Big Bad Sindbad

The producers of this particularly Popeye cartoon got lazy and decided to spend much of the time using footage of a past episode. "Cheaters," I guess, is what they call that kind of practice. Anyway, I think it's a cop-out and lazy way to present a "new" animated short.

It begins with Popeye bringing three nephews into the "Nautical Hall Of Fame." There, he shows them "Washington Crossing the Delaware" in which the kids then start rowing the boat across the room. Then, it's "Noah's Ark," where Popeye notes that Noah was "the world's first sailor." Then the shows the kids a big statue of "Sindbad, the Greatest Sailor In History.

The kids ask Popeye, "We thought YOU were the greatest sailor in the world." Popeye answers, "I am," and then relates the story of his adventures with Sinbad - in which we get footage of the earlier cartoon "Popeye Meets Sindbad The Sailor."

There is a cute ending when the story is over and the nephews are convinced Popeye is still number one.

Popeye takes the nephews to the sailing museum, and tells them about the time he whupped Sindbad the Sailor. At this point, we leave the 1952 footage and enter an edited version of 1936's POPEYE THE SAILOR MEETS SINDBAD THE SAILOR, back when the Fleischers were in charge of the studio.

And in so doing, this cartoon shows how budgets shrank over the sixteen years between.... or at least how inflation had knocked them to pieces. Although there is a lot to say in favor of the character design of Popeye int he 1950s, there's little comparison terms of the lush background art, Technicolor, or sheer number of gags.

Have always liked the Popeye series, loved even quite a lot of the cartoons from namely Fleischer Studios' late-30s period. Also like the character of Popeye very much especially his mumblings and asides and chemistry with Bluto (the latter of which being a huge part of the series' appeal, apart from the cartoons where Bluto doesn't appear). Am less of a fan of the cartoons, and cartoons in general actually, that are basically clips of previous cartoons with a framing story that isn't as interesting.

'Big Bad Sindbad' is one of these types of cartoons and personally wasn't completely sold on it. Despite being based around and having a healthy dose of 1936's 'Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor', one of the three Arabian Nights Popeye cartoons and one of the best of the series, a big part of me just questioned its necessity when it was basically that cartoon (or some of it) told in retrospect via a story linking the clips together. Especially since the difference in quality between the clips and framing story, so everything with Popeye and his nephews, is so vast.

The 'Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor' clips are a joy and make 'Big Bad Sindbad' watchable. The animation consists of drawing clearly done with precision and care and meticulous background detail and landscapes that never came over as too cluttered or static. The music is the outstanding element in the clips and the Popeye/nephews segments, the energy is right on point and the orchestration is typically lush and clever.

In terms of gags and memorable moments in the clips, they are all never less than amusing, with some of the particularly imaginative and clever material included, and the wildness increases wonderfully. It may be formulaic Popeye, but it is enormously entertaining, nostalgic and clever Popeye. Love the chemistry between Popeye and Bluto, both on top form, and the voice work from some of the studio's finest (re-dubbed here in this cartoon so Bluto is voiced by Jackson Beck here) is reliably strong.

Unfortunately, the Popeye/nephews portions are not near as interesting or entertaining, the huge difference in quality from them and the clips was quite distracting. Apart from Popeye himself and some of his dialogue, the story doesn't have the same amount of energy or invention (very standard, routine stuff here that is not a new concept and little new is done with it, giving it a blandness). The difference in animation quality between the these parts and the 'Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor' parts is very obvious too, great in the latter, uneven in the former (never terrible but seldom great, nice colours but the drawing and characters aren't as careful or as expressive).

Not much of the material is particularly inspired and didn't care much for the characters of the nephews here, pretty annoying and with not an awful lot of charm either. The chemistry between them and Popeye never really ignites somehow.

Concluding, certainly not bad but felt unnecessary. 6/10

"Cheaters", cartoons that use stock footage and clips from previous cartoons to form the bulk of a "new" cartoon, usually with new footage as a framing device to incorporate the re-used clips, are not all that unusual. What makes this one of the strangest compilation cartoons is the fact that Paramount Famous Studios uses clips from Popeye Meets Sinbad the Sailor, which was made by Fleischer Studios (!) in 1936! Fleischer Studios made three color Popeye two-reel "Specials" in the mid-to-late 1930s. Paramount Famous Studios made three "cheaters" using footage from those three Fleischer shorts. The truly sad thing is, using the older footage makes it crystal clear how much better the old Fleischers were in terms of animations, backgrounds and plotting compared to the 1950s Paramount Famous Studios product. To be fair, cost had a lot to do with the disparity-it was a lot more expensive in the 1950s to make cartoons. But mostly, the 1950s Popeyes were remakes of old Fleischer shorts done in color with a few changes. Here, the framing footage is nice, but 75% of the cartoon is older material and they re-looped some of the dialogue and changed it, losing some of the charm. This is the saddest of the cheaters, because Sinbad was the best of the two-reel Specials. Big Bad Sinbad isn't that bad a cartoon, actually. It simply isn't that good, either. For completeists only, or people who just like Popeye, period.

Remembering, too much, Popeye meeting Sindbad , it has the only two virtues - the naughty nephews in the visit to the naval museum and the statue of their uncle , conclusion of story, hommage to their hero.