Seasin's Greetinks!

Popeye brings Olive Oyl a pair of skates for Christmas and teaches her how to use them. Bluto shows up, grabs her, and they fight.

Bonnie Poe voices Olive in this one, and she does all right, although she's no Mae Questal. We also have the fun of the shoddy and shabby world of Segar's Thimble Theater, and the usual large variety of sight gags that Dave Fleischer insisted on in the cartoons, like the sign insisting "No swimming" in the icy and snowy water. Things like that make the Fleischer Popeyes so much better than the expertly timed large gags that Famous Studios' staff would produce twenty years down the road.

In this fifth Popeye cartoon, our hero takes his incredibly extremely uncoordinated girlfriend, Olive, ice skating. Popeye is a natural--Olive is a mess. Eventually, Bluto shows up and tries to kidnap Olive-- presumably to rape her or something. Popeye eats his spinach, kicks butt and saves the day.

As usual, the cartoon features great animation and backgrounds--even if they are only in black & white. Also, while this formula seems very repetitive and a bit dull, it is only the fifth cartoon and only later would they become so predictable with the repetition of this theme again and again. Worth seeing and well made.

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.

While maybe not quite classic Popeye, 'Seasin's Greetinks!' is still pretty good and amusing. 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 Popeye, Olive Oyl and Bluto. 'Seasin's Greetinks!' 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) and at times repetitive. The humour and gags make it even more entertaining with mostly very amusing if not quite hilarious gags, 'Seasin's Greetinks!' makes ice skating fun to watch and interesting, though other cartoons have done it more inventively.

All three characters are great, though Olive Oyl is a bit underused and her material not as great as Popeye and Bluto's. Those two are spot on and their chemistry drives 'Seasin's Greetinks!' and has so much energy. Popeye is always amusing and likeable but for me Bluto is here the funnier and more interesting character.

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 on the most part, William Costello and especially William Pennell give Popeye and Bluto so much life. Was less taken with Bonnie Poe, Mae Questel fitted the character and her design much better whereas Poe's deeper voice jars.

Concluding, pretty good but not Popeye at his best. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Seasin's Greetinks! (1933)

*** (out of 4)

Popeye takes Olive Oyl ice skating and sure enough Bluto shows up to start trouble. The highlight of this short is when Popeye turns Bluto in ice and then ice cubes but some of the humor doesn't work including most of the ice skating scenes.

I Eats My Spinach (1933)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Popeye takes Olive Oyl to the rodeo where he gets into a competition with Bluto and a wild bull. This fourth short is a tad bit of a step down but it's still a lot of fun with numerous laughs including one scene where Popeye and Bluto both try and fight a bull, which gets out of control.

Popeye skates to Olive Oyl's snow covered cabin. He installs skates on her feet and takes her skating on the frozen river. Bluto arrives on skates walking a little dog. He starts harassing Olive. This sets off an epic fight between him and Popeye.

This is an early Popeye cartoon. Olive Oyl's voice still sounds wrong. The Fleischer brothers haven't found the right actress yet. This short is the basic Popeye trio doing their triangle thing. I would like to know where that dog went. The little dog is a good comedic fit for Bluto. I wouldn't mind a reunion to close out the cartoon after the ice cubes.