Leave Well Enough Alone

While most everyone knows Murphy's Law, not everyone is aware of the Law of Unintended Consequences-that is, every event or action spins off consequences, some you recognize beforehand and (perhaps) are prepared for and others that are totally unexpected and uncontemplated. These range from beneficial through benign to potentially devastating and/or disasterous.

Popeye comes full-face with this Law and doesn't enjoy the results. He does what he considers a good deed and a kindness, but remember what good intentions pave-a particularly uncomfortable road. Interestingly enough, this is a particularly atypical Popeye short, in that there is no brawling and there is no indication that Olive and Popeye are significantly involved-actually, she's basically an extra here. A parrot in the shop has a more pivotal role and may actually have more lines (I think he does, but I didn't count them). The parrot sings the title song, by the way. An excellent Popeye short, with a valuable lesson attached: things rarely go as you think they will. Well worth tracking down. Most recommended.

It's Olive Oyl's Pet Shop. There are puppies for sale in the window. Popeye goes in to buy up all of her animals for $500. He releases them into the street. They are caught by the dog-catcher but Popeye rescues them and puts them back in Olive's shop. In this one, Olive is not Popeye's girlfriend. He does something stupid. He ends up fixing it by undoing everything he did. He doesn't eat spinach. This is relatively unsatisfying.

Leave Well Enough Alone (1939)

*** (out of 4)

Popeye decides to do a good deed buy going into Olive's pet store and buying up all the dogs so that they can have their freedom but things take a bad turn when a dog catcher shows up.

LEAVE WELL ENOUGH ALONE isn't a masterpiece and it's not one of the best from the series but if you're a fan of these early Popeye shorts then you should enjoy it enough to make it worth watching. There are several funny moments here but the highlight is probably the title song being sung by a bird. The docs are all cute enough and the animation is great as usual and for the most part this is a pleasant and entertaining film.

All the doggies in the window are glad to see Popeye, especially when he buys out the shop and sets them all free. But the dyspeptic parrot sings the title song to the sailor man. Soon enough, the dreaded dog catcher appears. He grabs all these unlicensed dogs, puts them in his truck, and heads off to the pound.

It's a peculiarly anti-fun cartoon from the Flieschers. I suspect they were trying to be good citizens, or perhaps their children had dragged home dogs, and they were grumpily making the point that an uncared for dog is at risk. The song is a little dull, but there are the usual number of bright gags scattered throughout to kepe up interest.

1939 was not the best and most consistent year for the Popeye series (do prefer the cartoons from the 1935-1938 years), although the late-30s was one of Fleischer Studios' better periods for the Popeye series and overall. Pretty much all of the 1939 cartoons in the series range from between above average to great having said that, 'Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp' which is among the best Popeye cartoons (like the other Arabian Nights Popeyes) being my personal favourite.

'Leave Well Enough Alone' is one of the Popeye series' changes of pace, which for Fleischer and Famous Studios varied in the quality stakes but were mostly good, with it having no Bluto and none of Popeye and Bluto's love rivalry and fighting (plus Olive not being his girlfriend). None of those worked against 'Leave Well Enough Alone', they rarely did in the change of pace cartoons and besides why not have something different once in a while, and to me it was one of the better 1939 Popeyes.

Didn't really see the need for Olive's, again as said in a rare non-girlfriend appearance, presence here, other than being the owner she has next to nothing to do and certainly not anything that's interesting. She actually has more presence when Popeye's love interest but even then too many cartoons underuse her and give Popeye and Bluto far more interesting material.

Popeye's comic timing however shines as always, especially in those asides that Jack Mercer clearly enjoyed bringing to life, and his kind heart and good intentions make him very easy to endear to here. The parrot though is one of few supporting characters in the Popeye cartoons to steal the show from under Popeye in my opinion, very funny and never annoying. 'Leave Well Enough Alone' is very funny, with plenty of gags and a lot of energy, but it also is warm-hearted and teaches a valuable lesson without preaching and one that Popeye and the viewer learns from.

As ever, the animation is nicely drawn, neat and the attention to detail never came over as simplistic or cluttered. The music really adds to the energy, the orchestration is typically beautiful and the instrumentation clever. The title song is a scream and one of 'Leave Well Enough Alone's' highlights. The voice acting is dependably good, Mercer never disappointed as Popeye, he was the most popular and longest-serving voice actor for Popeye and for good reason as nobody else delivered Popeye's asides and mumblings quite like Mercer.

In summary, great and well worth checking out and not worth leaving alone. 9/10