Betty Boop, M.D. Review: 7 Minutes of Pure, Unfiltered Nightmare Fuel

If you have seven minutes to spare today, yes, absolutely watch Betty Boop, M.D. It is perfect for anyone who loves surreal, slightly creepy 1930s cartoons, but if you hate "rubber-hose" logic, you'll probably find it annoying.

The setup is incredibly simple. Betty, Bimbo, and Koko are running a medicine show, selling a sketchy potion called "Jippo" to a crowd of bizarre-looking townspeople.

It is basically a giant excuse for the animators to show off their most deeply unhinged visual gags. Once the crowd starts drinking the stuff, the movie just goes completely off the rails.

The Weirdest Side Effects

• An old man drinks the elixir and turns into a literal baby, but he somehow keeps his giant white beard. 🧔‍♂️
• A guy's legs stretch out like giant, floppy noodles while his torso stays totally normal.
• A skeleton climbs out of a bottle just to take a sip and then... well, you have to see it.

Unlike some of the polite, boring shorts of the era like In Hock, this one does not waste time trying to teach you a moral lesson. It is just pure, chaotic energy from start to finish.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Betty Boop, M.D. (1932) through its definitive frames.

I love how the animation doesn't even try to look realistic. Betty does this little dance that feels slightly choppy, yet it is completely hypnotic to watch.

The music has this bouncy, syncopated jazz-age tempo that makes even the most nightmarish transformations feel like a party. You can almost smell the dust on the old film reel.

If you look closely at the crowd scenes, some of the background characters have faces that look like they were drawn in about two seconds. Those little rushed details are actually my favorite part.

It makes the whole thing feel human. It is a quick, wild ride that reminds you how fun cartoons used to be before everything got so clean and digital.