The Marry-Go-Round

Marry-Go-Round was eloquent of Shorty's nature. He had pinups of Dorothy Lamour while Popeye had pictures of Olive Oyl-- HIS girl back home. As it happened, the ship to which Popeye and Shorty were assigned was stationed not far from where Olive Oyl was running a boarding house. (Was it for war-industry workers?) There was ALSO good luck in that as Popeye was trying to work up courage to propose, the Boatswain gave a "Now hear this" whistle and announced that Popeye and Shorty would have shore leave. Popeye half-heartedly, with Shorty egging him on, tried to propose; Olive was not so happy to see Popeye as she was multi-tasking, as boarding-house owner. Shorty got into the act, which peeved Popeye. Shore leave over, Popeye had Dorothy Lamour's pictures while Shorty had Olive's! for only the second of three Popeyes with Shorty, this one was stellar. It was only the second Popeye, excluding the 3 Fleischer specials of the Thirties, that would be color; Her Honor the Mare was first. All in all, a stellar cartoon.

Popeye doesn't have the nerve to propose to Olive. His Navy buddy Shorty helps him. It goes badly with unforeseen consequences. Shorty is not necessarily a great character although he's not horrible. Quite frankly, Bluto can serve the same purpose when sometimes he's a rival and sometimes he's a friend. This is also an early colored cartoon. The overall story works. I'm mostly fine with Shorty but in the end, he's a minor Popeye character.

This is a reasonably decent cartoon, in spite of the fact that Shorty is featured all too prominently here. I don't know if Shorty was meant as a replacement for the august and much revered J. Wellington Wimpy, but his run was mercifully short. Here, he "helps" Popeye propose to Olive, whereas a real friend would buy him track shoes and advise him to run swiftly far away. Shorty gets precisely what all such meddling souls should get-hoisted on his own petard. This is from the early part of the Famous Studios run, so the animation and backgrounds are still good. Worth watching. Somewhat recommended.

Really like to love a vast majority of Popeye's cartoons and the character himself. If more Fleischer's output than Famous Studios'. Fleischer's Popeye cartoons tended to be funnier, more imaginative and better made, Famous Studios' on the most part entertained though their later Popeye, and overall filmography actually, cartoons had tighter deadlines and lower budgets evident which accounted for the animation not being as good, less surprises and the material not as imaginative.

'The Marry-Go-Round' is not Popeye at his best, while not the greatest of representations of him it hardly disgraces him either. It is still enjoyable stuff and there are a lot of great things, just felt that something was missing. As far as the second world war-period Popeye cartoons go, 'The Marry-Go-Round' is despite saying that one of the better ones. Thankfully it does not make the mistake of being heavy-handed or have any stereotypes that are not for the easily offended, but generally there are funnier and more creative Popeye cartoons.

Although Shorty entertains enough to begin with, his interplay with Popeye being one of the cartoon's strongest assets thanks to the clever dialogue it is agreed that in a way he is used too much and that he is not as interesting or as likeable as Popeye and grates slightly this didn't strike me as a minor problem. Don't hate him as a character but can see why he was fairly short-lived.

Story-wise, 'The Marry-Go-Round' is not an awful lot special. There is plenty of energy, but the surprises and imagination didn't feel enough. Would have liked to have seen more of Popeye, as ever he is just fine, and Jack Mercer as ever does a great job making the most of his material but how the cartoon uses the two characters could have been better balanced.

Popeye though is amusing and easy to like. The wordplay and dialogue are very clever and one is not left stone-faced. Mercer, as aforementioned, cannot be faulted with the voice work, mumblings and asides have seldom been funnier.

Morever, the animation is very good, simple but has some nice detail in the backgrounds, the shading is crisp and the character designs are far from ugly or off. The inventive reaction shots, like a number of Popeye cartoons, make for great viewing. Even better is the music (always important for me to talk about and Popeye cartoons always fared very well in this respect), again lush and cleverly orchestrated and doing so well adding to and enhancing the action. The gags are a sizable amount and they do work thanks to crisp timing and creative visuals.

Overall, enjoyable if not great cartoon. 7/10

Popeyes shipmate, Shorty, tries to get him to propose to Olive Oyl. Popeye is too shy and Shorty pushes him to great extremes. Olive is overworked and Popeye's presence is a constant annoyance. But there is no stopping Shorty. It's a decent cartoon presentation in the Popeye middle series.