Admission Free

This cartoon is nominally a Betty Boop cartoon, but it features very little of her and a lot more of her boyfriend, Bimbo the Dog. There's also a cameo by Ko Ko the Clown. The first half of the cartoon is set in a penny arcade. Betty works the change booth but the focus is on all the crazy stuff that happens when folks pay to play the various games. However, when Bimbo is at a shooting range, one of the ducks flies off and he spends the rest of the film trying to catch the creature (sort of like an Elmer Fudd cartoon). None of the film is bad or outstanding and it's a rather average film in the series—complete with the usual very high quality Fleischer Brothers animation. Worth seeing but hardly memorable.

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.

Ko-Ko is always watchable and he is as likeable and amusing as ever, but he only makes a cameo appearance here and a great character like Ko-Ko deserves more than that.

'Admission Free' 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. Betty Boop in her early days worked well when taking an odd tone, and that is handled here and the creepiness doesn't get too much. The voice work is good.

On the whole, good if not great. 7/10 Bethany Cox

This is an unusual arcade to say the least! Interestingly enough, the Fleischers also did a Popeye centering around penny arcades some years later that is considerably different in style and mood from this one. The Betty Boop series as a whole had a much different feel from the Popeye series, which is understandable, as the intent of the two series are much different as well. Betty is making change in a penny arcade and the gags are mostly sight gags (actually, primarily Bimbo drooling over Betty for about a third of the short) and it is bizarre and occasionally a bit creepy. Marvelous short, but a strange one. In print and available. Well worth watching. Most recommended.