Brotherly Love

Dave Fleischer was responsible for many gems. Ones that were amusing and charming, though over-cuteness did come through in some efforts and the stories were always pretty thin, with appealing characters, outstanding music and visuals that were inventive and with innovative animation techniques.

'Brotherly Love' is classic Popeye the Sailor. It is still extremely well done and never less than very funny, its best parts being hilarious. Have always enjoyed many of the Popeye cartoons a good deal and like Popeye very much, Fleischer's efforts were always well animated and scored with lots of entertainment value and great chemistry between the characters. 'Brotherly Love' has everything that makes the Popeye series so appealing in its prime era and does nothing to waste the three main characters or make them less interesting.

The story is an interesting and beautifully paced one, never being dull, if formulaic (not uncommon with the Popeye cartoons). The ending admittedly can be seen from miles off. The humour and gags make it even more entertaining, avoiding the trap of repetition.

Both characters are great, though Olive Oyl is slightly underused but has some great material and their chemistry is dead on. Popeye is always amusing and likeable.

Furthermore, the animation is beautifully drawn and with enough visual detail to not make it cluttered or static and lively and smooth movement. 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. Fleischer's direction is always accomplished and his style is all over it.

Voice acting is dynamic and of very good quality, Mae Questel is a good fit for Olive Oyl, the voice that most sticks in my mind for the character and who voiced her the best, but Jack Mercer is even better, prefer his Popeye personally over William Costello.

In summary, classic Popeye. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Olive is annoyed by Popeye's propensity for violence and talks him into preaching brotherly love. So he sets out to help people. This is fine at first, but when he comes upon a couple of brawling groups, he puts a different kind of "love" into the equation. I believe spinach becomes involved.

Olive Oyl is speaking to the Women's Brotherly Love Society Mass meeting. The crowd at Patterson Square Garden is overflowing. Popeye listens to her over the radio. He is inspired and tries to put that advise to work in the world.

This cartoon plays this really straight. I thought that they might have Popeye do all the good deeds but have it all go wrong. I think that would be much funnier. The punch line would be Popeye eating spinach and fixing all the problems he caused. That's just funnier. As it stands, this short is rather square. I can accept that, but there is a more inventive way to do this.

Inspired by Olive Oyl's singing, Popeye sets out with a skip and a jump to help his fellow man. When he encounters a riot, however, he finds himself suffering for his beliefs.

There are a lot of small, hidden gags in this Fleischer cartoon lurking in the background, from a reference to Chaplin's EASY STREET to the signs that proclaim what business is conducted in a shop. Although the dirt of Segar's THIMBLE THEATER comic strip is lacking, there is always the amusingly run-down and twisted urban landscape to amuse the observant audience, and the "I Yam What I Yam" attitude of the Sailor Man. It's a solid and funny episode in the cartoon series.

Brotherly Love (1936)

*** (out of 4)

Fast-moving Popeye cartoon as Olive Oyl calling the sailor out saying he needs some brotherly love so he heads out to do some good deeds but soon runs into a riot.

BROTHERLY LOVE once again flows like a classical music as we're given a terrific little score as well as an extremely catchy title song. As you'd expect the animation itself is extremely good and there's just a fun nature that is running throughout the entire running time. There are some pretty funny moments with that raspy voice Popeye talking to people as he does his thing. The final fight itself is quite memorable.