Minnie the Moocher
"I'm not afraid, are you Bimbo?..."[1]
A classic Max and Dave Fleischer Betty Boop short from 1932, this short has Betty running away from her overbearing family with her dog boyfriend, Bimbo... only to encounter a singing walrus ghost (voiced by Cab Calloway, no less, and the opening sequence features the earliest known footage of Cab dancing with his band), which proceeds to sing them the title song. Deranged Animation ensues.
This cartoon holds the place of No. 20 on The 50 Greatest Cartoons list. The short is in the Public Domain, and can be watched in its entirety on YouTube or downloaded from Archive.org.
Tropes used in Minnie the Moocher include:
- The Cameo: Koko the Clown is accidentally dragged out of an ink well as Betty writes a note to her parents before running away. Doubles as a Visual Pun, as Koko is from the "Out of the Inkwell" shorts.
- Dem Bones: The acid sequence includes a bit with three skeletons at a bar drinking beer. However that works.
- Deranged Animation
- Disney Acid Sequence: Once Betty and Bimbo make it to the cave, and encounter the walrus.
- Emo Teen: Betty waxes a bit Emo Teen after the fight with her parents when she starts down the old familiar "they'll be sorry when I'm dead!" train of thought.
- Funny Foreigner: Betty's German-accented parents, complete with the obligatory „Was ist los?", „Dunnawetta!"[2], and „Ach, du lieber Augustin!"
- Electric Chair Humor
- Interspecies Romance: Between Bimbo and Betty.
- Public Domain Animation
- Rotoscoping: Its impressive use of rotoscoping to transfer Cab Calloway's dance moves onto the walrus is likely the reason the short appears on The 50 Greatest Cartoons list. Calloway himself is said to have gotten a kick out of the end result, and would lend his singing and dance moves to two more Betty Boop shorts.
- The Runaway: Betty
- The Walrus Was Paul: Not helped that the short has an actual Walrus to go with the shorts already Mind Screw nature.
- Unfortunate Name: Bimbo, of the "changed meaning" variety. When the cartoons were made, Bimbo was a slang term for a tough guy.
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