Big Bad Sindbad

Popeye takes his nephews to the Nautical Museum. They come upon a statue of Sindbad. Popeye tells them a story. It's the Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor (1936). Recycling happens a lot back in the day. This is not worst example. At least, it makes sense to do the flashback. I would recommend watching the original.

One thing to note about the old Fleischer footage is that it has a new soundtrack recorded by Jack Mercer, Mae Questel, Jackson Beck and music director Winston Sharples.

I would have been nice if the late Willard Bowsky got animation credit for the old footage. In case you didn't know, Bowsky was the head animator for the original "Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor" footage. Bowsky joined the U.S. Army after Pearl Harbor and was killed in action in France.

Besides the number of nephews reduced to three (which one fell victim to budget cuts?), it's noteworthy that this cartoon features Popeye in his original sailor outfit before he joined the U.S. Navy at the end of the Fleischer era.

Have always liked the Popeye series, loved even quite a lot of the cartoons from namely Fleischer Studios' late-30s period. Also like the character of Popeye very much especially his mumblings and asides and chemistry with Bluto (the latter of which being a huge part of the series' appeal, apart from the cartoons where Bluto doesn't appear). Am less of a fan of the cartoons, and cartoons in general actually, that are basically clips of previous cartoons with a framing story that isn't as interesting.

'Big Bad Sindbad' is one of these types of cartoons and personally wasn't completely sold on it. Despite being based around and having a healthy dose of 1936's 'Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor', one of the three Arabian Nights Popeye cartoons and one of the best of the series, a big part of me just questioned its necessity when it was basically that cartoon (or some of it) told in retrospect via a story linking the clips together. Especially since the difference in quality between the clips and framing story, so everything with Popeye and his nephews, is so vast.

The 'Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor' clips are a joy and make 'Big Bad Sindbad' watchable. The animation consists of drawing clearly done with precision and care and meticulous background detail and landscapes that never came over as too cluttered or static. The music is the outstanding element in the clips and the Popeye/nephews segments, the energy is right on point and the orchestration is typically lush and clever.

In terms of gags and memorable moments in the clips, they are all never less than amusing, with some of the particularly imaginative and clever material included, and the wildness increases wonderfully. It may be formulaic Popeye, but it is enormously entertaining, nostalgic and clever Popeye. Love the chemistry between Popeye and Bluto, both on top form, and the voice work from some of the studio's finest (re-dubbed here in this cartoon so Bluto is voiced by Jackson Beck here) is reliably strong.

Unfortunately, the Popeye/nephews portions are not near as interesting or entertaining, the huge difference in quality from them and the clips was quite distracting. Apart from Popeye himself and some of his dialogue, the story doesn't have the same amount of energy or invention (very standard, routine stuff here that is not a new concept and little new is done with it, giving it a blandness). The difference in animation quality between the these parts and the 'Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor' parts is very obvious too, great in the latter, uneven in the former (never terrible but seldom great, nice colours but the drawing and characters aren't as careful or as expressive).

Not much of the material is particularly inspired and didn't care much for the characters of the nephews here, pretty annoying and with not an awful lot of charm either. The chemistry between them and Popeye never really ignites somehow.

Concluding, certainly not bad but felt unnecessary. 6/10

Often, animation companies would pillage their vaults and make compilation films that were short on new ideas but long on recycled film. BIG BAD SINDBAD takes a wide array of scenes from POPEYE MEETS SINDBAD THE SAILOR, but cannot match the animation brilliance. However the story line weaves fairly seemlessly throughout, and the addition of Popeye's nephews as a plot device works well. An above-average 1950's POPEYE production, mostly because of the old film use.

The producers of this particularly Popeye cartoon got lazy and decided to spend much of the time using footage of a past episode. "Cheaters," I guess, is what they call that kind of practice. Anyway, I think it's a cop-out and lazy way to present a "new" animated short.

It begins with Popeye bringing three nephews into the "Nautical Hall Of Fame." There, he shows them "Washington Crossing the Delaware" in which the kids then start rowing the boat across the room. Then, it's "Noah's Ark," where Popeye notes that Noah was "the world's first sailor." Then the shows the kids a big statue of "Sindbad, the Greatest Sailor In History.

The kids ask Popeye, "We thought YOU were the greatest sailor in the world." Popeye answers, "I am," and then relates the story of his adventures with Sinbad - in which we get footage of the earlier cartoon "Popeye Meets Sindbad The Sailor."

There is a cute ending when the story is over and the nephews are convinced Popeye is still number one.