Found something neat during runs over the last few days. If you go through a door at the right frame when your Bert pill is about to run out, you can skip the transformation animation.

im really curious as to whether or not there is actually a time save with the dancing boss. Does it save a cycle of the music as well? or does it still have the same cycle count?

oh thats a good point, I haven't measured that. I think it also could just end up losing time anyway if you have to wait a little while before even entering the door.

another long shot spot where it might be of use (where I originally ran into it during practice) is if you get a ?pill from the Spider boss in level 3, and do the skip at the samurai boss door in level 4

Jumping in a year later, this skip would be really fortuitous in rare occasions. The stars would have to align of course, but it would definitely help a Speedrun as long as you aren't waiting too long for the transformation frame.