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7.1/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 7.1/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Betty Boop's Penthouse remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have seven minutes and a strange love for the surreal, Betty Boop's Penthouse is a wild little trip. It’s perfect for people who like old-school, jittery animation. If you get stressed out by things that defy logic or jump-cut into madness, you’ll probably hate it.
The whole thing kicks off in a high-rise, which is fancy for these characters. Bimbo and Koko are just hovering around Betty, doing the usual '30s cartoon routine. It’s light, it’s bouncy, and then they decide to play god with some chemistry set.
Suddenly, things get weird. That’s the thing about these old Fleischer shorts; they don’t bother with setup or pacing. They just hit the gas.
You can’t watch this and ask 'why.' Why is the creature doing that? Why does the apartment turn into a playground of doom? The answer is just, well, because it's a cartoon.
It reminds me a bit of the frantic, unpredictable pacing you see in The Bears and Bees. There’s that same sense that the animators were just throwing ink at the screen to see what stuck. It's not trying to be a masterpiece. It's just trying to be weird.
I caught myself staring at the background details. Sometimes the city outside the window looks like a postcard, and other times it's just a scribble. It’s kind of endearing how little they cared about continuity. 🫠
If you've seen other shorts like Galloping Ghosts, you know the drill. It’s a rhythmic, musical, slightly unsettling experience. This isn't high art, but it's got a soul that a lot of modern, polished stuff just completely lacks.
The ending doesn't really 'conclude' anything. It just stops. I think that's the best way to leave a cartoon like this. No lessons learned. Just a mess left behind.