ReFrederator Blog

“Crazy Town” wraps up our “Nice Place to Visit but I Wouldn’t Want to Live There Week” here at ReFrederator. Betty Boop and Bimbo take a trolley ride to what turns out to be the Max Fleischer’s version of Bizzaro World; fish fly, birds swim, animals make all the wrong noises and a guy walks around with hats on his feet and a shoe on his head. It was 1932, and that “weird for weird’s sake” thing was pretty commonplace in cartoons — apparently, the average animator was expected to unfetter his id on his way in the studio gate!

The times were a lot more tolerant towards inter-species romance among cartoon characters, too! Betty’s and Bimbo’s much publicized on-screen fling kinda reached its peak around this time — they’re all over each other in this film (yeah, I know Betty started out her movie career looking a little pooch-like herself, but by this time she was a thoroughly human little flapper with hoop earings, not dog ears.) And, at one point, Ms. Boop does discretely move the grabby little canine’s hands off her derriere, and onto her waist. Love her little roto-scoped dance!

We’re up to our armpits with antennae on Monday when we introduce “Insect Infestation Week.” ReFrederator. Classic cartoons on call!

Dave Kirwan