Posts Tagged 'popeye'

Here’s one of the most popular Fleischer Popeye cartoons, and certainly one of my favorites.  It departs from the usual love triangle formula (Olive and Bluto don’t even appear) in favor of a father/son story.

One of the things I love about this cartoon is what an outlier it is within the Fleischer Popeye canon.  It seems like an entry from some other Popeye series, in which each cartoon builds upon the narrative of the previous one, rather than simply repeating the same basic story with variations.  If this was the first Popeye cartoon you saw, you’d assume that in the previous installment Popeye discovered that his Pappy was imprisoned on Goon Island.  In prior cartoons to that one, he would have at least mentioned his missing father and the pain it brings him.  Of course, none of that happened, and this cartoon’s revelations about Popeye’s parentage come completely out of the blue.

In fact, the Goons and Pappy both came from the E. C. Segar comics, as does Pappy’s wonderfully biting line, “I don’t like relatives.”  This was a pretty rare instance of the Fleischers turning to Segar for story ideas.  As in the comics, Pappy is an older, nastier version of Popeye.  He even has one eye, raising the question of whether Popeye’s monocular condition might be somehow genetic.  However, Pappy does lack tattoos on his arms like Popeye’s, which is a detail that definitely says “generational divide” today, whether it would have back then or not.

Jack Mercer really shines in this cartoon, playing both Popeye and his Pappy.  The muttered puns are some of the best he ever gave, particularly “Hair today, goon tomorrow,” and “Somebody’s tryin’ to rock me to sleep.”  Popeye’s bizarro little speech when he first meets Pappy- “Do you remember when I was born very young…?”- is another really nice moment.

My favorite bit in the whole cartoon, though, is the gag when then the film breaks, and the “projectionist” safety-pins it back together.  It does, however, raise the unsettling question of tiny goons running amok on the projection booth floor…  Best not to dwell on that.

There are no Betty Boop Christmas cartoons because she’s Jewish. There are no Superman Christmas cartoons because that would just be weird. There’s a Grampy Christmas cartoon, but I really detest Grampy, and have no intention of ever featuring him on a Fleischer Friday if I can help it.  However, Popeye the Sailor also celebrates Christmas in his fifth short, although of course he celebrates it in his own special way.

I’m keeping it short this week, since we all have holidays to get back to, so here’s a few quick observations:

• In Popeye’s World:  Earmuffs are essential.  Scarfs are optional.  Coats and jackets are unheard of.
• On a related note, you can’t really tell if a Fleischer character is shivering, because they constantly shake in time with the music.
• Olive Oyl fares much better without Mae Questel than Betty Boop does.  In this instance, Bonnie Poe does her voice.
• “It’s a day for peace on Earth!” is the very best thing you can say before punching someone.
• Popeye and Bluto are shockingly graceful on ice skates.
• I’m completely baffled that Bluto avoids cutting Olive’s head off at 03:35.
• The bit where Olive crawls across her own legs (or however you define that move) is pretty unsettling.
• Can’t afford tree trimmings?  Just punch a guy really hard.

Admittedly, in these first few months of Fleischer Fridays, I’ve been staying away from Popeye.  That’s because when I was a kid I hated Popeye cartoons, regarding them as universally boring.  What I’ve since learned is that the boring cartoons I remember (and they really are mind-numbing) were made by Famous Studios, who got the rights to the characters after Fleischer folded.  They made some cruddy Superman cartoons as well, actually.  Fortunately, Betty and friends never had to suffer this fate, because they’d long since ceased production.

So it turns out the early Popeyes made at Fleischer are actually pretty funny.  They’re still not as good as the early Betty and Bimbo cartoons, but they’re way better than that crap that came later.  Mostly they revolve around fight scenes.  Bluto (or some similar character) spends long enough acting like a jerk that you really want to watch Popeye kick his ass, and then Popeye kicks his ass.  Along the way, Wimpy eats hamburgers and Olive Oyl acts whiny and fickle.

This cartoon is no exception to that formula.  Sinbad (or Sindbad, if you prefer) is clearly just Bluto in a costume, and the whole first act is just him bragging about what an utter badass he is, and how he can never be bested in a fight.  Obviously, any kid watching this (in 1936 or today) is thinking, “Man, I can’t wait for Popeye to show up, eat some spinach, and kick the snot out of this fool,” and Popeye cartoons are not about thwarting expectations.

Given its formulaic plot, the primary appeal of this cartoon is its spectacle.  It was the first color Popeye short, and only the second color Fleischer cartoon (the first was Betty Boop’s Poor Cinderella which we’ll get to one of these days).  It makes extensive use of the three-dimensional backgrounds that Fleischer Studios was experimenting with at the time.  Out of these real looking caves comes an impressive menagerie of creatures, who have the classic Fleischer look but translated into technicolor.  The roc is an especially nice one, taking off like an airplane while still looking like a living creature.  Its fate at Popeye’s hands is also something to see, and even a little shocking to today’s more sensitive audiences.

One of my favorite things about Popeye as a character is his mumbling, which occasionally veers off into a strange sort of scat.  Bimbo was already doing this earlier in the 30′s, but Jack Mercer’s Popeye raises it to an art form.  He even scats as he swims!  Mae Questel, who we’ve already discussed as the voice of Betty Boop, also portrayed Olive Oyl.  Olive is unappealing in all the ways Betty is appealing, and yet there are decades of cartoons where the sole plot is two guys fighting over her.  Questel’s high-pitched squeak (less sultry and more whiny as Olive) is perfect for the part.