Gopher Spinach

Gopher Spinach (1954)

*** (out of 4)

Popeye is out planting baby spinach's in his garden when suddenly they begin to disappear. It doesn't take long for him to realize that a gopher is stealing them.

Fans of Popeye should enjoy this short, which has a fairly good story but also plenty of action to go along with the laughs. Obviously Bluto will always be the greatest villain but the gopher here managed to make for a lot of fun and especially during a prank involving a lawn mower. As you'd expect the animation itself is quite impressive and with such a short running time there's no downtime in regards to entertainment.

Popeye is lovingly taking care of his little "hi-bred" spinach plants, taking them for a walk in the stroller, then giving them a shower, drying them carefully ("so you're iron won't rust) and sprinkling them with insect powder. He even puts diapers on them!

Then, we see his big garden: "a peaceful, contended nursery," he calls it.....until plants start suddenly disappearing! Popeye has a gopher problem.

The two battle it out for most of the cartoon but at the end, the two suddenly become allies against a raging bull - an odd ending, but a nice one.

Since I was a child I have loved Popeye the Sailor, due to his Cartoon Violence but not as Exaggerated as in Tom and Jerry, Violence in Popeye was always something that had to be in all his shorts and here there is not too much Violence, but there are good Scenes that replace the blows.

I saw this short on television as a child along with other Popeye shorts, I always liked the Popeye Character and the Others that were there, they were funny characters, but this short is a massive Degradation of the Original Shorts of the 40s.

The Animation at this Point is a Disgrace, it is noted that the Budget Low in Paramount forced to make Slower Animations with strange Movements and Inferior Drawings, but the Backgrounds and the Designs of the Characters are Quite Passable and resemble a little to the Originals and it is Easy to Ignore this point since at first glance the Animation is Quite Passable.

The Music doesn't Stand Out in Anything but it's still just as Lively and Good as in the Original Shorts.

The voice acting is pretty decent with the great Jack Mercer giving an excellent voice to Popeye.

Sound Effects are Simple and very Forgettable they make the Short feel boring.

In itself it is not the best short of the series, but it is a decent and enjoyable one to watch with your family and remember the old days!.

For everything I said before, I give this short a 7.

When you expect Bluto, a gopher can not be enough. But it is a nice portrait of beginning of friendship and seductive chain of adventures. And, sure, a story about rivalry. For pinach.

Popeye carefully plants his beloved spinach in his garden. A gopher steals his plants and Popeye gives chase. Soon there's a bull and a super gopher. This is fine. Popeye has a gopher as a costar. It's small in scale. The Famous Studios animation is still not my favorite but this one is fine. It's a lot of fine.