37 on The 50 Greatest Cartoons list, Bimbo's Initiation is a 1931 Fleischer Studios short in the Talkartoons series, centered on the cartoon dog Bimbo (with a few appearances of Betty Boop), who happens to be a victim of an underground cult called Do-It-or-Die[1], who for whatever reason want him to "be a member", forcing him to go through a series of life-threatening situations. Hilarity naturally ensues.
This short is in the public domain and can be viewed here.
- Animation Bump: Several scenes in this short have moving backgrounds.
- By the Lights of Their Eyes
- Deranged Animation
- Dem Bones: The skeleton that pops up in one of the doors pictured above--who happens to be talking to a friend.
"Hello May! I've got a bone to pick with you!"
- Early Installment Weirdness: Betty Boop's Art Evolution wasn't quite completed yet.
- Gainax Ending: The organization turns out to be a bunch of Betty Boop lookalikes. It makes even less sense in context.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: Well, if there was a radar to dodge in the first place during the early 1930s. The crap in question is a burning rope, which was a recurring gag in the early Fleischer cartoons. Some have speculated that it's a visual metaphor for burning weed. Which wouldn't be too hard to assume, considering this is the Fleischers we're talking about here.
- Interspecies Romance: Between Bimbo and Betty -- or perhaps not, as Betty still has puppy dog ears at this point, and may be intended to be a dog.
- Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: The mouse that puts a lock over the manhole that Bimbo falls into looks suspiciously like a more famous mouse who was just becoming popular at the time...
- Random Events Plot
- Rubber Hose Limbs: Which look especially strange on Betty Boop.
- Shout-Out: Those doors or doors very like them show up in Forbidden Zone.
- Unfortunate Name: Of the linguistic drift variety. Back in the 1930s, "Bimbo" was slang for "tough guy."
- ↑ presumably a parody of Illuminati cults