Locking up Bimbo

I’ve always liked how characters come out of nowhere in Fleischer Talkartoons. They may be inanimate objects that grow hands and a face, or something that just comes out of nowhere and gets into the scene.

In Bimbo’s Initiation (1931), Bimbo walks over some manhole covers while whistling, but then falls in an uncovered hole.



The nearby manhole cover become alive and jumps into place, while a mouse with a padlock rushes into the scene, locks the cover (digging up the pavement to do it) and joyously runs away. His ears make it appear he’s a New York City relative of Mickey. Or maybe one of those Van Beuren mice.



The city backgrounds are always a treat in these cartoons, with boarded up businesses and crooked, melted lampposts. The background artists are never credited.