A Hunting We Will Go

Betty Boop's twenty-second cartoon appearance is in this Talkartoon produced in 1932. The cartoon begins with a look at Betty Boop's little cabin in the woods. (In most cartoons, she is a city girl.) We find Betty Boop inside, playing a fine, rousing version of the tune "Then I'll Be Happy", to which she sings:

I want to have a fur coat,
Have a fur coat,
Not until then will I be happy!

I want a man from somewhere
Who has a fox or a bear,
Not until then will I be happy!

Oh, I could kiss that man!
Oh, I could love him a lot;
If I could find that man,
I'd give him all that I've got!

I want to have a fur coat
Of a bear or a goat,
And not until then will I be happy!

    The Fleischers loved moose-head gags, and while Betty is singing the second verse, her moose-head starts hissing out a rhythmic accompaniment to her song. Then we go outside and see that it's a whole moose with its head stuck through the wall. Bimbo and Koko come up and shoot at the moose, who runs off. Then they overhear the rest of Betty's song.

    When Bimbo and Koko hear Betty, their hearts sail up out of their bodies. Koko's heart kisses Bimbo's heart. Bimbo's heart does not appreciate the attention. Then Koko and Bimbo rush into Betty's cabin, and in one of the more jarring scenes in a cartoon, they stroke her leg while Koko exclaims, "Okay, baby, we'll fix you up!"

    Next ensues a long sequence of hunting and animal gags. Notable about this sequence is the crude rendering of the animals. The deer is really bizarre-looking, with a blobby nose and undershot jaw, and a strange furry collar. One gets the impression that the artist just didn't know what a deer is supposed to look like, but the result is funny. Most of the gags here are pretty standard hunting gags, but one that stands out is a joke about leopards. An unspotted cat tries to follow some leopards into a club, and is kept out by a door keeper; he isn't qualified to enter the "Leopard Colony."

    Finally, animals attack Bimbo and Koko, and each has a big fight from which he emerges victorious, with a pile of furs over his shoulder. They pile their booty on a rock in front of Betty's cabin, and call her out to show her the furs.

    But Betty is dismayed by all the freezing, naked animals who have followed Koko and Bimbo to her place, wanting their furs back. She sings:

Why did you scare those bears?
Why, oh, why, oh, why?
And take away their furs?
I could almost cry!

I'm nervous, so nervous,
I'm worried and blue,
How could you be so mean?
I'm ashamed of you!

I suppose you think you're smart,
You know it's not right!
Oh, my, have you no heart?
I won't sleep all night!

You have no one else to blame,
Go and hide your heads in shame,
Why did you scare those bears?
Why, oh, why, oh, why?

    She then starts handing the furs back to the animals at random, so that they don't end up with the fur they started with. The cartoon ends with Betty wearing an enormous spotted fur, marching in a parade with all the animals, next to a fondly grinning naked animal. On the other side of her, ignored, march a glaring Koko and Bimbo.

    This cartoon has nice piano, but the songs themselves aren't particularly interesting. The scene with Koko and Bimbo walking in and swiping at Betty's leg is startling for the modern viewer, and marks this cartoon as being pre-Hays Act. Otherwise, the cartoon is basically unremarkable.