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.

Betty Boop is possibly the most durable of all Hollywood female icons, since she can still be seen adorning stationery items and girlie accessories almost 85 years after her creation! Even so, her real stock-in-trade – the Max and Dave Fleischer series of black-and-white cartoon shorts throughout the Thirties – are among the least-seen items of classic animation. She was a staple of Italian TV during my childhood, to be sure, but it has been ages since I have seen her image displayed on any channel! Although I have collected many of the comprehensive classic animation box sets issued on DVD in the past decade (be it Walt Disney Treasures, Looney Tunes Golden Collections, Tom and Jerry, Woody Woodpecker or, best of all, Tex Avery), tellingly, I have not sprung for any of the 3(!) collections recently released on BluRay (no less!) dedicated to Betty Boop and what entries I will be reviewing from her filmography presently have been watched via "You Tube" and are simply more grit from the "Wonders In The Dark" mill.This particular "Talkartoon" short – which was obviously intended to highlight then-popular entertainer Cab Calloway's current song hit, who also appears with his jazz band in the brief, live-action intro – features Betty angering her parents by declining to eat her dinner (a helpful flower tastes it and promptly wilts away!) and fleeing the house with her dog Bimbo into the woods where they meet a bunch of ghosts, whose walrus leader scares them back home with a rendition of the titular tune. Again, for a film of its age, the animation is pleasing enough (if not particularly inventive) and the song itself is now a standard.

That age-old fathead Betty Boop decides to teach her tee-totalling ma and pa a lesson by running away with her hip little dog pal Bimbo. She's so annoying and boring, I much prefer Toot Braunstein myself. Suffice it to say, what they experience on their little sojourn would make even the most die-hard of runaways run screaming back home to mama! The whole short is packed with the patented loony and brilliant images that make these particular types of old cartoons dark works of art. I just love how everything on show seems to spring to life. There's so many strange and macabre things to see that are leaping about and at the screen, fantastic indistinct blurry demonic things all swirling around the two characters in a satanic kind of dance around the maypole. Some of my favourite sight and fright gags are when Betty's father warps into some kind of old-timey radio, the skeleton cat and her kittens-freaking twisted, and the skeletons who die again and come back as skeleton ghosts! Then what the hell were they before?! I also spotted a miniature version of Koko the clown who can briefly be seen as he leaps out of an ink well. I was once again struck by the three-dimensional feel of the animation. I don't know if other people thought so, but there seemed to be a great sense of depth to it. Not only were there imps witches and all manner of leering sprites all bounding towards and bombarding the audience, but there were beautifully drawn Gothic skulls, faces and stalactites in the background that really gave a richly detailed perspective. It almost works as a 3D set, rather than merely a flat background for the figures to prance around in. This sense of added depth helps to create a much more atmospheric experience for the viewer, almost like we're right there in that nightmare cave with them! It must have especially been something amazing to see way back in 1932!::: Once more we are treated to the magic moves and sweet soulful tones of Cab Calloway.(RIP) Hey, now we know where the Moonwalk came from! This time he is in the guise of the walrus-goo goo ga-joob! Is there any greater honour than being animated as a jazz singing ghostly walrus version of yourself? If there is I don't wanna know about it! Loved this, another great little animated vision of madness. It's so masterfully weird and spooky. Not just "for it's time" for any time-hell, for all time!!!

The title is a song made famous by Cab Calloway, and we immediately see him making like Michael Jackson smoothly dancing as she leads his orchestra in the song. Calloway was definitely a very cool cat, and ahead of his time.After that short performance comes the cartoon story, in which we see Betty being blasted by her father at the dinner table. She's in tears, can't eat and walks away singing the blues, ready to leave home. She writes a note: "Dear Ma and Pa, I'm leaving home because you're not so sweet to me. I won't ever be home again. Betty."She calls Bimbo and the two leave together. They get scared when it gets dark and hide in a cave, where a giant walrus (Calloway) materializes and sings them the "Minnie The Moocher" song. Bizarre?? Yeah! During the song we see skeletons, jailbirds singing on electric chairs, spooks, ghosts, all kinds of very strange sights. After witnessing these strange sights, Betty changes her mind about never going back home. Home, all of a sudden, looks pretty good.Not hilarious, but a very entertaining cartoon. I love it when Betty and Cab get together.