Minnie the Moocher

Fleischer Studios and Disney Studios had a sort of friendly rivalry in animated cartoon shorts in the early 1930s. Headed by Max Fleischer, his company was releasing more daring animation that bordered on the surreal. But Fleischer Studios didn't have Mickey as its star attraction. The studio did, however, contain in its repertoire the flapper female character Betty Boop. Introduced on the screen in 1930 as the human version of a dog to her canine boyfriend, Bimbo, Betty took on a full human appearance in January 1932 in "Any Rags?" Her most famous cartoon for the year, though, was released a month later in February 1932's "Minnie the Moocher," featuring the first film appearance of singer Cab Calloway and his Orchestra. Deep into the cartoon, the ghosts dancing before Betty and her friend Bimbo mimic Calloway's movements in the opening credits. The Fleischer's used the tracing technique of rotoscoping to accurately draw a parallel between Calloway's movements and those of Bimbo's. Calloway had sold over one million copies of his 1931 jazz song, 'Minnie the Moocher.' The Betty Boop cartoon is named after the Calloway hit, with its scat ad-libbed lyrics providing a unique listening and viewing experience.

Betty Boop, the "Jazz Baby" flapper, was the ideal character to introduce to national audiences African-American musicians performing their jazz numbers. Musicians Louis Armstrong and Don Redman followed in Calloway's footsteps in later Betty Boop cartoons. Showcasing black musicians was a gamble for Max and his younger brother Dave Fleischer, knowing those cartoons wouldn't be shown in the Deep South theaters. In "Minnie the Moocher," the studio played homage to its very first cartoon character the brothers introduced in 1924, Ko-Ko the Clown, kicking off their 'Out of the Inkwell Films' series. The clown appears, of all places, in an inkwell. Betty is writing a 'good-bye' note to her parents before she runs away with Bimbo, and pulls out Ko-Ko when she dips her pen into the ink container.

The poll by 1,000 animators who voted for 50 of the Greatest ever Cartoons ranked "Minnie the Moocher" as number 20, proving the popularity and ingeniousness of Betty Boop was unique in cartoon land and as an historic figure in animation.

Minnie the Moocher is essentially a music video for Cab Calloway's titular song, the '30s equivalent of Michael Jackson's Thriller, a featurette with a story to go with the song. It begins with live action footage of Calloway strutting his stuff in front of his Cotton Club Orchestra, but quickly turns into an animated tale featuring sexy cartoon babe Betty Boop, who runs away from home with her lover Bimbo, only to be haunted by singing ghosts in a spooky forest.

While perhaps not quite as demented as Bimbo's Initiation (1931), this cartoon still features its fair share of freaky visuals, from Betty's father's head turning into a gramophone, to Max Fleischer's regular character Koko the clown emerging from an inkwell, to the walrus ghost who mimics Calloway's dance moves, to the bizarre skeleton cat and its kittens, and so much more in-between. The animation is top notch for the day, with lots of lovely detail (check out the backgrounds, which feature fang like stalactites and skulls), while the music, it goes without saying, is superb. If you love animation, then you simply must check this out (and Bimbo's Initiation, which I think is even better).

Betty Boop has some right to feel a bit persecuted by her parents. They nag and assault her verbally, causing her to run away with Bimbo. Obviously, the cartoonist sided with the parents because once the two get into unfamiliar territory, they are bombarded by ghosts and demons. Horrible visages accost them. The interesting thing is that this film has nothing to do with the character of Minnie the Moocher from the Cab Calloway song. It becomes dance music for the wraiths that inhabit the forbidden place. All of that said, the animation is superb, the characters terrifying, and everything is great fun. One question. Why is this sexy little thing with the garter and the revealing costume living at home with her parents. Running away and being so inexperienced seems the action of a seven year old.

The first part of the film shows us a younger Betty Boop than we're used to seeing in the Fleischer Brothers cartoons.

Betty is a girl in her early/mid teens, being nagged to tears by her immigrant parents. Betty sings the 1911 Von Tilzer number "They Always Pick On Me". Notice how the animator attends to such details as the bouncing of Betty's breasts on the staircase-- such details would soon be suppressed in USA animation by the Hayes Code.

This is the first of 3 Fleischer cartoons with Cab Calloway featured on the soundtrack. They proved popular-- and Calloway used them as advertising, having the cartoons shown in theaters of towns the week before his travelling band would arrive.

"Minnie The Moocher" is good, as is the last of the series "The Old Man of the Mountain", but Betty Boop's "Snow White" is the best of all.

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 and she is very well supported by the ever fun Bimbo, the two have great chemistry together too.

'Minnie the Moocher' (title taken from the famous Cab Calloway song) is quintessential Betty Boop. If anybody is a fan, 'Minnie the Moocher' is a must watch, and perhaps even people not so hot on her might get a lot of value out of it.

As always, 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.

Like with pretty much all the early Betty Boop cartoons, meaning before the production code tightened up and everything became tame, 'Minnie the Moocher' certainly does not disappoint when it comes to being risqué, creative or delightfully bizarre. As a pre-code cartoon, a lot of the content here is very daring stuff, very ahead of its time back then and you don't see much like the pre-code Betty Boop cartoons made today. And it's done in a very hugely creative and humorous way, with a very high spirit and spookiness throughout. The voice acting is good as always.

Overall, wonderful cartoon and for Betty Boop fans it's quintessential. 10/10 Bethany Cox