Shoein' Hosses

Olive Oyl fires Wimpy from her blacksmith shop for eating hamburgers instead of working. When Popeye and Bluto see her sign advertising for help, they compete for the job, until it turns into an outright fight.

It's the first of a long series of cartoons in which Popeye and Bluto compete for a job, fight, and Bluto is winning until Popeye eats some spinach. There are plenty of gags in the Fleischer house style -- Dave Fleischer liked to put in a lot of big and little gags to keep things interesting. However, the presence of what would soon become the standard plot for the Popeye series stops this from being a topnotch entry. It's still a lot of fun.

Dave Fleischer was responsible for many gems. Ones that were amusing and charming, though over-cuteness did come through in some efforts and the stories were always pretty thin, with appealing characters, outstanding music and visuals that were inventive and with innovative animation techniques.

'Shoein Hosses' is one of the best Popeye cartoons to me. It is extremely well done and never less than very funny, its best parts being hilarious. Have always enjoyed many of the Popeye cartoons a good deal and like Popeye very much, Fleischer's efforts were always well animated and scored with lots of entertainment value and great chemistry between Popeye, Olive Oyl and Bluto. 'Shoein Hosses' has everything that makes the Popeye series so appealing in its prime era and does nothing to waste the three main characters or make them less interesting.

The story is an interesting and beautifully paced one, never being dull, if formulaic (not uncommon with the Popeye cartoons). The humour and gags make it even more entertaining, 'Shoein Hosses' is non-stop fast-paced wildness and laughter, avoiding the trap of repetition.

All the characters are great, though Olive Oyl is a bit underused and her material not as great as Popeye and Bluto's. Those two are spot on and their chemistry drives 'Shoein Hosses' and has so much energy. Popeye is always amusing and likeable but for me Bluto is here the funnier and more interesting character.

Furthermore, the animation is beautifully drawn and with enough visual detail to not make it cluttered or static and lively and smooth movement. Sammy Timberg's music is also outstanding, lots of merry energy and lush orchestration, adding a lot to the action and making the impact even better without being too cartoonish. Fleischer's direction is always accomplished and his style is all over it.

Voice acting is dynamic and of very good quality, Mae Questel is a good fit for Olive Oyl, the voice that most sticks in my mind for the character and who voiced her the best, but William Costello and especially William Pennell are even better and give Popeye and Bluto so much life.

Concluding, splendid. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Shoein' Hosses (1934)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Another highly entertaining Popeye short has Olive Oyl firing Wimpy from her blacksmith shop so Bluto and Popeye must show who's the toughest in order to get the job. The entire six-minutes of the film deals with the men in a competition to see who is the strongest and this leads to plenty of funny scenes. The highlight is when the two put horseshoes on a couple horses and Popeye does so by laying the shoes on the ground and throwing the horse on them. Another very funny sequence has the two men getting wheels together for a cart. Wimpy's small cameo also contains some nice laughs as he can't get away from his hamburgers long enough to work.

Olive Oyl runs her blacksmith shop assisted by the hopelessly unhelpful Wimpy. She has to fire him and look for new help. She puts up a help wanted sign. Both Popeye and Bluto answer the ad and start competing for the job. The metal work is flying and it starts wrecking the shop.

This has the classic Popeye trio with Wimpy doing a small role. I wouldn't mind Wimpy coming back for the ending and punch it up with a joke. This has the classic Popeye violence and destruction. This has all the elements of a good standard Popeye short. It has all the moves and the spinach, too. It is solid entertainment.

Here's something unusual: a blacksmith shop run by a woman. It's the "Ye Blacksmith Shoppe, Olive Oyl, Proprietress." She may be thin as a rail, but Olive is tough as she shows in the opening scene when she gets mad at Wimpy.

After she boots him out for his incompetence, she puts a sign on the wall, "Blacksmith Wanted: Must Be Strong! Handsome! Willing!" Popeye comes along, sees the sign, straightens hair and says, "That's for me!" Unfortunately, Bluto, who owns a bar across the street, also sees the sign - and the competition is on as Olive tells, "Ok, show me what you guys can do!"

We then get a bunch of strongman-type contests where each guy tries to top the other, a familiar competition in Popeye cartoons over the years. The feats of strength that these two guys accomplish here are incredible. Once the action starts, it just keeps accelerating to a fantastic finish....so many sight gags you can't count them all.

This marks two straight totally insane, wild Popeye cartoons so it appears he's hit his stride here by 1934. This is very entertaining stuff.