THE CARTOON CRYPT: Betty Boop in Betty in Blunderland (1934)

THE CARTOON CRYPT

Another excellent, surreal Betty Boop cartoon… I love the Jabberwocky in this. The featured song in it, “How Do You Do,” is an altered version of the song “Everyone Says I Love You.” Below is Groucho Marx’s wonderful version of that song from Horse Feathers (1932) (starts at 36 seconds in or so). There are other great versions of that song in Horse Feathers as well… note that you can see the entire movie on YouTube starting here. I’ve exported the music from both movies as mp3’s for your listening pleasure… you can grab those here.

Read more about this cartoon on the Big Cartoon Database here.

THE CARTOON CRYPT: Betty Boop and Pudgy in My Friend the Monkey (1939)

THE CARTOON CRYPT

I must confess, I used to really dislike Pudgy and Grampy… the characters that invaded Betty Boop’s cartoons after her pre-Hays code prime. I blamed them for the decline of quality in Betty Boop cartoons, not to mention the unfortunate disappearance of Bimbo and Koko. I’ve been watching them a lot lately, however, because my daughter LOVES Pudgy… and they really are fun cartoons. Betty is nowhere near as interesting as in her earlier cartoons… but I guess it ain’t Pudgy and Grampy’s fault. This is the 6th from last Fleischer Betty Boop cartoon, and 2nd from last Pudgy cartoon. This may be my favorite of the Pudgy cartoons I’ve seen.

PLEASE NOTE: This cartoon contains ethnic depictions that some people would certainly find offensive, and you may not want to watch it if this sort of thing bugs you.

Read more about this cartoon at the Big Cartoon Database.

THE CARTOON CRYPT: Betty Boop with Henry, the World’s Funniest American (1935)

THE CARTOON CRYPT

Here’s another Betty Boop cartoon with a guest star from the funny pages… here with Carl Anderson’s Henry. Unlike the comic strip, for some reason they decided Henry should talk in the movie. A strange decision, as I don’t think it adds much to have him talk in the cartoon, or even to the storytelling… and it is certainly a big part of his comic strip’s appeal. Boy oh boy does Henry look wrong with a mouth. Come to think of it, boy does Henry look wrong.

Read more about this cartoon on The Big Cartoon Database.

THE CARTOON CRYPT: Betty Boop and Little Jimmy (1936)

THE CARTOON CRYPT

Here’s a Betty Boop cartoon featuring Jimmy Swinnerton’s Little Jimmy (I’ll be presenting some Little Jimmy strips soon for your reading pleasure). Betty is using a vibrating belt machine to lose weight… I remember playing with one of these at some relative’s house as a kid. I don’t think anyone ever lost weight with one of these contraptions, and it would be a good bet that a lot of people met their chiropractors with their assistance. This cartoon also reveals the little known fact that laughing causes obesity, which explains why fat people are always so damned jolly.

Read more about this cartoon on The Big Cartoon Database here.