Parlez Vous Woo

A romantic cartoon in which Bluto disguises himself as "The International", Olive Oyl's favorite, suave television star. He does such a great job wooing her, thoroughly turning her on, and even beating Popeye in a duel for her hand that one wonders why she's so upset when she finds out who he really is. Wouldn't a more realistic response be, "Bluto Honey, let's go over to the love seat and you can pretend to be the International again"? This cartoon is the culmination of the Paramount/Famous Studios' re-vamp of Olive to make her more attractive. Here she is, by cartoon standards, drop dead gorgeous.

Just watched this Popeye cartoon on YouTube as linked from a site devoted to the Paramount animated shorts. In this one, Olive Oyl is too entranced by the star of the television show called "The International" to go out with the sailor man to the movies. The voice on that tube sounds a lot like Bluto (I'm guessing Jackson Beck is doing both voices here) speaking in a suave accent so when Bluto overhears the conversation, he comes disguised as guess who? Naturally, Olive is entranced while Popeye is jealous...Plenty of great reaction gags worthy of Tex Avery or anyone familiar with these hot-blooded cartoon punchlines. So on that note, Parlez Vous Woo is well worth seeing.

Olive is being wooed by a Charles Boyer-type Frenchmen who is dishing out the compliments about how whatever woman (Olive thinks it's her, of course) is listening. Popeye is nearby getting annoyed hearing all this garbage. He's waiting to take her out to the movies, but she's more interesting in watching Bluto then comes by, spots what is happening through the open window (he was a terrible Peeping Tom) and is mad. "Why that runt got here before me," he says when he spots Popeye.

OIive is really entranced by the TV program host, called 'The Internationale," especially when the Frenchman says, "Stay at home tonight, ladies. You may be the lucky one, the woman 'The Internationale' comes by and takes you out." Bluto overhears this and, yes, he is going to pretend to be the guy from TV.

Bluto is hilarious impersonating the French guy and fooling the naive and dumb Olive. In fact, from that point on, this is an extremely funny cartoon with tons of sight gags. Popeye uses two cans of spinach to produce laughs.....and get Olive back from that fraud Bluto. It's the usual case, but sometimes Bluto is the finniest guy in the cartoon. That certainly is the case here.

Olive Oyl is entranced by "The International", a radio Lothario personality with a French accent. The International suggests that the ladies stay in and wait for a possible visit from him. Olive refuses to go out with Popeye in order to wait. Bluto overhears this and pretends to be The International.

Why doesn't she recognize Bluto? It's the Superman conundrum where nobody seems to recognize that he's Clark Kent. At least, Clark has his glasses. Bluto only puts on a suit. I don't see how Olive would mistake him for an imaginary character that she's never seen. I was hoping that she doesn't know Bluto in this reality but that's not the case. It's Superman but worst. Why can't they put a mask on Bluto? As for the concept, it's silly but it fits the sometimes flightiness of Olive. At least, it's a rarely done concept.

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.

'Parlez Vous Woo' 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, 'Parlez Vous Woo' 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, all it is basically is Popeye and Bluto battling for Olive Oyl's affections with not as much variety as many other Popeye cartoons, while not being as repetitive as feared.

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 'Parlez Vous Woo' 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, 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, Bluto being the funniest and most interesting. Olive Oyl is a good charming character where you can totally see what Popeye sees in her, but it's the entertaining interplay between Popeye and Bluto that really sparkles. Jack Mercer, Mae Questel and Jackson Beck give great vocal characterisations, Beck in particular and Mercer and Questel are the voice actors that spring to mind generally for me for Popeye and Olive's voices.

Concluding, very enjoyable. 8/10 Bethany Cox