Bimbo's Initiation

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All doors lead to HELL!

We are the members of Do-It-Or-Die! Dee-I, Dee-I, Dee-I! Watch us make Bimbo, as easy as pie! Dee-I, Dee-I, Dee-I! We are, tough you bet! Filled with college pep! Bring him on, we cry! Dee-I, Dee-I, Dee-I! B! I! M! B! O! BIMBO! —The opening song.

Voted No. 37 on The 50 Greatest Cartoons list, Bimbo's Initiation is a 1931 Fleischer Studios short in the Talkartoons series, centered on the cartoon dog Bimbo (with a few appearances of Betty Boop), who happens to be a victim of an underground cult called Do-It-or-Die, who for whatever reason want him to "be a member", forcing him to go through a series of life-threatening situations. Hilarity naturally ensues.

This short is in the public domain and can be viewed here.

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Tropes used in Bimbo's Initiation include:

• Animation Bump: Several scenes in this short have moving backgrounds.
• By the Lights of Their Eyes
• Deranged Animation
• Dem Bones: The skeleton that pops up in one of the doors pictured above--who happens to be talking to a friend.

"Hello May! I've got a bone to pick with you!"

• Early Installment Weirdness: Betty Boop's Art Evolution wasn't quite completed yet.
• Gainax Ending: The organization turns out to be a bunch of Betty Boop lookalikes. It makes even less sense in context.
• Getting Crap Past the Radar: Well, if there was a radar to dodge in the first place during the early 1930s. The crap in question is a burning rope, which was a recurring gag in the early Fleischer cartoons. Some have speculated that it's a visual metaphor for burning weed. Which wouldn't be too hard to assume, considering this is the Fleischers we're talking about here.
• Interspecies Romance: Between Bimbo and Betty -- or perhaps not, as Betty still has puppy dog ears at this point, and may be intended to be a dog.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: The mouse that puts a lock over the manhole that Bimbo falls into looks suspiciously like a more famous mouse who was just becoming popular at the time...
• Random Events Plot
• Rubber Hose Limbs: Which look especially strange on Betty Boop.
• Shout-Out: Those doors or doors very like them show up in Forbidden Zone.
• Unfortunate Name: Of the linguistic drift variety. Back in the 1930s, "Bimbo" was slang for "tough guy."