Gripping story with well-crafted characters

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Since I am limited to 1,000 words, I cannot do this picture justice from the start. Therefore, I will simply say: who's to say what it means? Should we each individually subscribe to any one interpretation and thereby join a group? (Wanna be a member?) I think that is the most important point if anything. At least Bimbo seems to think he has the right to walk, happy-go-lucky, through a neutral society (going in and out the window without actually ever going in or out as he whistles along) without falling into a trap set for him by Mickey Mouse or other corporate traps, lol. When he does fall into one, he has the right to say no, but when all groups are reduced to their least common denominator, male and female, he also has the right to say "YES!". It is unfortunate as it seems that Betty did not remain faithful and later turned into a real "Bimbo" in her other pictures, lol.I believe the least common denominator is arrived at by phi over pi (0.5150362148) indicating that Bimbo is only a little over half a person without his female companion. Together they would add up to a little over one 1 with the overage leading back through time to their origin. The leader of the secret society has a prop that seems to suggest their belief in the opposite, pi over phi which is 1.94161103873 and is nonsensical unless you say that a group is more than the sum of its parts and this perhaps somehow gives them more import or rights than an individual or married couple or any person who does not desire to be incorporated. I assume that Fleischer was a Jew and so had been instructed in the importance of male and female union and so this makes sense from that perspective.

When I watch David Lynch movies, I sometimes think he is showing us his nightmares. I often feel that the Betty Boop canon may be David Fleischer's nightmares. In this one, Bimbo, her little dog is the star. He is walking down the street when he fall in a manhole. He finds himself in some weird meeting of some kind of clan. They keep asking him if he wants to join (they are holding boards with nails in them and other weapons). He says no and this leads to one horrible situation after another where he must try to survive. It's a terrifying world but that is the Fleischer way of doing things. There is also a kind of vibration, a kind of rhythmic dance that goes on in these cartoons. I am enjoying these cartoons, fifty years after I saw them as a kid.

"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".

This is a BImbo cartoon and quite an odd one it is too. Betty Boop makes a relatively brief appearance towards the latter half of the short and at the end and her look is slighly different in this early short. Exceedingly strange things happen throughout to say the least! Great fun but definitely an acquired taste. In print and available. Well worth watching. Recommended.