Abusement Park

Popeye takes Olive Oly to an amusement park. Bluto starts competing for her attention. This is a colored Popeye cartoon in Cinecolor. It looks pretty good. An amusement park is a rich environment for a cartoon but one thing that becomes noticeable. There is no people in the amusement park. It would have been funny to have clowns. Otherwise, this is fine work and it looks good.

Bluto tries to steal Olive Oyl by besting Popeye at various game booths at the amusement park, a pretty basic plot that they used in the very first Popeye theatrical short.

But while they first couple of gags are good, the short becomes increasingly wild, starting when Popeye and Olive enter the tunnel of Love,and climaxing on an outrageous chase on a roller coaster.

If the the craziness is a bit haphazard, lacking the timing and comic sense of someone like Tex Avery, the ambition is still appreciated.

The establishing shots and backgrounds of the park and roller coaster are wild and beautiful, with an impressive watercolor glow.

Be prepared, however, to see Olive get even rougher treatment than usual. A lot of people understandably dislike the way she's treated on screen, but I have to admit, it's never bothered me. Olive is more a living rubber band than a person.

It is odd, however, that the driving plot device is the protection of Olive, a woman who can be hurled against a factory smokestack hard enough to knock it off its perch without even getting as much as a scratch.

ABUSEMENT PARK has a special place in my heart because I think it is the most spectacularly violent Popeye cartoon ever made---and the animation itself seems to move at a much faster speed than the Fleischers and succeeding amusement shorts such as ALL'S FAIR AT THE FAIR.

And some extra care seems to have been taken with the background music during the roller coaster climax(okay,KING OF THE MARDI GRAS was better with the coaster).

By the way,who paid for the damages to the lighthouse? They could have at least warned the guy to evacuate.

Does anybody REALLY fall in love inside The Tunnel of Love?

Really liked to love a vast majority of Fleischer Studios' Popeye output, especially the best of those from 1935-1938. Famous Studios', taking over from 1942 until the series ended in 1957, was a little more variable, but all their cartoons for the series were watchable. 1946's output was not a consistent one and not in the same league as the late-30s cartoons but it was overall decent and during the war output was also well worth watching.

1947 also saw an overall decent but never quite outstanding perhaps group of Popeye cartoon. 'Abusement Park' started this group off, and it is on the most part another Popeye cartoon that was pretty decent but nothing exceptional. When you compare that to how great the best of the Fleischer output was it is a touch disappointing though not a bad position at all to be in. A lot of great things here, although they had been done better before.

To me, as is common with the series Olive has very little to do, and her material and her character are not near as funny or as interesting as Popeye and Bluto. The surprises and freshness are present more in other Popeye cartoons, especially previous ones but even some since too, with an outcome that is easily predicted too soon.

Jack Mercer not voicing Popeye takes getting used to and, despite giving it his best shot, Harry Welch never completely clicked with me when replacing him. He does amuse and Popeye is as likeable as ever, but Mercer did quite a lot more with the asides and mumblings and sounded like he was enjoying doing it more.

Popeye though is as amusing and likeable, while Bluto on villain duty is even funnier and even more interesting. Their chemistry really carries 'Abusement Park' and has considerable energy and sees a lot of amusing if not hilarious moments between them. The amusement park setting is well used and it is hard not to get nostalgic. When it comes to the gags, they are numerous and none of them misfire, just that there isn't really anything hilarious and they can be predictable. While the story may be a somewhat formulaic one, it is elevated by the chemistry between Popeye and Bluto. Really liked the increasing wildness present throughout the whole of the second half after a somewhat ordinary first one.

Moreover, the animation is lively and colourful with lovely attention to detail in the backgrounds. The 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. Jackson Beck comes off best of the voice actors, being characteristically robust.

In a nutshell, nice if unexceptional. 7/10

Clever word play! Abusement instead of Amusement Park! From Paramount... seven minute shortie film. In Color! Directed by Izzy Sparber and Dave Tendlar, who teamed up on TONS of projects. Story by Joe Stultz and Carl Meyer. Popeye and Olive Oyl are at the amusement park, and along comes Bluto to steal her away. The usual violence, kissing, and over the top antics from the boys, as they spar over Olive. It's all in good fun. I like how they use a painted background of still figures.. none of the other guests at the amusement park are moving. Fun stuff! From 1947. Sparber died young at 52.