Let's Stalk Spinach

His nephews refuse to eat spinach, so Popeye tells them a story modeled on Jack and the Beanstalk about the first time he ate the vegetable.

It's a fairly standard example of the Popeye series from Famous Studios at this point, offering Our Hero a chance to eat the vegetable and then beat up Bluto -- a giant here, but still voiced by Beck. It's another one to check off your list if you want to see all of them.

Popeye is having a picnic with his four nephews. They are not happy with their spinach sandwiches. So Popeye tells them a story from his childhood. It's essentially Jack and the Beanstalk. It may be better to tell it straight without the nephews. The giant should definitely be Bluto. That seems to be an obvious oversight. Nevertheless, it's good especially for Famous Studios.

While on a picnic, Popeye feeds his four nephews spinach sandwiches. They balk at this until he tell the childhood story of Popeye and the Spinach Stalk. It's the same old story with Jack (Popeye) getting strength from the plant and subduing the giant. It's fun but not very original.

In 1951, the Popeye series was not near as good as it was in the 30s. While still liking the animation, music and voice acting and the cartoons were still funnier than most of those from the mid/late-50s (one of Famous Studios' generally roughest and most inconsistent periods overall), they didn't quite have the same energy and the stories were becoming increasingly formulaic with the lack of originality increasing over-time in the 50s.

Very interesting it was to see the famous 'Jack and the Beanstalk' story get the Popeye treatment. It is a done to death premise and has been done many times in animation before and since 'Lets Stalk Spinach', but it was interesting to see the Popeye series tackle it. While it was enjoyable enough, 'Lets Stalk Spinach' was a fairly unexceptional cartoon that could have done with more freshness. Fleischer's 'Ration Fer the Duration', one of the wartime Popeye cartoons, had shades of the 'Jack and the Beanstalk' story too, it did it a lot better.

'Lets Stalk Spinach' has a lot of good things. The animation is mostly very good , the backgrounds have lost none of the meticulous attention to detail, it's fluid, Popeye still looks good and is recognisable in design and the colour is vibrant. Every bit as good is the lively and lushly orchestrated music score, that has character and adds a lot to the action and enhances it. It is also very important here and essential to the cartoon's success, it is brilliantly done here.

Popeye is amusing and likeable still, he is also quite relatable here, and Jack Mercer doesn't disappoint with the voice acting, really relishing the asides which are gold. Did enjoy too the giant and the interaction between the two has a lot of energy and wit. There are some amusing gags in the latter stages and the final third is suitably wild.

Having said that, 'Lets Stalk Spinach' could have been better. The story is thin and formulaic, and misses the opportunity to do something new with a premise that is not original. It also takes a little too much time to get going. While the cartoon is amusing, it is not hilarious.

Also thought that there could have been more gags and that they could have been fresher. Wasn't crazy about the primitively animated and not particularly appealing nephews (they have come across a lot better in most of their other cartoons with Popeye), and 'Lets Stalk Spinach' easily could have done without them as they add little and are given little to do.

Concluding, not bad at all but not great. 6/10.