A Betty Boop cartoon released on September 23, 1932 by Max and Dave Fleischer. Bimbo sails to an island in the South Sea and meets Betty, who is a native to the island. The highlight of the short is a hula dance done by Betty using some very fluid rotoscoping.
The short features stereotypical and offensive islander designs as was common with cartoons in this era.
Features music by the Polynesian style band The Royal Samoans with their hula dancer Lotamuru used as the model for Betty's hula dancing.
Tropes Used In This Short:
- Blackface: Bimbo masks the lower part of his face in dirt in order to disguise himself as one of the natives.
- Blackface-Style Caricature: While they are Samoan and not African, the natives (not counting Betty) greatly resemble this.
- Changing the Majority: In this short, Betty is portrayed as Samoan. The only physical difference is her darker skin.
- Chased by Angry Natives: This happens as soon as Bimbo's Samoan disguise melts away.
- Circling Birdies: After Bimbo hits himself in the head, a pair of ringed planets appear over his head and he wears the rings as earrings as part of his Samoan disguise.
- Cranial Eruption: Bimbo purposely does this to himself by hitting himself in the head with a bone and then wearing the bone on the bump as part of his Samoan disguise.
- Fanservice: Betty's sensual hula dance while wearing little more then a grass skirt.
- Flowers of Femininity: Betty wears a flower in her hair, a lei around her neck and a flower lei around her waist just above her hula skirt.
- Hollywood Natives: The stereotypical natives have earrings, nose rings and wear bones, usually on the top of their head; Betty is the exception (except the earrings of course) and just looks like herself but with darker skin and hula wear.
- Hula and Luaus: Betty is depicted as a Samoan hula girl.
- "I Can't Look!" Gesture: A flower upon seeing Betty's lewd hula dance, covers it's eyes and for added measure, buries it's head in the sand.
- Inevitable Waterfall: Betty and Bimbo's canoe trip ends with them almost falling down a waterfall.
- Kissing Discretion Shot: Bimbo sneaks a kiss with Betty behind a cloud of cigar smoke and becomes flustered when it clears.
- The final shot has Betty and Bimbo kiss, but Bimbo uses an umbrella to get some privacy from the audience, except that the umbrella has a hole directly where their heads are.
- Murder Water: Some helpful fish stop Betty and Bimbo's canoe from going down the waterfall, but the water itself gains some arms and starts a tug of war match with the fish with the purpose of making them go down the falls; but instead they are flung across the island and onto dry land.
- Reflective Eyes: While looking over Betty's body, Bimbo's left pupil changes to a reflection showing Betty. When Betty notices, her reflection shuts Bimbo's eyelid similarly to someone pulling down a window shade.
- Rotoscoping: Some extremely impressive rotoscoping is done, first by some natives doing a synchronized dance, followed by Betty doing a hula dance at the beach. The Royal Samoans' hula dancer Lotamuru was the model used for Betty's dancing.
- Toplessness from the Back: A few shots show us Betty's bare back and she is technically topless with only a lei covering her chest.
- Tropical Island Adventure: The short's setting.
- When Trees Attack: The trees don't actually attack, but their singing scares Bimbo out of his wits.
- White Flag: While faced with the trees, a pair of white bloomers appears on Bimbo's tail which he waves in the air like a white flag.
