When you have good characters, you can place them in any "arena" and make them work. The stories write themselves. Remind me to tell you about the "gag wheel" I had when I was a kid that was supposed to create funny one panel gags for you if you couldn't come up with any yourself.Betty Boop Stories
For example, here are just a few ideas that popped into my head. They are mostly based on the early Betty Boop cartoons (1930-33). Note that they all have "a beginning, middle and end" just as worms do. Cartoon writers seem to place great importance on this and act as if it's something mysterious that only people with no obvious talent can achieve. I'm trying to think of something that doesn't have a beginning, middle and end. That would be a real trick against nature. Maybe a ball. Even a starfish probably starts somewhere.
Betty The Moon Maid
Koko and Bimbo ride a satellite to the moon to find the moon maid that winks at them every night during their prayers – it’s Betty
They find her in trouble
A strange and hideous moon creature is threatening her somehow. Like the old cartoons, we don’t know if he wants to eat her or marry her. It’s ambiguous.
Koko and Bimbo try fisticuffs on the Moon Creature - to no avail.
The moon’s surface is rubbery, so every time they get knocked down by the Moon Creature, they bounce back up and the whole surface wobbles. They give up in despair and then sniff the moon. It’s stinky.
The moon turns out to be made of cheese. Bimbo eats the cheese and becomes Super Stink, a smelly superhero with the power of putridity.
He pummels the moon creature and saves Betty.
The last shot is Betty, Bimbo and Koko swinging on a half earth happy.
The Littlest Mermaid
(sort of making fun of the Disney movie)
Betty is a mermaid living on a coral reef
She is curious about life in the open air and longs to crawl out of the sea, reveal the delightful top of her butt crack and someday meet her handsome rotoscoped prince of the land.
She sighs as she sits near a Giant clam.
The giant clam opens up and we see Bimbo’s face filling the open maw of the clam.
The Bimbo Clam feels sorry for Betty.
Then Koko the Krustacean pipes up. “We’ll get you a real human, Betty! Let’s crawl out of the sea to what there’s to see!”
Betty is excited and swims along with her best friends.
To walk, Bimbo oozes out his huge tongue, sticks it on the bottom of the sea floor and flips himself along, propelling himself like actual echinoderms with his basal foot that also serves as a tongue.
Song:
We’ll crawl out of the sea to see what there’s to see
A Human man that’s better than
The likes of you or me! Ho ho!
Bimbo and Koko sing happily even though they will lose Betty as their only girlfriend.
Eventually they crawl out of the sea to land and there is a very effeminate looking realistic prince waiting for Betty. His parents are tiny cartoon characters and don’t approve.
Betty and The Prince kiss, go into a charming cottage in the woods and then come out 2 seconds later (the gestation period of classic cartoons) followed by rotoscoped CG kids in fish bowls on wheels.
Feeding The Animals
All animals love Betty
She sits on a turtle and feeds them in the jungle.
She is wearing an animal skin and tosses it a piece of popcorn, which it happily gobbles up.
Even the most ferocious animals turn docile when the see Betty.
A wild Elephant crashes through the forest and instantly gets all mushy and tender at the site of Betty.
No animal is too small or insignificant for Betty’s generosity.
She feeds a lady bug a tiny morsel.
A preying Mantis with a really cute voice looks up at Betty and says, “What about me Betty?”
She feeds the ladybug to the mantis.
What Kind Of an Animal Am I?
This is based on the early design of Betty where she has dog ears and a dog nose.
It starts with her crying and singing a mournful song:
What Kind of an animal am I?
Did I evolve from the sea?
Or did I fall out of the sky?
What kind of an animal am I?
What kind of an animal am I?
I’ve got ears like a doggy
And a face just like a fly, tell me
What kind of animal am I?
What kind of an animal am I
If I never learn
I think that I will die
Oh what kind of animal am I?
She cries tears and sobs to the music
The tears drop to the ground and come to life with little faces and arms and legs. They are sad and cry for Betty too. “Let’s find Bimbo! He’ll know what to do!”
The tears run off and carry Bimbo back into the scene. Bimbo sees her crying and singing and his heart melts (literally)
Bimbo asks why Betty is crying
She explains because she doesn’t know what kind of animal she is
Bimbo says:
“I don’t care what kind of animal you are Betty. I’d love you even if you were an upside down duck! Eh – he- eh he eh heh.”
Betty says “Really? Gosh, Bimbo you’re swell!” She stops crying and all the tears jump back into her eyes.
She gets up and falls into Bimbo’s arms, leaving a big Betty egg wobbling on the turtle’s back.
The scene wipes to black with a heart shape.