A Haul in One

Popeye and Bluto are actually in business together, as movers. We first see them moving cars to get their truck through to Olive Oyl's apartment building. Olive is having a difficult time trying to pack, getting literally bounced through the ceiling and her head through the bathroom sink, plus other assorted strange sights.

When Popeye and Bluto arrive, she still isn't even close to finishing her packing. When Olive answers the door, the two guys are star-struck. You'd think they'd seen the most beautiful woman in the world. Then, the competition starts. So much for partnership!

No matter what Bluto does, Popeye tops him with some incredible feats (and very funny). "Why, dat show off," says a frustrated Bluto. Popeye is so strong, so good at this that Olive swoons and says, "Ohhh, what a man!!"

The ending is a bit silly but overall this was a lot of fun to watch as Popeye outdid himself with super-human feats.

The basic question remains about the women beauty taste of Popeye and Bluto. But , off course, it becomes only a detail in the effort of botyh to proof their high art of moving to seductive Olive. In many senses, the first scenes, in whih the adversaries are good coworkers are just seductive.

With just a few more Popeye cartoons to produce before their license lapsed, the people at Famous Studios put little effort into this one about Olive Oyl moving and Popeye & Bluto being her movers and competing for her admiration.

Character design, background art, and animation have been cut to the minimum, and the gags have lost all relationship to reality; not only are laws of physics broken willy-nilly, but characters' skeletons come and go for the sake of mediocre gags, until the inevitable point when Popeye opens a can of spinach by squeezing it until it pops like a pimple, and we're done.

The movers are coming and Olive Oyl hasn't finished packing. The movers arrive and it's Popeye and Bluto. The boys start competing in packing.

This is a colored Popeye short. I do not like the animation style. It's crude and ugly. It reminds me of the old Spiderman cartoons without the charm. Popeye has done much better. The story is fine. It's the classic triangle. I just don't like the drawing.

A Haul in One (1956)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Olive Oyl is moving so she hires a couple men to come move her stuff. Of course it turns out to be Popeye and Bluto and before long they're both showing off trying to win her approval.

A HAUL IN ONE has a clever title and a few creative moments but for the most part it's certainly not one of the best films from the series. I think the best thing going for the film are a couple creative scenes where Popeye and Bluto are trying to out-do each other by packing and carrying more items. While a few of these are creative I'd be lying if I said they were funny. The animation is nice as you'd expect but there's no question that more laughs were needed.