Pest Pilot

Pest Pilot (1941)

*** (out of 4)

Popeye has his own airplane company and soon Pappy shows up wanting to become a pilot. Popeye tells his father that he's just too old for the job, which sets his dad off into proving him wrong.

PEST PILOT is a pretty good entry for the series, which features the terrific animation that you'd come to expect but it also contains some funny moments as well. The back-and-forth battle between Popeye and Pappy was quite funny and I especially liked the sequence were Pappy was fake crying to get his way. This certainly wasn't a masterpiece but it's a highly entertaining short.

Pappy wants to fly a plane at Popeye's small airport but Popeye is not about to let him. He steals a plane anyways and causes lots of damage across the globe. Popeye doesn't get to eat spinach in this one. It almost doesn't feel like a Popeye cartoon. After all, it's Popeye the sailor man, not Popeye the pilot man. Nevertheless, it's good fun and Pappy continues his irresponsibility. The father son relationship is still good.

This isn't too bad, thanks to Pappy, although this is yet another example of a 1941 cartoon that looks like it has been drawn by someone different. Perspective is out of whack and the humans look bigger than normal. Popeye doesn't quite act the same, either. Nonetheless, it is still an entertaining animated short and Pappy is always worth a few laughs.

Popeye runs an airport. That's what the sign over the hangar says, but it looks like he builds planes and, perhaps, teaches people how to fly. He advertises for "young, healthy and good-looking pilots," which leaves Pappy out. Pappy wants to take a plane up and give it a spin.

He claims he knows how to fly, but we know he doesn't. Popeye knows, too, and says nix in a number of funny ways. However, the old geezer figures a way to get a plane skyward and where he goes is pretty outrageous - across the globe and, in no time, he's way above the earth.....way above.

Popeye and his old man verbally spar with a few funny lines, too. Overall, the first half of this is far better than the second because of that although it was fun watching Pappy go berserk in his plane.

Pest Pilot repeats the theme of previous Fleischer-produced and directed Popeyes, to wit, the cantankerous nature of Poopdeck Pappy. In this one, Popeye turns from sailor to aviator, operating an airport with the caption "Airplanes is the Safest Things on Earth". Poopdeck Pappy displays his usual cantankerousness, such as he surely did in King Features' Thimble Theater comic strip, insisting that he IS young enough to pilot a plane. Popeye is unwilling to chance it, but Pappy pleads so his son locks him out; Pappy gets a plane that he finds outside, and takes it into the air, eventually crashing. Pappy was not hurt, so Popeye decides to give him wings, and let him operate a riding lawn mower! All in all, another fine example of what Pappy was like. It is notable that Poopdeck Pappy appeared only once or twice in the FAMOUS STUDIO Popeyes, while Eugene the Jeep did not appear at all, and J. Wellington Wimpy appeared in a few. The difference between the Fleischer and the Famous Studio Popeye cartoons thus has become manifest

1941 varied for the Popeye theatrical series, though not as much as the previous year (not a particularly strong year for Fleischer Studios to put it lightly). Popeye always has been a great character and his father Pappy is one of the series' better recurring characters, just love their chemistry whenever they're together. It is always very nice when we have a change of pace from the oft-used Popeye vs Bluto fighting for Olive formula and the best of the Popeye and Pappy outings are among the better examples.

While there were great 1941 Popeye cartoons like 'Problem Pappy' and 'Olive's Boithday Presink', 'Popeye Meets Rip Van Winkle' was a disappointment and didn't feel like a Popeye cartoon. 'Pest Pilot' is in the top middle category of the year for the series and a strong example as to why Popeye and Pappy's partnering worked so wonderfully and why there could have been more of them. This is how to do something different and do it quite well.

'Pest Pilot' isn't perfect. The story is very slight and runs out of gas momentum-wise towards the end, which could have been wilder than it was. Did feel like it could have been more consistent tonally, there are moments of genuinely amusing (if not hilarious) wildness in the verbal sparring that dominates the first half but somehow the second half was a little too gentle. Can understand where people are coming from when saying that it doesn't feel like Popeye, which tend at their best to have wild, suitably chaotic final thirds which 'Pest Pilot' doesn't quite.

Also felt that not all the animation is great, most of it is but the character animation looked rushed and the proportions were all wrong and inconsistent.

However, there is a lot that is good here in 'Pest Pilot'. Enough of the animation is expressive and beautifully detailed, primarily the background and some of the physical comedy viusals. The music, appropriately like its own character, is as beautifully orchestrated and characterful as ever. While there is nothing hilarious or original here, the gags and asides do amuse and charm. The verbal sparring between Popeye and Pappy is a joy and where 'Pest Pilot' is at its best and funniest.

Furthermore, despite being slight and in need at times of a tighter pace, especially in the second half, the story is lively in the first half (thanks to the chemistry between Popeye and Pappy) and has charm. Popeye is fun and likeable and Pappy once again is a more than worthy supporting character and doesn't make one miss Olive or Bluto too much. They have a fun chemistry together, with some smile-worthy back and forth, and both are exuberantly voiced by Jack Mercer in what is essentially a one man show.

Overall, not great but pleasant. 7/10.