Any Rags

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, and he is great fun.

'Any Rags' is not one of the best Betty Boop cartoons by all means, but certainly not among the worst, her lesser efforts all being when the Production Code was enforced, things became tame and what made the early pre-Code cartoons so good was somewhat lost. 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 story, which is very flimsy.

Creativity and imagination have also been more frequent and stronger in other Fleischer/Betty Boop/Bimbo cartoons, 'Any Rags' is certainly not devoid of either but it's not rich in either too.

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 the creativity and imagination are present, just that it has been stronger elsewhere. The voice acting is fine. Didn't think that the cartoon is that creepy and like Betty and Bimbo's chemistry together.

Overall, nice cartoon if not a great or outstanding one. 7/10 Bethany Cox

This cartoon stars Bimbo the dog but there are also appearances by familiar Fleischer Studios characters Betty Boop and Ko Ko. There really isn't a lot of plot to this one. Mostly, Bimbo goes about town begging for rags—though in the process he steals pretty much anything this mutt can get his hands on. By the end, he and Betty kiss and this is really creepy, as by the time "Any Rags" debuted, Betty was completely human and her love affair with Bimbo just seemed wrong. What had happened was that originally, Betty WAS more of a dog—with doggy ears and was Bimbo's girl back in 1930. However, by mid-1931, changing her into a person, this same relationship, even by cartoon standards, is amazingly creepy—let alone illegal in most locales! During the course of all this nonsense, there is a jazz tune. Sometimes such singing jazz cartoons worked well (such as when Betty sang Cab Calloway hits), but here the problem is the quality of the music—Bimbo's voice is too weak and is drowned out by the music. All in all, a somewhat creepy, somewhat plot less mess of a cartoon whose only strength is the great quality of the Fleischer Brothers animation—as usual, it's terrific.

Bimbo is a rag collector. He goes door to door and asks if people have things to get rid of. When he can't get things on the up and up, he begins to steal things. He then holds forth, attempting to sell these items to a crowd of people. There is an interesting response. Betty Boop makes her appearance, seemingly having a romantic relationship with Bimbo. Betty has lost the dog ears and is now a full fledged woman. Really full fledged.