Like all truly great ancient cartoon shorts, Betty Boop's Penthouse is so completely off-the-wall bizarre, so creepy and silly, so old and completely out of date, that it seems to come full-circle and somehow becomes something very cool and fun! It's quite hard to convey just how awesome these early animations really are. There's just something in the style of animation used, something that so greatly tends to grasp the attention and capture the imagination. The bad guy(of sorts) in this little "vision" here is this very gnarly skeleton Frankenstein-like creature with a square jaw who bellows out a trumpety jazzy type sound which alone greatly adds to the macabre hilarity. The sound is actually a little on the scary side! The ending truly comes out of nowhere and is especially damn insane-now that's what I call flower power! There's really not all that much to this one, but there is great charm and humour in the simplicity! That plant dude couldn't look any funkier as he hilariously strolls over that washing line! An especially quirky and inventive Fleischer offering, I recommend this to anyone who enjoys their old cartoons goofy, fun and creative, yet with that all-important element of darkness to it. Simply put, Penthouse is one of the most groovy and bonkers little black and white animations ever created.It'd be nothing short of criminal to pass it up.
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Foreverisacastironmess12318 March 2013
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As a general rule, when I comment on things, I try to avoid saying too much specific about plot, scenes, et cetera, while trying to give anyone reading my comment a basic idea of the feel of the film or short so they can decide if it might be their cup of tea, so to speak. Occasionally, I run into something I want to describe a bit more specifically, but I'll still try not to spoil anything. I may still let too much spill here. You have been warned.
This starts out with Bimbo and Koko playing Mad Scientist. They get distracted by Betty and start watching her instead of the stuff in the lab and an experiment goes awry. Shades of Boris Karloff as the experiment sets out to make Betty his Elsa Lanchester. Sight gags set in time to a great jazz score, some of them things that would have been unacceptable to the Hays Office a year or so later (one in particular that I'll remember the rest of my life!) and an ending that's incredibly silly, but fun to watch. This has everything an early Fleischer Boop should have-surreal sight gags, a little risque material (though tame today), great music and the unexpected. One thing I'll never know, though: did James Whale ever see this and I wonder what he thought of it if he did. 11 on a scale of 10. In print and available. Most highly and gleefully recommended. -
Michael_Elliott20 October 2009Betty Boop's Penthouse (1933)
*** (out of 4)
Funny short in Flesicher's series has Bimbo and Kobo playing mad scientist who are trying to come up with the perfect formula. When they see Betty Boop across the way they start paying more attention to her and don't realize that a Frankenstein like monster is being created. Soon the monster goes after Betty and she must fight him off with her perfume. Fans of Boop will get a nice kick out of this short as it features plenty of pre-code sexual humor that anyone can eat up. The scenes dealing with a towel wanting to dry off Boop's butt is very funny as is the way the monster gets turned on by her and the aftermath of him smelling her perfume. The animation is quite nice from start to finish and there are a few nice homages to Whale's FRANKENSTEIN, although the square head is changed to the chin. -
Hitchcoc9 December 2018In this cartoon, Betty Boop innocently works in her penthouse garden. The guys in the lab across the street are doing dangerous experiments (actually they are regulars, Bimbo and Koko). Instead of paying attention to their work, they are staring at Betty in her skimpy outfit. Soon, a creation of theirs becomes the villain. Some would say the regular male characters are worse.
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TheLittleSongbird27 November 2016Fleischer were responsible for some brilliant cartoons, some of them still among my favourites. Their visual style often stunning and some of the most imaginative and ahead of its time in animation.
The character of Betty Boop, one of their most famous and prolific characters, may not be for all tastes and sadly not as popular now, but her sex appeal was quite daring for the time and to me there is an adorable sensual charm about her. The charm, sensuality and adorability factors are here and she's fun to watch. Koko and Bimbo are also featured and they are amusing too.
'Betty Boop's Penthouse' is a great Betty Boop cartoon, perhaps among her better ones. That it's virtually plot-less doesn't matter that much, because it's so rich in imagination, never less than entertaining, is up there as one of Betty's most boldly risqué cartoons and loved the nod to James Whale.
Furthermore, the black and white animation is very good, smooth, meticulously detailed and well drawn with the black and white not looking too primitive. A lot of it is actually very imaginative as well, some of the most inventive and eye-popping of the early Betty Boop cartoons to me. Even better is the music, which is rousing, catchy and unquestionably accessible to anybody who loves or is familiar with the composition style. The voice acting is good.
My only minor complaint really is the ending coming out of nowhere.
Otherwise, a great Betty Boop cartoon and a must watch for fans of her and Fleischer. 9/10 Bethany Cox -
Horst_In_Translation29 August 2016"Betty Boop's Penthouse" is a black-and-white short film from 1933, so already way over 80 years old and at slightly over 6 minutes, it is among her shortest films produced by Fleischer studios. The penthouse reference in the title is pretty random as she could have been anywhere else really too and it would not have changed any of the action, except the song maybe. Bimbo and Koko are scientists that drool too much over Betty in her (admittedly very sexy) dress and forget to watch their experiment. Things get serious when a monster is created and approaches Betty, but the little woman knows what to do in order to tame the shrew. I would say this film was neither as bizarre nor as funny or entertaining as the best Betty cartoons and that is why I give it a thumbs-down. only worth seeing for huge fans of the title character.