There is a marked difference in the cartoons starring Betty Boop before and after the censorship code and the arrival of the Hays Office. The obvious changes aside, like her hemline, the manic, zany quality seems to fade away in later shorts. That quality is what makes cartoons like this one special. In print and available. Recommended.
7 Reviews
the strangest cartoon I have EVER seen
Mary-1830 July 2001
If you're a fan of Fleischer cartoons, you'll probably really enjoy Betty Boop, M.D. The animation is clever and the cartoon is surprisingly funny and unpredictable. Betty Boop, who I've always found to be the least interesting element of Betty Boop cartoons, has a fairly small role in this one. The high points of the cartoon are the truly bizarre things that happen to the townspeople that take the medicine (an old man becomes a giant baby, a white baby turns into a old, gruff black jazz singer, etc.). But people used to the more comprehensible cartoons of Disney and Warner Brothers, especially young children, may find this surreal and unsettling.
'Betty Boop M.D' may be one of the most bizarre Betty Boop cartoons, but also one of the most fascinating
TheLittleSongbird20 November 2016
Fleischer were responsible for some brilliant cartoons, some of them still among my favourites. Their visual style 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. The charm, sensuality and adorability factors can be seen throughout 'Betty Boop M.D', though she isn't as prominent as in some of her other cartoons, and she is a joy to watch, as are a very funny Bimbo and Koko.
Furthermore, the black and white animation is very good, smooth, meticulously detailed and well drawn with the black and white not looking too primitive. A lot of it is actually very imaginative, especially in the consequences of taking the medicine, which were unlike any cartoon before it or during. Even better is the music, which is rousing, catchy and unquestionably accessible to anybody who loves or is familiar with the compositional style.
'Betty Boop M.D' has an intriguing concept and does it very well, with some wonderfully bizarre and surrealist horror touches, like at the end with the baby turning in Mr Hyde strongly resembling Fredric March. The consequences of the medicine were also hilariously entertaining, but there is always a charm throughout.
Not much wrong here, though concept aside 'Betty Boop M.D' is virtually plot-less and don't even try looking for sense, looking for sense here is like looking for intelligence in a porn film or something.
All in all, bizarre but fascinating, yet another Betty Boop cartoon worth tracking down depending on your stance on her as a character. 8/10 Bethany Cox
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. The charm, sensuality and adorability factors can be seen throughout 'Betty Boop M.D', though she isn't as prominent as in some of her other cartoons, and she is a joy to watch, as are a very funny Bimbo and Koko.
Furthermore, the black and white animation is very good, smooth, meticulously detailed and well drawn with the black and white not looking too primitive. A lot of it is actually very imaginative, especially in the consequences of taking the medicine, which were unlike any cartoon before it or during. Even better is the music, which is rousing, catchy and unquestionably accessible to anybody who loves or is familiar with the compositional style.
'Betty Boop M.D' has an intriguing concept and does it very well, with some wonderfully bizarre and surrealist horror touches, like at the end with the baby turning in Mr Hyde strongly resembling Fredric March. The consequences of the medicine were also hilariously entertaining, but there is always a charm throughout.
Not much wrong here, though concept aside 'Betty Boop M.D' is virtually plot-less and don't even try looking for sense, looking for sense here is like looking for intelligence in a porn film or something.
All in all, bizarre but fascinating, yet another Betty Boop cartoon worth tracking down depending on your stance on her as a character. 8/10 Bethany Cox
A Weird Patent Medicine Show
theowinthrop26 January 2007
Warning: Spoilers
The fortunate thing about "You Tube" is that people do put on some out of date material that rarely pops on television. In particular the BETTY BOOP cartoons made before 1934 have a lot of material that the post-reinforced Hays Office and Breen Office codes would never had allowed. Nothing in this cartoon is really sexual, but it certainly is an odd set of images.
This one really should be called "Betty Boop's Patent Medicine". She, Koko the Clown, and Bimbo (and a frog announcer) travel in a wagon and sell a nostrum they call "Jippo" which is supposed to cure all sorts of things (it also promises to make young men old!). It is made (we discovered) from regular water from a hydrant. But it works wonders. A bearded man (suspiciously chanting like a religious Jew) is bald - he applies it to his head, and his beard miraculously transfers to his bald pate. An old man in a wheel chair drinks some, and he soon tips himself in a ready made grave that appears. Another old man with a baby drinks some and changes into a full height baby, while the baby takes some and becomes a pint size old man. Fat people become thin, and thin people become fat. One fat individual has a prominent stomach which, the moment he bends forward, becomes his rear end.
So it goes in the cartoon until the conclusion - which appears to have been slightly misunderstood on one of the other comments here. We see Betty, Koko, and Bimbo making a mint from the sale of the nostrum, and the last person to purchase any drinks it, and his face and features slowly changes into that of Fredric March turning into Edward Hyde.
This one really should be called "Betty Boop's Patent Medicine". She, Koko the Clown, and Bimbo (and a frog announcer) travel in a wagon and sell a nostrum they call "Jippo" which is supposed to cure all sorts of things (it also promises to make young men old!). It is made (we discovered) from regular water from a hydrant. But it works wonders. A bearded man (suspiciously chanting like a religious Jew) is bald - he applies it to his head, and his beard miraculously transfers to his bald pate. An old man in a wheel chair drinks some, and he soon tips himself in a ready made grave that appears. Another old man with a baby drinks some and changes into a full height baby, while the baby takes some and becomes a pint size old man. Fat people become thin, and thin people become fat. One fat individual has a prominent stomach which, the moment he bends forward, becomes his rear end.
So it goes in the cartoon until the conclusion - which appears to have been slightly misunderstood on one of the other comments here. We see Betty, Koko, and Bimbo making a mint from the sale of the nostrum, and the last person to purchase any drinks it, and his face and features slowly changes into that of Fredric March turning into Edward Hyde.
Betty Boop, M.D. just may have the most bizarre images ever on a Max Fleischer cartoon
tavm29 September 2009
Warning: Spoilers
Wow! I've just seen the most bizarre cartoon, at least the Max Fleischer/Betty Boop kind, on YouTube. This one has Betty, Koko the Clown, and Bimbo selling a medicine drink called Jippo. Among the claims advertised on the wagon, "Flattens Feet" "Makes Young Men Old". Well, it does make beards go inside the skin to reappear on a bald head. Or turn babies to old men and vice versa. And at the end, one other baby turns into Mr. Hyde in a remarkable resemblance of the way Fredric March was made to look like in his Oscar-winning role. As usual, there's some entertaining singing and scatting from the various characters other than the three leads. So on that note, Betty Boop, M.D. comes highly recommended.
Practically plot less but well animated
planktonrules23 August 2013
"Betty Boop, M.D." finds our heroine selling patent medicine along with her friends Bimbo and Ko Ko. While you can see that they are only filling the bottles with water, again and again, frighteningly unpredictable changes take place in anyone who drinks it--and after Betty does her dance, everyone seems anxious to have it.
There really isn't much plot in this one. Betty sells fraudulent 'medicine', sings a song and the film then shows all the weird reactions that happen to those who take it. The song is rather zippy and enjoyable but it seems very, very weird to have a beloved cartoon character behaving in such an amoral fashion. This is really awfully strange and vaguely unsatisfying. The only real plus is the Fleischer Brothers Studio animation--which was much better than most of their competition.
There really isn't much plot in this one. Betty sells fraudulent 'medicine', sings a song and the film then shows all the weird reactions that happen to those who take it. The song is rather zippy and enjoyable but it seems very, very weird to have a beloved cartoon character behaving in such an amoral fashion. This is really awfully strange and vaguely unsatisfying. The only real plus is the Fleischer Brothers Studio animation--which was much better than most of their competition.
The epitome of a Betty Boop cartoon
Horst_In_Translation21 April 2016
Warning: Spoilers
"Betty Boop, M.D." is an American short film from almost 85 years ago. As all the other Betty Boop cartoons, it runs for 7 minutes and is still in black-and-white. And also as usual, it does not provide a smart story or many funny jokes, but the really most memorable thing here is how absurd it is. There are elements from different genres in here, even a very light tough of horror. Director is the legendary Dave Fleischer. Betty's cartoons are still hurt by the fact that they are in black-and-white with color films quickly taking over in the early 1930s. But this is not the main problem here. The music also isn't. It is that there just is not a convincing or interesting story, it is more a collection of weird scenes. I do not recommend this little movie. Then again, I am not the greatest Betty Boop fan, so if you like some of her other works, maybe this one here is still a good watch for you. But not for me. Thumbs down.
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