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Director: Dave Fleischer
Release Date: January 17, 1942
Stars: Popeye, Bluto, Olive Oyl
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
In the early 1940s America was taken by a conga craze, as is exemplified by cartoons like ‘Woody Woodpecker‘ (1941), ‘Mickey’s Birthday Party’ (1942) and ‘Juke Box Jamboree‘ (1942).Popeye’s contribution to this dance craze is ‘Kickin’ the Conga ‘Round’.
In this wartime cartoon both Popeye and Bluto are sailors ready to go the shore in some Latin American country. There Popeye has a sweetheart called ‘Olivra Oyla’ (Olive Oyl, of course, but tanned, and speaking with a fake Spanish accent). Bluto fancies her, too, and at the shore a feud ensures, with Bluto and Popeye performing magic tricks, outsmarting each other.
Popeye’s tricks are strikingly violent, but Bluto has his revenge: at the conga club it appears that Popeye can’t dance, while Bluto can, so he dances the conga with Olivra, leaving Popeye sulking at the table. Fortunately, spinach gives him the conga spirit, and soon Popeye takes over, and even clobbers Bluto to a conga beat. The animation on this short is strikingly zany, and perfectly matched to the typical conga beat.
‘Kickin’ the Conga ‘Round’ marks Bluto’s return after an eighteen months absence since ‘Fightin’ Pals‘ (1940). This short also marks his first portrayal as a navy sailor. Like Popeye, who first appeared in this uniform in ‘The Mighty Navy‘, navy white would remain his new uniform for the rest of his theatrical career. With Bluto’s return, the Popeye cartoons would more and more follow the triangular relationship between Popeye, Olive and Bluto, diverting less and less to other story ideas.
Watch ‘Kickin’ the Conga ‘Round’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This Popeye film No. 102
To the previous Popeye film: Nix on Hypnotricks
To the next Popeye film: Blunder Below
‘Kickin’ the Conga ‘Round’ is available on the DVD set ‘Popeye the Sailor 1941-1943’
Director: Dave Fleischer
Release Date: July 12, 1940
Stars: Popeye, Bluto
Rating: ★★★½
Review:
‘Fightin Pals’ is a cartoon devoted to the love-hate relationship between Popeye and Bluto.
The short opens with Dr. Bluto boarding a ship for an African Expedition. Popeye and Bluto show their own tough way of saying goodbye, but as soon as Bluto has left, Popeye starts pining for his rival. Thus, when he hears on the radio Bluto has been lost, he himself sails straight into dark Africa to look for his lost pal. Soon, Popeye is in a bad state himself, and when he finally discovers Bluto, who is pampered by some beautiful natives, it’s Bluto who has to revive him by giving the poor sailor spinach. As soon as Popeye is on his feet, the two immediately resume their happy quarrel again.
‘Fightin Pals’ is a beautiful cartoon on friendship. Jack Mercer’s mumbling is particularly inspired in this cartoon. The short also shows a brief World War II reference: when Popeye sails passes Europe he encounters some violent fighting there.
After ‘Fightin Pals’ it looks as if Bluto stayed in Africa, for he was not seen in any Popeye cartoon for almost two years. He returned to the screen in ‘Olive Oyl and Water Don’t Mix’ (1942), this time to stay.
Watch ‘Fightin Pals’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This Popeye film No. 83
To the previous Popeye film: Nurse-Mates
To the next Popeye film: Doing Impossikible Stunts
‘Fightin Pals’ is available on the DVD set ‘Popeye the Sailor Volume Two’
Director: Dave Fleischer
Release Date: June 20, 1940
Stars: Popeye, Bluto, Olive Oyl, Little Swee’Pea
Rating: ★★★½
Review:
‘Nurse-Mates’ opens with Bluto and Popeye both visiting Olive to invite her to the movies.
Olive agrees, but first has to go to the beauty parlor, leaving the two rivals to take care of little Swee’Pea. This leads to several gags showing the two men’s original ways to bathe, feed, and dress the baby, while competing each other.
In this cartoon Bluto is no villain, only Popeye’s rival, and he gets ample screen time to show his parental instincts. Moreover, there’s no spinach involved, and Bluto’s and Popeye’s rivalry is almost playful, when compared to other entries. This more harmonious relationship between the two would be explored further in the next Popeye cartoon, ‘Fightin’ Pals’.
Watch ‘Nurse-Mates’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This Popeye film No. 82
To the previous Popeye film: Wimmen Is a Myskery
To the next Popeye film: Fightin Pals
‘Nurse-Mates’ is available on the DVD set ‘Popeye the Sailor Volume Two’
Director: Dave Fleischer
Release Date: April 12, 1940
Stars: Popeye, Olive Oyl, Bluto
Rating: ★★★½
Review:
This short opens with Popeye reading a letter in which Olive tells him she leaves him for real men in the West.
Undaunted, Popeye sails right into the prairie town, where he challenges the ‘real man’, cowboy Bluto. Bluto makes Popeye taming a wild mustang, in a delightful sequence.
When Popeye succeeds, however, he soon gets strangled by a rattlesnake. Time for spinach! Popeye clobbers the snake into purses, hand bags and a rattle, and soon knocks Bluto and all of his men unconscious, restoring Olive’s love for him.
‘Me Feelins Is Hurt’ is a nice, if rather average Popeye cartoon. Popeye’s sailing to the prairie town, a rather Tex Averyan sequence, is the highlight of the cartoon.
Watch ‘Me Feelins Is Hurt’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This Popeye film No. 79
To the previous Popeye film: Stealin’ Ain’t Honest
To the next Popeye film: Onion Pacific
‘Me Feelins Is Hurt’ is available on the DVD set ‘Popeye the Sailor Volume Two’
Director: Dave Fleischer
Release Date: March 22, 1940
Stars: Popeye, Olive Oyl, Bluto
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
‘Stealin’ Ain’t Honest’ opens with Popeye and Olive sailing to Olive’s ‘secret gold mine’ on a small island. Bluto is after the gold, too, and soon a fight develops inside the mine.
‘Stealin’ Ain’t Honest’ is a cartoon of delightful nonsense. For example, Olive’s secret gold mine is advertised with arrows on the sea surface, and by a giant neon billboard. The fight itself produces all kinds of gold products from the mine, including coins, and a golden boxing glove. Bluto is a genuine villain in this cartoon and not a mere rival. Unfortunately, his design is very inconsistent, unlike that of Popeye and Olive.
Watch ‘Stealin’ Ain’t Honest’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This Popeye film No. 78
To the previous Popeye film: Females Is Fickle
To the next Popeye film: Me Feelins Is Hurt
‘Stealin’ Ain’t Honest’ is available on the DVD set ‘Popeye the Sailor Volume Two’
Director: Dave Fleischer
Release Date: July 30, 1939
Stars: Popeye, Bluto, Olive Oyl
Rating: ★★★½
Review:
‘It’s the Natural Thing to Do’ is the last of four 1939 Popeye cartoons that has alternate opening titles.
In the short’s opening scene we watch Popeye and Bluto clobbering each other in the garden, while Olive does the dishes. However, then the trio receives a telegram from the Popeye fan club, asking them to “cut out the rough stuff and act more refined. Be ladies and gentlemen. That’s the natural thing to do.”.
After reading, Olive immediately sends the boys off to return as gentlemen, and indeed, they come back in top hat and tails. Olive, too, has become more refined, and the scene in which the trio move to the living room as refined as possible is a highlight of ridiculous animation. However, our heroes cannot cope with the numerous cakes and coffee being served without a table, and are at loss in polite conversation. Soon, they laugh at their own situation, and start clobbering each other again with gusto, as for them that’s “the natural thing to do”.
‘It’s the Natural Thing to Do’ is a very enjoyable cartoon, and a great take on the trio’s familiar relationship. However, it’s clearly made by lesser animators, for Popeye’s and Bluto’s designs look very awkward most of the time, at times evoking the looks of a 1934 Buddy cartoon. The animation certainly is sub-par when compared to the 1938 output, even though it’s done with clear fun. The drain of Fleischer’s top animators to their first feature ‘Gulliver’ only shows too well.
Watch ‘It’s the Natural Thing to Do’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This Popeye film No. 74
To the previous Popeye film: Hello, How Am I
To the next Popeye film: Never Sock a Baby
‘It’s the Natural Thing to Do’ is available on the DVD Set ‘Popeye the Sailor Volume Two’
Director: Dave Fleischer
Release Date: June 14, 1939
Stars: Popeye, Bluto, Olive Oyl
Rating: ★★
Review:
‘Ghosks is the Bunk’ is the second of four 1939 Popeye cartoon with alternate titles.
The cartoon starts with Olive reading a ghost story to Bluto and Popeye. When a storm wind makes Popeye hide beneath the couch, Bluto fakes tiredness, only to rush out to an abandoned hotel to play some ghost tricks on the sailor. However, he’s discovered all too soon, and with the help of invisible paint Popeye returns the trick on him.
‘Ghosks is the Bunk’ is the first cartoon to show the major weakness of invisibility gags: when invisible one becomes practically invincible, and the viewer’s sympathy soon goes to the poor ex-bully who gets clobbered. This problem would return in the invisibility cartoons ‘The Vanishing Private‘ (1942) featuring Donald Duck, and ‘The Invisible Mouse‘ (1947) starring Tom & Jerry.
Watch ‘Ghosks is the Bunk’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This Popeye film No. 72
To the previous Popeye film: Wotta Nitemare
To the next Popeye film: Hello, How Am I
‘Ghosks is the Bunk’ is available on the DVD Set ‘Popeye the Sailor Volume Two’
Director: Dave Fleischer
Release Date: May 19, 1939
Stars: Popeye, Bluto, Olive Oyl
Rating: ★★★
Review:
‘Wotta Nitemare’ features new titles, abandoning the boat titles the series featured from its very start in 1933.
However, these new titles only lasted four cartoons, apart from ‘Wotta Nightmare’, ‘Ghosks is the Bunk‘, ‘Hello How Am I‘ and ‘It’s the Natural Thing To Do‘. With ‘Never Sock a Baby‘ the boat was back again.
‘Wotta Nightmare’ essentially stars Popeye only, as we watch him dreaming, having a nightmare in which a devil-like Bluto courts an angel-like Olive Oyl. Popeye is having a hard time in his own dream, while we watch him tossing and turning in his bed, and even sleepwalking across the room. In the end spinach comes to the rescue, but then Popeye awakes before he can take his revenge, so he rushes out of his house to clobber a bewildered Bluto in real life.
‘Wotta Nitemare’ is the first Popeye cartoon to show the familiar love triangle of Popeye, Bluto and Olive Oyl since ‘Learn Polikeness’ (1938), being absent for more than a year. More striking is the welcome return to Fleischer’s surreal world of the early 1930s during dream sequence , with its metamorphosis gags, floating faces, and extreme body deformations when the dream-Bluto clobbers Popeye.
Watch ‘Wotta Nitemare’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This Popeye film No. 71
To the previous Popeye film: Leave Well Enough Alone
To the next Popeye film: Ghosks is the Bunk
Wotta Nitemare’ is available on the DVD Set ‘Popeye the Sailor Volume Two’
Director: Dave Fleischer
Release Date: January 27, 1939
Stars: Popeye, Bluto, Wimpy
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
In 1937 the Fleischer Studio suffered a severe strike. In 1938 they moved their studios to Miami, Florida to break up union activity, and because of the state’s more favorable financial climate.
The new studio opened in October 1938, and devoted a lot of its resources to the Fleischer’s first feature film, ‘Gulliver’, which was released at the end of 1939.
The move to Florida had several consequences for the Popeye series: as the studio’s top animators now worked on ‘Gulliver’, the series was laid in hands of some lesser men, and this shows in many 1939 Popeye cartoons. More importantly, there were some voice changes: Mae Questel and Gus Wickie (Bluto’s voice) had stayed behind in New York, so Olive’s voice was taken over by Margie Hines, who would do her voice until the end of 1943. Bluto’s voice was now done by Pinto Colvig, whom the Fleischers had hired away from Disney. Jack Mercer, Popeye’s voice, got along very well with Margie Hines – in fact the two were married on March 8, 1939.
The move may have had a particular impact on ‘Customers Wanted’, for this cartoon is a ‘cheater’: it only partially features new material, some scenes are reused from two earlier Popeye cartoons, albeit in the most natural way.
‘In ‘Customers Wanted’ Popeye and Bluto as competing arcade owners at a Coney Island-like amusement park. They’re both out of customers, and dive on Wimpy, when he seems interested.
The competing entrepreneurs are so eager to show Wimpy their films on their mutoscopes, they don’t even charge him money. The mutoscope films are excerpts from ‘Let’s Get Movin” (1936) and ‘The Twisker Pitcher’ (1937). Soon, however, Bluto’s and Popeye’s competition turns into a fight, and it’s Wimpy who cashes in by advertising their row as ‘the fight of the century”.
‘Customers Wanted’ is an early compilation cartoon, but a very entertaining one. Bluto’s and Popeye’s tricks to lure Wimpy away from the competition are delightful, and so are the voices. The amusement park itself is beautifully designed, and is reminiscent of the futuristic fair of ‘All’s Fair at the Fair‘ (1938).
Watch ‘Customers Wanted’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This Popeye film No. 68
To the previous Popeye film: Cops Is always Right
To the next Popeye film: Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp
‘Customers Wanted’ is available on the DVD Set ‘Popeye the Sailor Volume Two’
Director: Dave Fleischer
Release Date: February 18, 1938
Stars: Popeye, Olive Oyl, Bluto
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
Olive takes Popeye to Prof. Bluteau’s school of etiquette.
The opening scene shows Prof.’s Bluteau’s large office, with help of Fleischer’s 3d tabletop background. Bluteau of course is Bluto and in this scene he’s already established as a fraud. Indeed, he hardly behaves gentleman-like when Olive and Popeye enter. True, he does know more manners than Popeye, but he clearly fancies Olive, and when trying to kiss her, he almost strangles her.
So, Popeye doesn’t have to win Olive back, he really has to rescue her from the brute. Interestingly, this time the spinach gives Popeye some manners besides strength, and there’s some great animation on Popeye clobbering Bluto in deft poses, on the tune of ‘Stars and Stripes Forever’.
Bluto’s design is somewhat off in this cartoon – the studio clearly experimented with new eyes on the character, which are not really steady yet. Maybe the studio grew a little tired of the character, for Bluto wasn’t seen again in the rest of 1938, only to return in ‘Customers Wanted’ (1939) [see Bobb Edwards’s comment below ‘Big Chief Ugh-Amugh-Ugh’ for a more plausible reason]. Indeed, in the mean time the studio proved it could come up with wonderful cartoons without him.
Watch ‘Learn Polikeness’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This Popeye film No. 57
To the previous Popeye film: Let’s Celebrake
To the next Popeye film: The House Builder Upper
‘Learn Polikeness’ is available on the DVD Box Set ‘Popeye the Sailor 1933-1938’
Director: Dave Fleischer
Release Date: January 21, 1938
Stars: Popeye, Olive Oyl, Bluto, Wimpy
Rating: ★★★★½
Review:
It’s New Year’s Eve, and Popeye and Bluto ride a sleigh to Olive’s house to take her to a New Year’s party at the Happy Hour Club.
However, Popeye hates to see Olive’s granny sitting alone at Olive’s home at New Year’s Eve, and takes her with them. At the club Bluto dances with Olive, while Popeye dances with grandma. When Wimpy, dressed like Santa, announces a dancing contest, Popeye has to enter with the deaf old lady. But with the help of some spinach, the duo clears the floor, literally, in a very long and enjoyable dance scene on some nice swing music, which features an excerpt from ‘Happy Days Are Here Again’.
‘Let’s Celebrake’ is very joyous cartoon, in tune with the New Year’s spirit, and it’s one of those rarer Popeye cartoons in which there’s no conflict between Bluto and Popeye, at all. Even more interesting, Popeye doesn’t eat the spinach himself here, leaving that to grandma.
Watch ‘Let’s Celebrake’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This Popeye film No. 56
To the previous Popeye film: Fowl Play
To the next Popeye film: Learn Polikeness
‘Let’s Celebrake’ is available on the DVD Box Set ‘Popeye the Sailor 1933-1938’
Director: Dave Fleischer
Release Date: December 17, 1937
Stars: Popeye, Olive Oyl, Bluto
Rating: ★★½
Review:
In ‘Fowl Play’ Popeye brings Olive a parrot to remember him by when he’s at sea.
The parrot, which too smokes a pipe, sings a love song for Olive, and she immediately grows attached to the bird. But then Bluto appears. He lets the bird free, and then tries to kill it with an ax, so Popeye has to save the day.
‘Fowl Play’ is one of the more routine Popeye cartoons. Bluto is nothing but a big bully here, while the parrot adds little to the classic love triangle. The complete cartoon is rather slow and predictable. Its best gag is when Popeye repeatedly has to leave the fighting cloud to save Olive from falling while fainting. This scene contains some wild takes on Olive, while an earlier scene features a very wild double-take on Popeye.
Watch ‘Fowl Play’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This Popeye film No. 55
To the previous Popeye film: Popeye the Sailor meets Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves
To the next Popeye film: Let’s Celebrake
‘Fowl Play’ is available on the DVD Box Set ‘Popeye the Sailor 1933-1938’
Director: Dave Fleischer
Release Date: December 17, 1933
Stars: Popeye, Olive Oyl, Bluto
Rating: ★★½
Review:
‘Seasin’s Greetinks!’ is Popeye’s first Christmas cartoon. It must be one of the least typical Christmas cartoons around: we watch Bluto and Popeye clobbering each other, while wishing each other ‘Merry Christmas’ and ‘A Happy New Year’, respectively.
Most of the time we watch the trio skating. When Olive gives him the cold shoulder, Bluto cuts off the ice on which she sits, and she immediately drifts towards a waterfall. Luckily, Popeye saves her in a rather bizarre way. The cartoon ends with Olive and Popeye watching a Christmas tree, decorated by the stars from the blow Popeye gave Bluto.
‘Seasin’s Greetinks’ is the first mediocre Popeye cartoon. Compared to earlier entries this cartoon is rather low on gags, and the love triangle already becomes predictable. Luckily, the Fleischers came up with enough variations to keep the series fresh, even if not in all its entries.
‘Seasin’s Greetinks!’ is noteworthy for introducing the skating-near-a-waterfall plot, which Disney would copy in ‘On Ice‘ (1935) and the ‘Once upon a Wintertime’ sequence of ‘Melody Time’ (1948). This plot idea in itself seems to be borrowed from the finale of the D.W. Griffith melodrama ‘Way Down East’ (1920), which doesn’t feature any skating, but certainly a breathtaking rescue from someone floating on ice towards a waterfall.
Watch ‘Seasin’s Greetinks!’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This Popeye film No. 4
To the previous Popeye film: I Eats My Spinach
To the next Popeye film: Wild Elephinks
‘Seasin’s Greetinks!’ is available on the DVD Box Set ‘Popeye the Sailor 1933-1938’
Director: Dave Fleischer
Release Date: November 17, 1933
Stars: Popeye, Olive Oyl, Bluto, Wimpy
Rating: ★★★½
Review:
‘I Eats My Spinach’ is the first cartoon in which an instrumental version of Popeye’s theme music accompanies the opening titles.
The short opens with the very walking cycle with which Popeye appeared for the first time on the screen in ‘Popeye the Sailor‘. He walks towards Olive’s house, and together they go to a rodeo to watch the “Great Bluto” perform. Immediately, Popeye challenges and outperforms the bearded brute. He wrestles a badly drawn bull, and fights another one. The cartoon ends with Popeye knocking a bull into a meat market in a rather shocking metamorphosis gag.
The designs in this short are more primitive than in other Popeye cartoons, making it look rather old-fashioned, even when compared with contemporary Popeye cartoons like ‘Blow Me Down!‘ or ‘Season’s Greetinks!‘. Surprisingly, this cartoon marks a return to the animal world of Betty Boop’s earliest cartoons, being the last short to do so.
Popeye would fight a bull again in ‘Bulldozing the Bull‘ (1938), but now most unwillingly and without harming the animal. By then Popeye had become on example to youngsters, both in comics and on film, and his aggression was toned down, luckily without losing its spunk.
Watch ‘I Eats My Spinach’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This Popeye film No. 3
To the previous Popeye film: Blow Me Down!
To the next Popeye film: Seasin’s Greetinks!
‘I Eats My Spinach’ is available on the DVD Box Set ‘Popeye the Sailor 1933-1938’
Director: Dave Fleischer
Release Date: October 27, 1933
Stars: Popeye, Olive Oyl, Bluto
Rating: ★★★★½
Review:
Like the previous two cartoons, ‘Blow Me Down!’ (another of Popeye’s oneliners from E.C. Segar’s comic strip) opens with Popeye singing his own theme song, now while riding a shark to Mexico.
In Mexico Popeye visits a canteen, where Olive is a dancer, performing a dance, that’s taken straight from Segar’s strip from March 1932, including the gag in which she lands with her feet into two spittoons. Then Bluto enters, shooting everything in sight, and within seconds, Popeye is the only other person in the canteen. The two engage into a strange duel, then Bluto tries to harass Olive, but like in ‘I Yam What I Yam’ she appears pretty much in control when Popeye comes to rescue her. In a spectacular finale, Popeye knocks Bluto around the world.
‘Blow Me Down’ covers no new story grounds, its premise harking all the way back to ‘Gallopin’ Gaucho‘ (1928). Yet, it’s by all means a delightful cartoon, and it’s over before you know it. It contains a very original bird-eye shot of Popeye ascending the stairs. Olive’s voice is by Bonnie Poe, and very different from Mae Questel’s later version.
Watch ‘Blow Me Down!’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This Popeye film No. 2
To the previous Popeye film: I Yam What I Yam
To the next Popeye film: I Eats My Spinach
‘Blow Me Down!’ is available on the DVD Box Set ‘Popeye the Sailor 1933-1938’
Director: Dave Fleischer
Release Date: July 14, 1933
Stars: Betty Boop, Popeye, Olive Oyl, Bluto
Rating: ★★★
Review:
1933/1934 marked a watershed for American animated cartoons: not only did the sex and horror rich cartoons of 1933 have to make way for the much more prudish content of the Hays code era – during the same period many studios traded their old stars in for new ones.
In this period Iwerks dropped Flip the Frog in favor of Willie Whopper, Warner Bros. saw the departure of Bosko, and introduced Buddy, Van Beuren said farewell to Tom & Jerry and welcomed Cubby the Bear and The Little King. Even at the Walt Disney studio Mickey Mouse, the biggest star of all, would steadily lose popularity to the 1934 newcomer Donald Duck. The relay race was most visible at the Fleischer studio. In their 1933 cartoon ‘Popeye the Sailor’ Betty Boop literally gave way to Popeye.
True, like Mickey, Betty would keep on starring cartoons after 1933, but due to the Hays code, her sexuality, her biggest feat, was toned down, and by 1934 her heydays were clearly over. Popeye, on the other hand, would grow into arguably the most successful cartoon star of all, starring more than 200 cartoons, and lasting well into the 1950s, before embarking on a career in television.
Of course, Popeye already had been a star before he was introduced to the animated screen, having quickly grown into the leading character of Elzie Segar’s Thimble Theater comics since his introduction in 1929. But when the Fleischers started their films, he quickly became one of the most familiar cartoon stars of all time, still recognizable to present day audiences, where Buddy, Willy Whopper and Cubby Bear rapidly fell into oblivion.
In their pilot Popeye cartoon, officially part of the Betty Boop series, the Fleischers appear very well aware of the potentials of their new hero. The short opens with a newspaper announcing that Popeye now is a movie star. The accompanying illustration immediately comes to life, and then we watch an iconic scene: Popeye singing his own new theme song, while socking things into tiny little things, in a string of metamorphosis gags. Popeye’s theme song is irresistably catchy, but who would have thought at the time that it would be still a familiar tune in the 21st century?
During the main section of the film, it’s shore leave, and Popeye, Bluto and Olive visit a carnival. Because it’s de facto a Betty Boop cartoon, the human trio is oddly staged in Betty’s animal world, which she, too, would abandon within a few months. Betty’s role is minimized to that of a sexy hula dancer, in reused footage from ‘Betty Boop’s Bamboo Isle‘ (1932). Popeye joins in, sharing Betty’s rotoscoped movements.
The cartoon introduces the basic story arc that would be varied upon in many years to come: Popeye and Olive are sweethearts, but Bluto craves for Olive, too, creating friction between the two strong men. There’s a lot of clobbering, and at one point Popeye grabs for a can of spinach to give him extra strength. This premise is very different from Segar’s Comic Strip, with its melodramatic stories which could easily last for months.
Both Bluto and spinach were taken from Segar’s strip, but there they had played minor roles. Bluto, in fact, only appeared a couple of weeks in September/October 1932, never to return to Segar’s comic strip. In the Fleischer cartoons, however, he was promoted to one of the three starring roles, easily eclipsing Wimpy. During his first cartoon, Bluto’s theme music is ‘Barnacle Bill’, extensively used in the cartoon of the same name from 1930. Unlike Popeye’s tune, this theme music would not return in later Popeye cartoons. The love triangle, of course, was far from new, and had been employed in e.g., several Oswald and Mickey Mouse cartoons. But the Fleischers managed to keep this premise surprisingly fresh, delivering several of the funniest cartoons of the 1930s.
The importance of Popeye’s move to the movie screen for cartoon history cannot be overestimated: for the first time in the sound era a comic strip star was successfully put to the screen, for the first time a strong idiosyncratic character appeared on the animated screen, for the first time cartoon violence was not incidental, but a vital part of the series. Strong characters and cartoon violence would recur more often and often when the 1930s progressed and would become essential to cartooning during the 1940s. Indeed, other characters, most notably Donald Duck and Daffy Duck, contributed to the evolution of a brassier style, but it was Popeye who had shown the way.
Watch ‘Popeye the Sailor’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Betty Boop cartoon No. 18
To the previous Betty Boop cartoon: Mother Goose Land
To the next Betty Boop cartoon: The Old Man of the Mountain
This the first film featuring Popeye
To the first Popeye film in his own series: I Yam What I Yam
‘Popeye the Sailor’ is available on the DVD Box Set ‘Popeye the Sailor 1933-1938’
Director: Isadore Sparber
Release Date: September 4, 1942
Stars: Popeye, Bluto, Olive Oyl
Rating: ★
Review:
Popeye and Bluto are on a battle cruiser stationed somewhere in the South Seas.
There they meet a ‘princess Alona’ (Olive Oyl in a sarong). Her parrot warns the two suitors that if the princess get’s harmed, the volcano will erupt. In the end all turns out to be just a dream.
In this cartoon the comedy is mostly silent, and princess Alona doesn’t speak at all. Unfortunately, Jack Mercer’s jabbers are absent, too, and they are certainly missed. The result is the weakest Popeye cartoon in years.
Watch ‘Alona on the Sarong Seas’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This Popeye film No. 110
To the previous Popeye film: You’re a Sap, Mr. Jap
To the next Popeye film: A Hull of a Mess
Director: Dave Fleischer
Release Date: May 15, 1942
Stars: Popeye, Bluto, Olive Oyl
Rating: ★★★
Review:
In this World War II cartoon Bluto is a soldier who tries to sneak away to date Olive Oyl.
When Popeye passes by Bluto tricks him into his army uniform. Popeye unwillingly has to join a tank squad, which leads to hilarious antics. Only when he has eaten some spinach Popeye directs his tank out of the camp straight to Bluto, who is wooing Olive.
Jack Mercer’s ad libbing during Popeye’s tank ride is fantastic and a highlight of the cartoon, as is the extremely flexible animation on Popeye’s tank. Popeye’s design changes back and forth from the old Fleischer design to the later, more streamlined Famous design, which makes its debut in this cartoon.
Watch ‘Many Tanks’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This Popeye film No. 107
To the previous Popeye film: Olive Oyl and Water Don’t Mix
To the next Popeye film: Baby Wants a Bottleship
Dr. Grob's Animation Review 