The All-New Popeye Hour

The bald-headed, one-eyed,pipe-smoking, deformed-armed, spinach loving sailor man sails back into action! This time he is in a Saturday morning version that is probably more favorable towards parents; who want to raise kinder gentler children! In "the All-New Popeye Hour" instead of eating his spinach and beating someone senseless; he saves the day by doing tricks after guzzling a can of the leafy vegetable! However if you're a die-hard fan of animation you would be very disappointed! Max Fleisher provided lively animation in the days of the black-and-white shorts of almost half a century before. As the years went by and Popeye was presented in color, you witnessed the quality of animation gradually erode; until this 1978 series of Popeye cartoons which demonstrated poor animation!

The producers made sure everybody made it back! For the first time in years Popeye is reunited with: Seahag,Alice the Goon, and the Jeep! No version of Popeye would be complete without the always hungry Wimpy, and the big bully Bluto! The E.C. Segar created sailor man continues his engagement to Olive Oyl, which is without doubt the longest engagement in the history of Hollywood! They were eventually married years later! Popeye fans keep your eyes peeled for some REALLY all new Popeyes!

One of the most endearing comic creations of the 20th century was Popeye the Sailor Man. The pipe-smoking Navy man who gulped spinach to activate massive strength in his over-sized forearms and lower legs popped up first in 1928 in a newspaper comic strip drawn by E.C. Segar called "The Thimble Theater". Olive Oyl,Popeye's skinny,jittery girlfriend,was already a regular in the strip,along with her brother Castor Oyl,who spotted Popeye on a dock. The character's popularity grew,and soon his sayings like "I yam what I yam!" and "Well,blow me down!" became a massive hit with the younger set,leading in short time to having the character adapted for the movies,first in a 1931 Betty Boop animated short and onward to his first-ever theatrical cartoon short that premiered in 1933. The character also starred in a radio series heard briefly on NBC in 1935-36 and CBS in 1936. Between 1933 through 1957,they were 234 Popeye animated theatrical shorts that were released through Paramount Pictures which were huge box office hits.

In 1958,Paramount Pictures released 234 Popeye theatrical cartoon shorts to local television stations,where they proved to be very successful. In 1960,King Features-Syndicate,which had syndicated the Popeye comic strips for newspapers,went into its first TV production with a new version,supposedly because it was not getting residuals from the video screenings of the movie cartoons. As with the Paramount shorts,Jack Mercer voiced Popeye and Mae Questal was Olive Oyl while Bluto,Popeye's arch nemesis was replaced by the similar looking and sounding Brutus was voiced by Jackson Beck. The syndicated version ran for two years in syndication ending in 1962. From 1962 until 1978,there were no "New Popeye" cartoons in production. The repeated episodes of the series from the original TV production along with all 234 of the theatrical shorts were shown in syndication.

It wasn't until 1978,after more than a decade out of the spotlight,Popeye made his return to television and not to even mentioning made his debut into the abyss of Saturday Morning television. "The New Adventures of Popeye" had him back with the old crew including Sweetpea,Eugene The Jeep,Wimpy,and even Olive Oyl,and also brought back not only Popeye's arch-nemesis Bluto and also gets to face his greatest adversary and the most greatest villain--SEA HAG!!! in various adventures. This show was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions in association with King Features-Syndicate and Paramount Television that ran from September 9,1978 until September 10,1983. Only 26 episodes were made of this series. Jack Mercer returned as the voice of Popeye. Here as in other previous versions,the violence quotient was markedly deemphasized-to the point where Popeye could not even roll up his sleeves to show off his massive biceps,much make a threatening gesture was banned despite the offset of what the producers could not do in the guidelines of censors for Saturday Mornings and the executives of children's programming at CBS-TV,which broadcast it. And to make sure that everyone was educated and not incited by the show's content,the short "Popeye's Safety Tips". The worst of this came in 1981,when the show was cut to a half-hour under the title "The Popeye and Olive Comedy Show",and under this added new characters that included "Private Olive Oyl" with Sgt. Blast and Col. Crumb in the female version of "Gomer Pyle".

POPEYE AND BIG FOOT **; POPEYE'S ENGINE COMPANY **; GETTING POPEYE'S GOAT **1/2

I used to lap these up as a kid but, catching an episode of the series comprising three cartoons back-to-back now i.e. several years later (they preceded the theatrical screening of the pirate yarn RAIDERS OF THE SEVEN SEAS [1953]), I can see how they don't hold up all that well! The character of Popeye isn't exactly sympathetic to begin with, Olive Oyl distinctly overbearing and Bluto's antics failed to elicit much interest either – in short, the scripts were alarmingly thin, fairly awful and generally unfunny to boot. They're strictly juvenile fare, yet I doubt today's kids would even have the patience to stick with them!; furthermore, the animation style is unattractive.

Taking each short per se, I guess they improved from one to the other: after the initial shock, one adapted to its mediocre quality as it were, so that the third cartoon easily results in being the most enjoyable of the lot – Popeye is entrusted with a mascot army goat whose immense appetite causes him no end of mischief (hardly original, I know, but always an amusing ploy). One interesting element here was that the shorts were bookended with Popeye delivering moralistic bits of wisdom to the kids in the audience.

When this show was on I watched it every time I could! I thought that the characters were really funny and all had great personalities. The animation in My opinion was crisp, clean, and really clear. Not to mention beautiful! Most of the characters in this show are like the hilarious Looney Tunes characters that we all love. in My opinion these characters are the funnies and talented ever seen. In fact, The things that goes on in this series' cartoons are in My opinion nuts which that is what makes them hilarious! There are so many to like and laugh at and the silly things they do! If you like the original Looney Tunes then I strongly recommend that you watch this show!

Hanna-Barbera sucks the life out of another famous property. The violence is watered down, the stories are formulaic, the animation is bad, the music is obnoxious and repetitive, and frankly, the show just isn't funny.

At the time, H-B put every one of its series through the same clichéd situations, regardless if it fit the world of the cartoon or not. Thus, Popeye and Bluto appear in a recurring segment as cavemen ("Hey! Popeye is popular, and the Flinstones are popular. Put 'em together, and you can't miss!"). Also, in an apparent ripoff of "Private Benjamin," Olive Oyl and the Goon have a regular segment that features them as new army recruits. Seriously! Why?

Adding to the annoyance factor are the public service announcements in every episode (standard practice at the time for cartoons, but still annoying). Popeye lectures his nephews on crossing the street safely, recycling, and - are you ready for this? - the dangers of smoking! (I swear I'm not making that up.)

The only charm remaining from the original cartoons is that Jack Mercer, the voice of Popeye from the early days, continues the role here.

Worth checking out once just to get a new appreciation for the old Fleischer shorts. Otherwise, avoid at all costs.