Dizzy Divers

CONTINUING TO PRESENT we, the audience with the whole stockpile of those old black & white POPEYE shorts from the Brothers Fleischer, our good friends and benefactors at Turner Classic Movies screened this one this past Saturday. From what we've seen, they are doing their best to follow the chronological order of release in the best film historian's tradition.

WHAT HAS BEEN the most obvious revelation is that the currently presented output is from 1935; which surely looks to have been truly "the GoldenAge of Popeye" on screen. Each short seems to be as good and laugh-loaded as the next. The guys at the studio followed a certain formula in puting on the show. Hence, we would typically be treated to about 10 minutes of struggle between protagonist (the Sailor Man) and mean, nasty, old Musclebound himself, Bluto.

WITH ONLY ONE reel with which to work, the story line, such as they were, was always kept to the simplest of forms. The cartoons in this series always made use of familiar characters from the pages of the comics, mainly using Olive Oyl and Wimpy; but others appeared also, if only unbilled.

IN THIS EPISODE, we find Popeye and Bluto being set in a nautically related field of having competing commercial sea diving operations A brief truce leads to the two rivals for Miss Oyl returning to their once and future status as rivals. That's all we're going to say, rather than going any further and spoiling it for those who haven't seen it yet (both of you).

JUST ONE MORE thing, before we sign off; following the tried and true formula already established and successful, there are two regulars used as assistants to each of the boys. Popeye has Olive Oyl; with Bluto's getting Mr.J. Wellington Wimpy who works for hamburgers, not peanuts.

Dizzy Divers (1935)

*** (out of 4)

Popeye discovers a treasure map and brings Bluto in as a partner but Bluto steals the map and heads out on his own so Popeye and Olive Oyl must catch up. This is another winner for the series, which contains a lot of laughs as well as some great underwater fights. The highlights of the film are when Popeye has to battle various ocean life including a shark and a great battle with an octopus. The scenes of Popeye having to row his boat are also very nice and the animation is at the top of the game as well.

Popeye and Bluto are neighboring deep sea divers. Popeye gets a map to a sunken treasure. Bluto suggests going around the dangers, but Popeye plans to go straight through. Instead of 50-50, Bluto has the idea to take the whole thing and steals the map. Popeye speeds to the spot with Olive Oyl. Bluto arrives with his assistant Wimpy.

As least, they are still sailors. The standard undersea battle has a lot of muffled mutterings. Maybe they could do more with Wimpy. The ending is safe. I am not sure that Popeye should be that honorable. More than anything, I would do something funnier than that.

Octopi? Octopodes? Never mind. Popeye and Bluto are deep-sea divers in this one. Popeye has a map leading to treasure and proposes to cut in Bluto 50-50. Bluto agrees and knocks the Popster for a loop and steals the map.

There's a lot of cheating going on in this cartoon. That;s cheating in the animation sense, by repeating actions in a loop, which occurs a couple of times. Usually this was done to reduce the cost of making the cartoon: instead of doing 7 minutes worth of cels, the staff could cut it down by as much as 10% here. In addition, the gags are less amusing than usual, more aimed at advancing the plot... although there are a couple of very funny ones, resulting in a solid episode in the long-running series.

Popeye and Bluto actually are on the same team? Well, it doesn't last long - about a minute!

These two adversaries, deep-sea divers in this story, are pouring over a treasure map and trying to figure out what's the best way to sail to find it. Their main concern seems to be sharks and barracudas in the waters surrounding where they think the treasure lies. Bluto pronounces the fish "bara-cooties."

Popeye shakes hands and says, "We have a deal: 50-50." Bluto agrees but within seconds pictures having 100 percent of it and starts trying kill our guy!! Holy smokes, is this guy is greedy AND brutal! Bluto beats him up, takes the map and leaves on his boat, waving the map and laughing, "Fifty-fifty. Toodle- dee-doo!"

You know Popeye is going to go right after him and he does, rowing his own tugboat because the tugboat isn't going fast enough! Man, people forget Popeye was incredibly strong even without the spinach. Of course, Bluto was even stronger because he almost always pulverized Popeye until our guy could eat his greens.

Anyway, what happens here on the sea and underneath it with the treasure all is funny - good stuff. Olive is helping Popeye and Wimpy (that traitor!) is helping Bluto. Not only do the two boys battle it out but they have to fight off the sea creatures below. This is a lot of fun to watch, to say the least.

Once again, we get some excellent artwork. The details show a lot of work went into there early black-and-white episodes, far more than in latter day (i.e. 1960s) Popeye cartoons. This really looks good on the restored new Popeye: The Early Years DVD package. Obviously, the people who worked on these cartoons for the DVD put a good effort into this, too. The shipwreck underwater scenes look fantastic! This cartoon and the others have never good better and are highly recommended.