The Mighty B! (Theatrical cartoon series)

The Mighty B! is an American animated series of comedy short films based on the comic strip created by by husband and wife cartoonist team Cynthia and Ericson True. Max and Dave Fleischer's Fleischer Studios adapted Cynthia and Eric's characters into a series of theatrical cartoon shorts for Paramount Pictures. The plotlines in the animated cartoons tended to be simpler than the slice of life aspect presented in the comic strips, and the characters slightly different. most of the shorts revolve around Bessie and Ben getting involved in a situation, sometimes trying to resolve them with comedic results, other times they are placed into different time periods such as Medieval Times and The Wild West.

The series proved to be popular and Bessie's innocent, moralistic and heroic nature was seen as an embodiment of the then recently imposed Hays Code, Paramount would take control of the studio in 1941 and rename it Famous Studios, ousting the Fleischer brothers and continuing production until 1942's To Bee or Not to Bee, at which point The Mighty B! theatrical series discontinued. 55 shorts were released between 1934 and 1942, plus an additional 15 shorts counting solo series focusing on Bessie's younger brother Ben and dog Happy, and Portia Gibbons and Gwen Wu Too.

The shorts were later sold by Paramount to U.M. & M. TV Corporation before being acquired by National Telefilm Associates, later changing it's name to Republic Pictures in the 1980s before merging with Blockbuster and later Viacom in 1994, eventually letting Paramount regain control of the cartoons.

1934

 * Meet Bessie
 * The Great Honey Robbery
 * I'm Definitely No Angel
 * Swing, Swing, Swing

1935

 * Bully Trouble
 * She Did It Wrong
 * Shuteye Ben
 * Bees in Toyland
 * What's Wrong with My Voice?
 * Honeybee Follies of 1935

1936

 * Anything Goes Crazy
 * Movie Madness
 * Happy's Strange Adventure
 * Bessie's Robot
 * A Haunting We Will Go
 * Cable Car Trouble
 * Pioneer Trail
 * North Pole or Bust

1937

 * Hold that Dog!
 * Bessie Drummond
 * The Trouble with Glasses
 * The Small Broadcast of 1937
 * The Island of Missing Souls

1938

 * Bessie's Rise to Fame (Cilp show)
 * Bess Orange and the 7 Clever Boys
 * The Beeccaneer
 * The San Francisco Parade
 * Vaudeville Days
 * Wishy Washy
 * Runaway Bee

1939

 * Little Orphan Bessie
 * Strike Up the Jazz Parade
 * The Orange Pimpernel
 * Moonlight Serenade
 * Let's Be Pals
 * Seasick Blues
 * Oh Heavenly Dog

1940

 * Bessie's Cousins
 * Air Bessie
 * Dr. Bessie and Mrs. Jive
 * The Musical Cousins, Later remade for the Popeye series as Me Musical Nephews (1942)
 * Outback Inback
 * Hansel and Gretel
 * I Want My Mummy

1941

 * Road to Mexico
 * Bessie and the Banditos (Bluto from the Popeye series guest stars)
 * Bessie's 10th Anniversary (clip show)
 * Carnival Bee
 * Nothing But the Tooth

1942

 * Bessie in the USO
 * Honey for England
 * That Nazty Man
 * Bronco Bessie
 * Blitzbee
 * To Bee or Not to Bee

Lil' Brother Ben solo shorts (1936-41)

 * Klondike Ben (1936)
 * Tumblin Tumbleweeds (1937)
 * School Daze (1937)
 * Too Many Leagues Under the Sea (1938)
 * Wanna Be a Member? (1938), Remake of Bimbo's Initiation (1931)
 * The Auto Race Kid (1939)
 * Ben Geste (1939)
 * Doughguy (1940)
 * Where's My Automobile? (1940)
 * Them Golden Gloves (1941)

Happy the Dog solo shorts (1937-40)

 * Dog Gone Crazy (1937)
 * Be Happy! (1938)
 * Doggie Days (1939)
 * Firefighter Happy (1939)
 * Happy as Can Be (1940)

Portia Gibbons and Gwen Wu solo shorts (1943-60)

 * Joined at the Hips (1943), Remake of The Incredible Two-Headed Transparent (1971) and The Thing with Two Heads (1972).
 * Tonuged Twisted (1943)
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Home Media
There were legal problems between King Features Syndicate and Republic Pictures in the early 1980s regarding the availability of The Mighty B! on home video, Republic had TV rights but King Features disputed whether that included home video distribution, eventually in the 1990s, Republic and King Features finally reached agreement allowing for the release of the theatrical Mighty B! cartoons on home video, in 1997, Republic released The Mighty B!: The Definitive Collection, a 5 VHS set featuring various shorts divided by categories and director such as Carlton Andersen, his son Carl Jr. appears in an introduction on Tape 1, however the original front and end Paramount logos weren't restored.

In 2015, Olive Films under license from Paramount released The Mighty B!: Volume 1, 1934-36 and The Mighty B!: Volume 2, 1937-39 on Blu-ray and DVD, these releases include the first 37 Fleischer Mighty B! cartoons, including some of the Lil' Brother Ben and Happy the Dog solo shorts, the Paramount logos were finally restored for these releases, later in 2016 Olive concluded the series with The Mighty B!: Volume 3: 1940-42, featuring the last 13 Fleischer shorts and all 5 Famous produced shorts as well as the rest of the Lil' Brother Ben, Happy the Dog and Portia Gibbons and Gwen Wu in 1940 to 1960 shorts on The Mighty B!: Volume 4: 1940-60 on on Blu-ray and DVD, the last 119 Fleishcher shorts and all 10 Famous produced shorts.