Very early entry in the series. Betty Boop is still formative in this one (dog ears are still present) and they still seem to be feeling their way here. Bimbo is here and a focus of the short is a plot the Fleischers employ to much greater effectiveness later in the Popeye series-a run-in with a magician. They seem to be on the verge of discovering that Betty is a better character (and certainly better to support a cartoon series) than Bimbo, who is a reasonable secondary character, but just not substantial enough to build a series around. The bits aren't funny because of Bimbo-he's just there and only occasionally interesting on his own hook. Things just bounce off Bimbo. There's no spark. That can work if a character if there's some characteristic to grab the audience. After all, Mickey Mouse was largely just a foil for gags or a straight man after a while, but Disney invested him with enough personality early on that he grabbed an audience. Bimbo never had that going for him.
Good cartoon-nothing special, but worth a look. Recommended to Boop fans.
Good cartoon-nothing special, but worth a look. Recommended to Boop fans.