As I watched "Bimbo's Initiation", I was surprised how good the cartoon was as well as how inappropriate it was for younger audiences! In a strangely surreal film, the Fleischer Studio managed to appeal and repel two different audiences! However, despite the title, Bimbo is a dog--Betty Boop's friend and companion--so the film is NOT adult in this regard!The film begins with Bimbo walking down the street when he's tossed down a manhole by a BRIEF appearance of a character that looks exactly like Mickey Mouse! However, he comes and goes so fast--probably so that they wouldn't get sued for using this Disney character! But, since we are in the age of DVDs and computers, stop and look--it IS Mickey!Bimbo falls down this tunnel into a fun-house like world where he is constantly being asked if he wanted to join some secret society or cult. When he says no, they appear to try to kill him in many weird and funny ways. None of it is cute--mostly it looks like a film directed by or inspired by Salvador Dali or a man on LSB (is there a difference?). You just have to see it to understand what I mean. However, if all Betty Boop cartoons were this bizarrely entertaining, I'd seek them out--but unfortunately they are not.FYI--This movie was recently listed by Crack Online on their list of Five Cartoons Way Darker Than Most Horror Movies. And, based on what I saw, I would agree.

"Bimbo's Initiation" is a hilariously surreal cartoon about Betty Boop's boyfriend, Bimbo the Dog. While the cartoon may not be suitable for children (but then again Betty Boop was- and still is- an adult cartoon, really), "Bimbo's Initiation" is one of those old crazy cartoons you just gotta watch.OK, the synopsis for "Bimbo's Initiation": The cartoon opens with Bimbo walking down the street, harmlessly enough walking over a series of manholes, when an evil Micky Mouse traps him in an open sewer! Bimbo slides down a tunnel and lands in front of a secret society of candle-headed weirdos. The leader asks Bimbo "Wanna be a member? Wanna be a member?". Bimbo of course replies "No!". The secret society weirdos then send Bimbo on his way (or so he thinks), but he really ends up in a sadistic fun house, with the secret society popping up every now and then asking Bimbo "Wanna be a member? Wanna be a member?" What I find as one of the strangest things about "Bimbo's Initiation" is Betty Boops design. In this cartoon she has floppy dog ears, but is still human (apparently Betty Boop was originally meant to be a sexy anthro dog. Anyway, the surrealness of "Bimbo's Initiation" is very well done, combining comedy with some scary elements, ultimately creating a beautiful nightmare very well worth watching.In short, watch "Bimbo's Initiation".

Because of the way the Betty Boop cartoons were shown on television in the early 1960s, certain cartoons were not pushed too much. Those that showed her as she was originally drawn, with "dog" ears", and which hinted at more raw sex than the occasional lapses of later "domesticated" Betty Boop cartoons with her inventor "Gramps" and with her cute dog "Pudgy" were never shown. This, unfortunately, reduced the chances of seeing some of the early Boop supporting cast - Koko the Clown ("Out of the Inkwell") and the male dog Bimbo. Bimbo was Betty's boyfriend in some of the early cartoons - like this one.Here we see Bimbo strolling along, minding his own business, when he falls down a manhole - and immediately the manhole is shut with a heavy lock applied to it. Bimbo finds himself in an underground structure surrounded by about ten masked men who are the members of a society and offer him a chance to join. But he sees they have paddles, and he refuses. And then the surreal world of the Fleischer studio takes over: Bimbo is pushed from one room of the underground structure to another - and in each he is confronted by torture devices that are aiming to kill him. He is also confronted by corn ball jokes (he opens a door and sees a skeleton on a pay phone, telling his girlfriend, "I have a bone to pick with you!"). Every now and then he meets with the spokesman of the society, repeating the offer ("Do you want to be a member? Want to be a member?" And each time Bimbo refuses, and the process of torture begins again.Then Betty pops up to briefly rescue him. At the tail end of the cartoon Betty is there and goes into a dance, and she makes the offer - and now Bimbo accepts it. Then all the members remove their clothes, and they are revealed to be Betty Boop clones.As I said earlier there was more raw sex in these cartoons than in the later ones. Betty, to keep Bimbo's total fascination with her from flagging, whacks herself on the behind while dancing. At the tail end of the cartoon (no pun intended) as she and new member Bimbo are jointly dancing they both "playfully" whack each other's behind a bit. Done tastefully...of course! It was a more open era before the Hays Office Code and the Breen Office really got underway in Hollywood three years after this cartoon was made.

"Bimbo's Initiation" is a gem of a cartoon. It captures the surreal quality of a nightmare-- but the disturbing quality is outweighed by the humor.This is the strange rubbery universe of the Fleischer Brothers at it's best. This is one of the very few cartoons that I can enjoy watching again and again.