'Minnie the Moocher' is a freaky trip

Minnie the Moocher (1932)
Starring: The Voices of Cab Calloway and Mae Questal
Director: Dave Fleischer
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars


Betty (Questal) and her boyfriend Bimbo run away from home, but they are confronted by a ghostly walrus (Calloway) and other spooks when they seek shelter in what turns out to be haunted cave.

"Minnie the Moocher" is one of the greatest Betty Boop cartoons, and some even say it is the greatest. Me, I think that honor goes to "The Old Man of the Mountain", but there's no question that this is one jazzy, snazzy, kooky. spooky filmlette!

"Minnie the Moocher" was the first of three collaborations between producer Max Fleischer and pioneering jazz-man Cab Calloway, and, like the other two, it plays like a precusor to the sorts of music videos that were the hallmark of MTV during its glory days: Each is a tour-de-force of creativity and surreal weirdness, as well as vehicle for delivering excellent music to present fans and introducing it to new ones.

As for the cartoon itself, "Minnie the Moocher" will keep you engaged with both its storyline, its weird visuals, and the great songs, with the main attraction being the song of the title, but Betty singing about how distressed she is over her mean parents is fun as well. Like the other two cartoons that Calloway made with Fleisher, it's also a great deal of fun to see him turned into a cartoon creature that still moves in a very Calloway-esque fashion thanks to Rotoscope--which was invented by Fleischer animators and first used on these cartoons.

Why don't you take a few minutes to enjoy some great music and watch an even greater cartoon? Just click below to start the video!