Бимбо: Бетти Буптың серігі

1930s cartoon dog, companion of Betty Boop

Bimbo is a fat, black and white cartoon pup created by Fleischer Studios. He is most well known for his role in the Betty Boop cartoon series, where he featured as Betty's main love interest. A precursor design of Bimbo, originally named Fitz, first appeared in the Out of the Inkwell series.

Bimbo was initially inspired by animation director Dick Huemer's work on Mutt and Jeff, who, when working on the Out of the Inkwell series, decided to give protagonist Koko the Clown a canine companion. Bimbo has the distinction of being the first known cartoon character in history to ever have fully animated dialogue, as seen in the 1926 short My Old Kentucky Home, where a prototypical Bimbo says "Follow the ball and join in, everybody!" Bimbo later became the protagonist and star of Fleischer's Talkartoons series, positioned as a rival to Disney's Mickey Mouse, making his first named appearance as Bimbo in Hot Dog (1930), though Bimbo's design would not become standardized until around 1931. The name Bimbo was chosen because in the 1920s the word was mostly associated with men who liked to fight. He starred in several famous cartoon shorts of the 1930s, most notably Swing You Sinners!, Minnie the Moocher and Bimbo's Initiation. Bimbo became a less prominent character after his girlfriend Betty Boop gained unexpected stardom and popularity with fans, with the Talkartoons cartoon retooled to give her top billing as the Betty Boop series in 1932. After Hays Code censorship rules began to strictly get enforced in 1934, Bimbo disappeared from future Fleischer cartoons of the era, due to the implications of an anthropomorphic dog dating a human girlfriend being considered too risqué.

About 56 years after his first absence from cartoons, Bimbo made a reappearance in 1989 as a major co star in the TV special The Betty Boop Movie Mystery and in First Publishing's 1990 comic Betty Boop's Big Break with more of his original personality intact as a love interest of Betty. He has continued to appear in various Betty Boop merchandise since then and has been reestablished as a mainstay of the series. In 2016, he appeared in Dynamite's Betty Boop comic mini series as Betty's best friend with a secret crush on her.

In 1932, a character created by Walter Lantz Productions, a dog named Pooch the Pup appeared as the star of his own cartoon shorts. Pooch greatly resembled Bimbo's design; in 1933, Pooch was redesigned even further to look more reminiscent of his Betty Boop counterpart.

Title Release date Hot Dog March 29, 1930 Fire Bugs May 9, 1930 Dizzy Dishes August 9, 1930 Barnacle Bill August 31, 1930 Swing You Sinners! September 24, 1930 Grand Uproar October 3, 1930 Sky Scraping November 1, 1930 Up to Mars November 20, 1930 Accordion Joe December 12, 1930 Mysterious Mose December 26, 1930 Ace of Spades January 16, 1931 Tree Saps February 3, 1931 Teacher's Pest February 7, 1931 The Cow's Husband March 13, 1931 The Bum Bandit April 3, 1931 The Male Man April 24, 1931 Twenty Legs Under the Sea May 5, 1931 Silly Scandals May 23, 1931 The Herring Murder Case June 26, 1931 Bimbo's Initiation July 24, 1931 Bimbo's Express August 22, 1931 Minding the Baby September 26, 1931 In the Shade of the Old Apple Sauce October 16, 1931 Mask A Raid November 7, 1931 Jack and the Beanstalk November 21, 1931 Dizzy Red Riding Hood December 12, 1931 Any Rags? January 12, 1932 Boop Oop a Doop January 16, 1932 The Robot February 5, 1932 Minnie the Moocher February 26, 1932 Swim or Sink (S. O. S.) March 11, 1932 Crazy Town March 25, 1932 The Dancing Fool April 8, 1932 Chess Nuts April 13, 1932 A Hunting We Will Go April 29, 1932 Hide and Seek May 26, 1932 Admission Free June 10, 1932 The Betty Boop Limited July 1, 1932 Betty Boop's Bizzy Bee August 19, 1932 Betty Boop, M. D. September 2, 1932 Snow White March 31, 1933 Betty Boop's Ker Choo January 6, 1933 Betty Boop's Penthouse March 10, 1933 Betty Boop's Birthday Party April 21, 1933 Betty Boop's May Party May 12, 1933Betty Boop's I Heard Sep 1, 1933