Nurse-Mates

Popeye and Bluto show up at Olive's door at the same time, wanting to take her to the movies. Because she needs to go to the beauty parlor, she enlists them to take care of Swee-pea. I have no idea what their relationship is. Anyway, she leaves a list of things they have to do. Of course, they don't have a clue what to do and end up in a fight over every actions. Of course, the baby has more brains and ingenuity than either of them, so things go bonkers. It is well paced and full of fun sight gags.

There's nothing awful about this one, just nothing really remarkable, save for Pinto Colvig (the voice of Goofy) as Bluto. I've seen it all in other (better) Popeye shorts. Fleischer almost always did visually fantastic cartoons and this one isn't bad. But I see signs of burnout here. They seem to have lost a bit of steam with this one. Oh, well, they can't all be great. Jack Mercer is fine as usual. Recommended for completeists.

Nurse-Mates (1940)

*** (out of 4)

Bluto and Popeye show up at Olive's house to take her out on a date but she's got a baby there. The men agree to watch him but things don't go as planned.

NURSE-MATES is another very good entry in the early Popeye series and once again it benefits from plenty of fast action as well as the high quality animation that people had come to expect from it. There are many fast-paced action scenes here but the highlight is when the boys are battling each over about the proper way to wash a baby. There's plenty of laughs dealing with the kid being in danger but it's all done in such a way that you can't take it too serious.

Here's a familiar scene: Popeye and Bluto arriving at Olive Oyl's front door at the exact same time. As Popeye said many times: "Whoa!!!" The cartoon turns out to be a baby-sitting contest, of sorts. After both of the guys ask her out to the movies, her only answer is "I have to go to the beauty parlor. You'll have to look after Swee' Pea until I come back. Here's the list of what to do."

So Popeye and Bluto attempt to give the baby a bath and then dress him. Bluto takes charge, as always and his skit showing how to wash a baby is pretty funny. It probably wouldn't make a cartoon today, deemed child abuse, but Swee' Pea didn't seem to mind! Other gags ensue after Swee' Pea slips out of the small tub and gets ink all over himself. Popeye's solution of "spot remover" works a little too well.

Anyway, slapstick rules this cartoon as one misadventure after another happens with the little guy and the two big lugs trying to help but getting in each other's way. There may not be many laugh-out-loud jokes but it's entertaining to enough to rate a "7."

One note: there is no spinach in this one, which is unusual.

Like to love a vast majority of the Fleischer Studios Popeye output, the late-30s cartoons being particularly good and where the high quality was the most consistent. 1940 saw Fleischer Studios starting to decline significantly, the cartoons were mostly well made and scored but they tended to not be very funny, too cute with un-compelling stories and characters. The Popeye cartoons though were among the better ones from this period, in its best theatrical series in the early 40s bar none.

'Nurse Mates' may not one of the best Popeye cartoons overall though or one of the best of the 1940 output. Considering that Fleischer Studios' pre-40s output was mostly decent to brilliant, it is a little disappointing. At the same time though, despite a couple of major problems there are a lot of well done things. 'Nurse Mates' actually compares favourably amongst the 40s Fleischer Studios output in general, when the studio was undergoing bar none its worst ever period (with 1940 being its worst year perhaps).

Yes it is nothing new in terms of story and material, which does take away from any freshness or surprises somewhat. There has been a little more energy in other Popeye cartoons before and even since, coming from someone who consider the earlier Popeye cartoons generally better than the later ones.

And sorry to say it again, but despite Jack Mercer as always being brilliant as Popeye (the only Popeye voice actor for me), Margie Hines and Pinto Colvig never really gelled as Olive, who has little to do here again, and Bluto. Of Bluto's voice actors especially, Colvig is easily the least sinister, robust or formidable and he didn't seem to have as much fun as the others, also couldn't get Goofy (Colvig being Goofy's original voice actor and he was still voicing him when also voicing Bluto) out of my head somehow.

However, the animation is neatly and expressively drawn (especially with Popeye) and still very much like the work that goes into the backgrounds. The music, appropriately like its own character, is as beautifully orchestrated and characterful as ever.

The gags are also a lot of fun despite the lack of originality, the fighting over the baby washing was very funny to watch and didn't get old. The story is not much new but still a lot of energy, with a wonderfully wild final third that is the case for most Popeye cartoons. All three major characters are handled very well (Olive is too underused to be in the same class), especially Popeye, Bluto is also a suitably formidable adversary and Swee'Pea is very cute.

In conclusion, good but falls short of being great. 7/10