Popeye trifft Aladin

The artwork and dialog are the stars in this (longest-ever) 22-minutes Popeye animated short. This is one of three "longer" Popeye cartoons that were made in color back in the '30s and it's just beautiful to view. It reminded of the beautiful water color look of Bambi. I also loved all the puns and misused words that make Popeye always fun to hear. He and others use the wrong words in here frequently. I'll tell ya: you can;t beat the Technicolor of the '30s and '4- s.

Other, the main story is only so-so, about the battle for the magic lamp with the genie who grants powers. In here, it's the battle between our hero and some evil-looking dude with a Dracula-like cape. Olive Oyl, as always, has to be rescued.

The last five minutes was excellent Popeye having to use at least FOUR cans of spinach to defeat what the bad guy was using the genie to repel him. The genie was good, but you can't beat Popeye's spinach!

Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp (1939)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Classic Popeye short has Olive working at a movie studio where she's typing screenplays. One day she writes a story dealing with Aladdin, the magic lamp and of course her and Popeye have major roles.

ALADDIN AND HIS WONDERFUL LAMP had Popeye going from his usual 7- minute B&W shorts to twenty-two minutes and in Technicolor. I must admit that I love the B&W Popeye shorts and I'm glad that the majority of them were shot that way but there's no denying that this story just screams for color and we're given something very special. The story is wonderfully charming and is perfectly suited for Popeye and Olive. There are some great visuals throughout the film but the highlight is the final battle where Popeye is climbing some stairs with one obstacle after another. This one here is certainly a very entertaining one.

A POPEYE Cartoon.

Surprise Pictures scriptwriter Olive Oyl dreams-up a film version of ALADDIN AND HIS WONDERFUL LAMP, starring her spinach-munching boyfriend & herself.

This was the third in a series of 3 excellent two-reel cartoons, created by Max Fleischer, in which Popeye & his friends are interpolated into the classic stories of The Arabian Nights. They feature great animation and taut, fast-moving plots. Meant to be shown in movie theaters, they are miles ahead of their Saturday Morning counterparts. Jack Mercer is the voice of Popeye; Mae Questel does the honors for Olive Oyl.

For me, it remains the best version of Aladdin adventures. And, after decades, it is just lovely to see , again, a touching, amusing and heroic animation, admiring the wise craft , the silly situations and one of most interesting evil guys. And, no doubts, popeye .

Many of Dave Fleischer and Fleischer Studios' cartoons were good to classic. The best of them were fun and charming and even if there were cartoons of theirs that veered on the cute and some cartoons had more interesting characters than others they were always outstandingly scored, very easy to like and extremely well made, some of the techniques used even were innovative for back then.

'Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp' is the longest Popeye cartoon, more a short film somewhat, and for me and many others it's one of his best, classic Popeye if you will and contains everything so great about his best cartoons. Of the three Arabian Nights Popeye cartoons, 'Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp' is my personal favourite though all three are more than well worth watching. Did not mind the absence of Bluto at all and didn't actually miss him all that much, it is always good to have changes of paces in the Popeye cartoons and most of those in question do that well, of which 'Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp' is one of the best examples.

Olive Oyl is not quite as interesting as Popeye and the villain and Mae Questel's voice fits the character a little more than that of Margie Hines. But really there is very little to criticise.

Popeye is as amusing and likeable as ever, the genie is lots of fun and the villain is just as entertaining and also a good enough threat without being too over-the-top. Jack Mercer does a great job as always as Popeye and relishes Popeye's mumbling and asides.

As ever, the music is lush and characterful, synchronising beautifully with the action. The story is not too formulaic and filled with energy and charm, as well as the customary magic. The best assets though are the animation and dialogue. The animation is meticulously detailed, vibrant and sees a lot of smoothness in design and with some imaginative visual flourishes. The dialogue is fresh and one can tell that the writers were having a great time writing the dialogue here, mumblings have seldom been more hilarious than here.

In summary, really great. 9/10 Bethany Cox