Popeye the Sailor

This is the first Popeye cartoon. He had appeared in newspaper comic strips. At the beginning we get to hear the entire version of his theme song as he disintegrates various items of property. While impressive, he is really pretty destructive. Of course, Bluto shows up and he has to deal with him. At no point does the big guy seem to have a chance. Of course, he can't leave Olive Oyl alone and Popeye saves her several times. Mostly, they show off at the carnival where Bluto does something well and Popeye does him one better. Betty Boop makes and appearance as a hula girl and Popeye gets on stage and copies her dancing. Eventually, Bluto ties Oliive to a railroad track (original!) and this forces the use of spinach, that performance enhancing drug. This is really a nice introduction to the Popeye oeuvre.

I had always wondered when Popeye started his animated career, until I've watched this cartoon online. I found out that this short was intended as a test cartoon to see if Popeye could work as an animated character. He was originally a character from a comic strip by a guy named E. C. Segar. This cartoon combines my two favorite cartoon characters coming together - Betty Boop and Popeye the Sailor. Even though Betty's appearance is more of a cameo than a full-time character in this cartoon. And also, this cartoon is really part of the Betty Boop series.

The only thing that bothers me about this cartoon, is Olive Oyl's voice; I really didn't like it. I really prefer Mae Questel's take on Olive, but I got to bear with what they got. My favorite scene is when Betty and Popeye do the hula on stage.

Wow, it's interesting to see how different this first Popeye cartoon was from all the others we are used to seeing. Right off the in the introduction, other - not Popeye - is singing a "Strike Up the Band" song. Actually, we find out it's a "Betty Boop" as Betty joins in the singing, with a similar lyric about it "being a cinch that every inch he's a sailor."

Popeye came from the comic strips, so the first thing we see when the story begins in a newspaper headline reading, "Popeye A Movie Star," meaning the audience will now see him at the movie theater. (There was no television back then.)

Anyway, just watching the first few minutes of this cartoon produced a big smile on my face. It's tough to beat these clever, funny 1930s Popeye cartoons. The combination of sight gags and music - they loved music in cartoons and movies back in the '30s - is guaranteed to make you feel good after watching.

Popeye demonstrates his strength, dexterity and resourcefulness in his screen debut and it's quickly established Bluto is the enemy and wants Olive. That storyline went on for decades but was always fun to see as the sailor man bested the bearded bully time after time.

Betty only has a small number in here, so even if the cartoon is under name, it's really Popeye's. Betty does a quick Hawaiian dance which she did in several other cartoons before they made her put more clothes on by the end of 1934.

The only thing different was Bonnie Poe doing some voice work as Olive. Her voice was a lot lower than Mae Questel's who did Olive for most, if not all, of the other cartoons. Mae also did Betty Boop, and my guess is they didn't want the same voice for both characters in the same cartoon.

Also, Popeye's answer to everything was a punch, destroying whatever he hit....even a train! He's always ready to show his stuff, but a little more so than normal in this debut cartoon. This guy was punching everybody and everything, and so was Olive! In later cartoons, Popeye entertained us more with his clever remarks and reinventing of words. However, you can see from this early cartoon that it's no surprise this comic strip character made it big "in the movies."

Despite a brief (semi-nude!) appearance by Betty Boop as an exotic dancer at a fair, this cartoon by the Fleischer brothers introduced us to the popular figures of Popeye, Olive Oyl and Bluto – who would naturally take off in a long-running series of their own and basically eclipsed the career of the studio's afore-mentioned star attraction! It is interesting to note, at this juncture, that the essence – with respect to characterization, gag type and plot structure (not to mention, the equally iconic theme tune!) – was there from the outset. That said, while I admit to having sat through many of these during my childhood, much like the live-action stuff of The Three Stooges which yours truly sampled again a few years back (let alone their strictly kiddie-oriented animated fare!), I seem to have irrevocably outgrown this particular brand of comedy and now approach it with an inevitable measured step

Popeye the Sailor (1933)

**** (out of 4)

First film in the series of shorts was also the first I've seen of any of these early films. I watched some of the later ones when I was a kid and I wasn't sure what to expect out of these theatrical shorts but this first one was great. Popeye takes Olive Oyl to a fair when Bluto shows up to start trouble. There's a lot of great humor here and I really loved the animation style. The opening scene of Popeye singing his famous song is priceless as is the appearance by Betty Boop.

Now available through Warner in a 4-disc box set.