Bimbo's Express

Bimbo and his associates come to Betty Boop's house to move her furniture. When Bimbo sees her his eyes pop out of his head. Of course, it's a disaster. They destroy much of what she owns, but we don't pay much attention to that, do we. Betty's character still has the dog ears. Bimbo is probably slipping away as the principle cartoon character at this time. There are some reasonable bits here.

Despite the title "Bimbo's Express", the cartoon has nothing to do with ladies of easy virtue or prostitution. Nope. This Bimbo is the early Fleischer Brothers character--one who was a regular in Betty Boop cartoons. It's not all that funny--aside from one very off-color remark*. Now I am NOT sure if you'd call this a Betty Boop cartoon per se. Yes, she's in it but she's a relatively minor character and she hasn't yet lost the odd doggy ears they put on her in her earliest films. Instead, she's a work in progress--more Boop-like than in her first film, "Dizzy Dishes" but not the Boop we all are familiar with today.

*The off-color remark occurred when Bimbo arrived and knocked on the door. Betty told him to stay outside as she was in her nightie—at which point Bimbo told her to just take it off! A cute joke, but not the most wholesome of jokes—and clearly one that would NOT have been allowed if the film had debuted after the toughened Production Code was enacted in mid-1934.

**As far as the ears go, when Betty was first introduced, she was a part-dog/part-lady hybrid. As the first year or so of her cartoons passed, she became less and less dog-like. Here in "Bimbo's Express" she still sports doggy ears. Having a dog for a boyfriend made sense if Betty was a dog, but later when she was all girl, this became problematic and creepy—so the romance was eventually eliminated.

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. This is more Bimbo's cartoon though, Betty could have had more to do, and he is great fun and has a lovely sensual chemistry with Betty.

'Bimbo's Express' doesn't see either character at their best and Fleischer have also done better. This said, it has all the elements that make her pre-Code cartoons so worthwhile and does do so much, almost everything, right and little wrong. The weak link is the very flimsy, basically-a-string-along-of-gags, story that spends a bit too much time with Bimbo being amorous.

However, 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.

As hoped, the fun is ceaseless and while it is not exactly creative everything is very well timed and never dull. The voices are well done.

Altogether, pretty good. 7/10 Bethany Cox