Hello How Am I

Have always preferred Fleischers' Popeye cartoons over those from Famous Studios, with the best period for me being the late-30s where the quality was pretty much consistently pretty good to great. Famous Studios' were all watchable but less consistent, with the later ones suffering from budget and time constraints. While the previous years from the late-30s were a little more consistent quality-wise, 1939 was still a very solid year for the Popeye series.

Of which 'Hello-How Am I' is one of that year's best. If anybody has not watched a Popeye cartoon and wants to know and see what the fuss is all about, while there are better must-watches 'Hello-How Am I' represents what is great about prime-Popeye extemely well and is actually not too bad a place to start. It is good to have a change in pace once in a while, in this case Bluto doesn't feature and one doesn't find themselves missing him that much. Actually find most of the change in pace cartoons as interesting and as good as the Popeye vs. Bluto outings.

There is very little to dislike here, but Margie Hines somehow doesn't quite do it for me as Olive. It is not because of being unable to accept anybody else other than Mae Questel voicing the character, but Hines and Bonnie Poe for me never fitted anywhere near as well with Olive's character design and personality (Poe too mature, Hines slightly too shrill).

Popeye and especially Olive not seeing through Wimpy's disguise required a little suspension of disbelief for me as well.

Conversely, the animation is nicely drawn and detailed, shining in the characters' expressions. The music is non-stop liveliness and richly orchestrated, gelling with the action like a glove. There are gags and laughs galore, and the best of them mostly revolving around the chemistry between Popeye and Wimpy (like Popeye trying to fool the fake Popeye) are hilarious. Some fun dialogue too, like in the exchange starting with "is there only one washington?" Popeye's mumblings always bring a smile to my face.

Energy is constant and nothing feels too predictable. As entertaining as Popeye is, it is Wimpy that steals the cartoon. Their chemistry really helps make the humour work as it does, very witty. Jack Mercer's voice acting is a delight.

Altogether, great. 9/10

Hello How Am I (1939)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Olive Oyl calls up Popeye and invites him over for some hamburgers. Wimpy overhears the call and decides to dress up as Popeye so that he can get some burgers as well.

HELLO HOW AM I is a very entertaining and extremely funny film for the series. The idea of there being two Popeye's makes for a terrific set- up and there are plenty of creative laughs along the way. Tere are several very funny moments but the highlight would have to be the scene where the real Popeye is trying to fool the fake one but the tables eventually get turned once Olive is around. Fans of the series will certainly enjoy this one.

Room mate Wimpy hears Popeye on the telephone accepting an invitation to a hamburger dinner. When Popeye is on his way, he meets.... himself.

Of course, the intelligent audience knows that one of them is actually Wimpy, but the imitation is good enough to fool Olive, and even involve Popeye in a crisis of identity.

It's certainly enough for a amusing cartoon, even though there's little more to it than that. Undoubtedly the Fleischer staff down in Miami found it easier to draw two Popeyes moving in unison than a pair of different characters. Even though the inevitable battle is fast, Popeye still must down some spinach. Perhaps he thought that the other one might actually be the sailor man.

Wimpy will do just about anything for some hamburgers, even impersonate Popeye, which he does here in this cartoon.

In this story, Popeye and Wimpy are roommates in some fleabag place.Both are sleeping when the phone rings. It's Olive inviting Popeye over for a hamburger dinner. Wimpy overhears this and quickly dons a complete Popeye outfit. Soon, the two of them are walking side-by-side to Olive's house. Popeye, of course, freaks out when he sees "himself" next to him!

How he handles this, and how Olive handles it when the two of them arrive at her door, provides most of the jokes in this so-so cartoon. Of course, the whole thing has no credibility, but it's a cartoon, so it isn't expected to make a lot of sense. Popeye and Olive couldn't see Wimpy was wearing a plastic mask? You know, that sort of credibility thing.

Although truth wins out, Wimpy made out for the most of the cartoon, meaning he got the hamburgers, even if he did have to run for his life at the end. Actually, so did Popeye but how that happened, I'll let you watch. I saw this on Volume Two of the Popeye The Sailor DVDs.

Olive Oyl invites Popeye over to her place for a hamburger dinner. His roommate Wimpy overhears the conversation and joins Popeye in a Popeye disguise. Popeye cannot believe his eyes and Olive Oyl cannot see the difference. In fact, Wimpy talks himself into the dinner and Popeye is left out.

This is a rare Popeye cartoon where Wimpy goes full villain. Wimpy does some bad stuff sometimes, but he is rarely the big bad. There is a reason for that. In reality, Wimpy poses no threat to Popeye. His villainy is not much more than a nothing burger. This is really only at the level of a childish prank.