Goonland

After years of this being the first thing I favorite on DailyMotion, I finally watched this Popeye cartoon. He's looking for his long-lost Pappy who he hadn't seen in about 40 years (probably not much older than that). His ship lands on Goonland which is inhabited by these tall gangly creatures with hair on their bottoms and arms. Popeye disguises himself as them to fool them. I'll stop there and just say this was quite funny with both Popeye's mutterings and some of the visual gags. A nice break from his usual outings with Olive Oyl and Bluto and the way it ends you may or not be able to predict. So on that note, I recommend Goonland.

Pappy left when he saw Popeye as a baby. It's forty years later and Popeye is searching for him on the high seas. He comes upon Goon Island where monsters roam. Humans are not welcome. Popeye finds imprisoned Pappy playing chess with himself. As Popeye loses to a mass of monsters, he loses his spinach. Pappy is able to grab it and come to Popeye's rescue.

I love the design of the monsters. It's a good design that lasts. I wouldn't mind different types of monsters on the island, but there is only so much time in a short. This is really good even if Popeye doesn't have the best opinion of his Pappy.

Some claim that as the 1930s and '40s wore on, the Popeye shorts of the Fleischers lost their touch. I would say that, in light of "Goonland" (1938), this is NOT true. The Fleischer brothers very brilliantly bring the Goons, freakish creatures from E.C. Segar's comic strip, "Thimble Theatre," to life, as they encounter the ever-heroic Popeye on a quest to find his long-lost Pappy (also portrayed faithful to the original character). The music, voice acting, imagery and special effects all contribute to an adventurous, fun, and enduring Popeye cartoon. Very highly recommended! Popeye fans will also be delighted to know that "Goonland" (1938) is available on the DVD collection, "Popeye the Sailor, Volume 2: 1938-1940," which would make an excellent Christmas gift for any Popeye or nostalgic cartoon lover.

This has the best cartoon art in the series. This is one of the finest things to come out of Fleischer studios. The Popeye and Betty Boop cartoons are classic.

The story starts with Popeye heading toward a mysterious island in search of his pappy. We get an idea of Popeye's age when he states that his pappy was missing for forty years. The island upon which he arrives is atmospheric, mysterious, and downright spooky.

The goons are brilliantly hideous, comparable to the kind like the characters from the classic thriller "Island of Lost Souls" (1932).

The goon is another brilliant Segar character. From the comics, I remember a neat character called "Alice the Goon".

Now we are finally introduced to "Poop-Deck" Pappy, a great character in his own way and obnoxious as can be, but he shows his true meddle by eating the can of spinach and breaking out of the prison in order to save his son Popeye's life in a thrilling climax. (I won't reveal it here, but the ending is just great.)

10/10

Dan Basinger

Popeye's Pappy disappeared when he was a little baby smoking his first pipe. Now Popeye thinks he has found the old fellow on a distant island. There Pappy is, held captive by the barbaric Goons. Cn someone rescue someone else for a happy ending?

Although the word was invented earlier, E. C. Segar popularized it in the Thimble Theater about 1934 with his character Alice The Goon. This is also the first appearance in the Fleischer cartoons of Poopdeck Pappy.

This was the last cartoon the Fleischers produced in New York before their ultimately disastrous move down to Miami. The sequence in which Popeye is tied down to the ground indicates they were already doing work on GULLIVER'S TRAVELS.