Guerra de Cocineros

Bluto pulls his diner right across the street from Popeye's Diner. It's immediate competition as Wimpy walks by looking for a bite to eat.

I'm not sure how Wimpy's voice is supposed to sound like. I just wasn't expecting that. His Tuesday phrase gets a little reworking and I think it's the best version ever. It makes sense that he orders the hamburger first before talking about the payment. Also, Gladly is such a great word and really sells the con. This one has some good gags and a classic ending. I remember this ending although I'm not sure if I saw it here. It is simply a great way to finish this off.

Spree Lunch is an amusing take-off on Fleischer Popeyes of the Thirties. Popeye and Bluto are, as in Penny Antics (1955) and Cuskomers Wanted(1939), are friendly rivals, this time as proprietors of diners. Popeye opens his diner, and in chef's hat, sweeps and sings, then-- along comes Bluto-- with HIS diner, across the street! Popeye calls Bluto's action unethical; Bluto declares that there is nothing wrong with competition. War of words continues until, along comes J. Wellington Wimpy! (Who else?) the two restauranteurs vie for Wimpy's patronage, using this and that means, until the two diner owners get tee'd off at each other and throw food. Wimpy comes out on top, helping himself to the food. He will repay them Tuesday, I suppose. This cartoon has echos of We Aim to Please(1934) and What-- No Spinach?(1937), as those are cartoons in which Wimpy takes advantage of the brawling between Popeye and Bluto. Quite amusing; too bad that later Famous Studios episodes had overstandardized story formats.

Really like to love a good deal of Popeye cartoons and like the character of Popeye. Love Bluto more and his chemistry with Popeye has always driven their cartoons. Will admit though to preferring the Popeye cartoons from the Dave Fleischer era, the cartoons tend to be funnier and there is more originality and more risk taking in some of them.

'Spree Lunch' is a late Popeye cartoon and made in Famous Studios' roughest and most variable period where budgets were much smaller in particularly the animation and deadlines and time constraints were shorter and tighter. All things considered, while there are infinitely better Popeye cartoons (especially during the Fleischer era) and there are signs of what made this period an inferior one for Famous Studios, 'Spree Lunch' is not a bad late Popeye cartoon at all, actually really very enjoyable and one of the better cartoons in Famous Studios' late output.

As to be expected, the story is standard and formulaic, if one has seen the cartoons with Popeye and Bluto fighting in the diner with Wimpy also featuring it's almost the same story as those minus Olive Oyl, in one of not particularly many cases of her not appearing.

Similarly the animation quality is uneven, never terrible but never fantastic. The colours are fine and there is smoothness and nice detail but there are many moments where the backgrounds are sparse and the drawing rough.

What is fantastic about 'Spree Lunch' is the music score, the best thing for me. It's beautifully orchestrated, rhythmically it's full of energy and there is so much character and atmosphere, it's also brilliant at adding to the action and enhancing it. The gags, ranging from very amusing to hilarious and creative for late Famous Studios/Popeye, are executed very well, especially that deliciously wild food fight, the interplay between the characters is lively and witty if in need of more variety at times and the pace is never dull.

The three main characters do a great job carrying the cartoon, Wimpy being the funniest and most interesting. The entertaining interplay between Popeye and Bluto really sparkles but Wimpy steals the show. Jack Mercer and Jackson Beck give great vocal characterisations, Beck in particular.

Concluding, very enjoyable. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Spree Lunch (1957)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Popeye and Bluto open restaurants right across from one another so when Wimpy comes walking by they must fight to try and get his business.

SPREE LUNCH was the next to last Popeye short and it's one of the best. This one here was highly creative in regards to what it does in order to get a laugh and the film is willing to do just about anything for that laugh. There are many highlights to be found here including some wonderful gags being played as Wimpy is a pawn in the game as he gets dragged, sneezed and blown from one location to the next. This all leads up to a wild food fight where Wimpy is certainly the winner. If you're a fan of Popeye then you're going to love this short because it's just so wild, over-the-top and downright fun. It's certainly one of the best that you're going to see.

Popeye's singing while he sweeps away the dirt on the sidewalk-entrance of "Popeye's Diner."

As he finishes, he hears an obnoxious horn blasting, signaling the arrival of Bluto who is pulling his brand new "Bluto's Diner" into the parking lot across the street. "Bluto," says Popeye, "that is un-etical!"

"Listen, runt, a little competition never hurt anybody," responds Bluto. Popeye answers, "I says ya gotta move that chow wagon." It gets heated and the war of diners is now officially on when the first customer - "Wimpy" - walks down the street.

The two do everything they can to have Wimpy as the customer and some of the gags are clever, such as the Mexican jumping beans, the underground magnet and the pepper spray. All these are used by one of the combatants to draw Wimpy back to their diner. The ending was clever, too, with both of the hot-tempered macho men winding up losers to the inventive (and always hungry) Wimpy.

This was the final cartoon in a nice two-disc DVD collection of Popeye cartoons from the '30s through the '50s. It was called the "75th Anniversary Collector's Edition" and it wasn't expensive. It was well worth the money.