Betty Boop/Characters

Betty Boop

A 16 year old flapper girl, looking for a good time and good at heart. Betty was gradually toned down post-1933, but is still remembered today as the peppy, cute youth of her early days.

• Ambiguously Jewish
• Anthropomorphic Shift: When she originally appeared, Betty Boop was conceived as a cartoon poodle, but gradually, she morphed into a cartoon human.
• Half the Man He Used To Be: More like "Half the Woman She Used to Be," but there are two instances where Betty Boop gets literally halved.
  • In the Betty Boop adaptation of "Jack and the Beanstalk," Betty Boop is bound. She gets rescued when Bimbo chops her in half and scoots the two halves out of the bonds.
  • In The Betty Boop Unlimited, Betty Boop is dancing whilst she is on top of a train, and one arch slams into her so hard, that she loses her upper body, which regenerates.
• Ms. Fanservice: The earliest animated example.
• Sexy Backless Outfit
• She's Got Legs

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Bimbo

The initial star of the Max Fleischer Talkartoons series of sound cartoons, Bimbo is a cartoon dog, bred of the stock rubberhose art style of the time and the Fleischers answer to Mickey Mouse. Betty was initially created to be his girlfriend, but ended up becoming so popular that Talkartoons became her own series, while Bimbo getting into many escapades with her, some of which were romantic. However, once the Hays Office grew its claws in 1934, he was immediately abandoned due to the Code's rules against Beastiality.

• All Men Are Perverts: Er, dogs anyway.
• Art Evolution: In his early appearances, the animators simply could not make up their minds as to how Bimbo should be drawn. This resulted in him constantly changing design between shorts, until they settled into a final sweater wearing design.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: As mentioned above, he was abandoned post-1933 due to the Hays Office objecting to Betty having Interspecies Romance with him.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Bimbo has a sweater but his bottom half is unclothed save for a pair of shoes that he constantly wears.
• Interspecies Romance: With Betty, after she became human.
• Meaningful Name: During the 30's, anyways--back then, "Bimbo" was slang for "loser".
• Satellite Character: Really dosen't have much of a personality.
• Unfortunate Name: Of the "changed meaning" variety--back in the 30's, Bimbo was slang for "Loser."

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Koko The Clown

The original star of the Max Fleischer cartoon studio from the Out of the Inkwell series, Silent Age cartoon veteran Koko the Clown made occasional appearances in the shorts as a copatriot of Betty and Bimbo.

• Cartoon Creature: Koko may be a clown, but he's certainly not human--he's more of an ink creature.
• The Cameo: Briefly appeared in his small form in the short "Minnie the Moocher".
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Didn't make that many appearances in this series.
• Non-Ironic Clown
• Those Two Guys: When he teams up with Bimbo, such as in "Snow White".

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Pudgy

After Betty was cleaned up by the Hays Office, animator Myron Waldman decided to give Betty a new friend, a moon-faced puppy named Pudgy, to replace Bimbo (a character whom Waldman despised). In a sense, Pudgy is Fleischer's answer to Walt Disney's Pluto, but arguably much cuter than his predecessor was.

• Character Focus: Some episodes would be entirely centered around him.
• Precious Puppies
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: Befriends a small kitten in one episode.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter
• The Voiceless

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Grampy

Betty's grandpa, who happens to be a genius inventor.

• Absent-Minded Professor
• Badass Santa/Saving Christmas: In "Christmas Comes But Once A Year", he takes on the role of Santa after finding out how a group of orphans got broken and useless toys. He begins to recycle old random items and makes them into toys for the children, that are way better than what they got.
• Big Damn Heroes: By virtue of Car Fu in "Be Human".
  • Badass Grandpa: He doesn't let his senior age stop him from saving the day.
• The Cameo: Makes an appearance in the Color Classics short "Somewhere in Dreamland".
• Mr. Fixit