Doing Impossikible Stunts

It is Mystery Pictures Inc. They are looking to hire new stunt men. Popeye is bringing his stunt films and Swee'pe tags along. Swee'pe wants to do his stunts, but Popeye sends him home. Popeye shows his stunts footages to a director. The director likes them, but asks if there is anything more daring. That's when Swee'pe sneaks in his reel. The director signs Swee'pe right away and leaves Popeye behind.

This is basically a clip show. I do like the wrap-around story and the new footage. It is nevertheless a clip show and I can't give it more than a six. It is a cheap way to generate more material.

This is a rehash, but because the films are so far apart and over years, it made no difference to me. Popeye is looking for work and a sandwich board at the entrance to a movie studio is advertising the need for a stunt man. So he applies, bringing films from his past exploits. It is impressive, but the director (a sort of Hitchcock) doesn't believe he has put himself in enough danger. The fly in Popeye's ointment is Swee'Pea, who has been pushed aside by Popeye. Pretty predictable and quite a bit of fun.

An early "cheater", a cartoon put together by using clips from earlier cartoons with enough filler to make it a "new" picture. Of course, this being a Fleischer Popeye, it's funny and there are plenty of "Impossikible" stunts. A good introduction to Popeye.

Doing Impossikible Stunts (1940)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Throughout the Popeye series you'll come across some "cheater" films that take clips from previous movies and add a wrap-around story. This time out Popeye is on a Hollywood studio where he's trying to get some stunt work. He shows clips from three of his previous films but then a fourth causes some issues.

I usually bash these type of cheating films but I must say that this one here plays out a bit better because the clips they show are actually very good and they also manage to work just fine outside the context of their original films. Of course, it's all action and that's a positive thing but there's no question that the highlight is the little twist at the end.

It was easy on first watch to have fairly low expectations. Have said more than once about actually liking Popeye as a character and many of his cartoons are good to excellent. 'Doing Impossikible Stunts' was a cartoon though that was made when Fleischer Studios had declined drastically (except for the Popeye theatrical cartoons). Also because it was a compilation cartoon, often referred to as a "cheater", so it was hard to not question its point.

'Doing Impossikible Stunts' was actually better than expected on first watch, while nowhere near close to being one of the best Popeye cartoons. On rewatch, when rewatching all the Popeye cartoons again late last year, my feelings are the same. Maybe it is on the pointless side and the framing story is not near as good as the cartoons featured, but as far as the Popeye compilation films go 'Doing Impossikible Stunts' fares favourably. One of the primary reasons being that the featured cartoons are all very good to great and come from the series' best overall period (mid-late-30s). The cartoons in question being 'I Never Changes My Altitude', 'I Wanna Be a Life Guard', 'Bridge Ahoy!', and 'Lost and Foundry'.

Could 'Doing Impossikible Stunts' have been better? Sure. The framing story is very predictable (a very familiar setting done not enough with), doesn't have enough funny moments and the material is very seen it all before.

The animation quality, while still fine actually, is not quite as good in the framing story as in the featured cartoons. Not as fluid and it doesn't look very imaginative, whereas there were a number of clever touches in all four featured cartoons when things were more frenetic. The supporting characters in the framing/wraparound sections don't serve an awful lot of point with too little done with them.

However, the animation is lively and nicely detailed enough. The music is consistently wonderful throughout, with its usual lushness and playful character that adds so much and synchronizes so well with the action. The cartoon never stops being entertaining and the best of the many gags and snappy dialogue and asides are extremely funny.

A vast majority of the cartoon has a lot of energy, even though the framing story is nothing exceptional but this is on the strength of the clips being so brilliant. The end twist is also very inventive. Popeye is amusing and likeable, voiced wonderfully too by the definitive Popeye voice actor Jack Mercer.

Summing up, pretty decent if not great. 7/10