Spooky Swabs

Popeye and Olive are calming playing checkers while sitting on a small raft in the middle of the turbulent ocean. A flag with an "SOS" on it is attached to the raft. They spot a ship, Olive exclaims "Oh, now I can go home and watch television (which was a fairly new invention when this cartoon was released) and Popeye uses his pipe as motor to reach the ship. Unfortunately, it's a pirate ship called the "Sea Witch" and is filled with ghosts (since the ship was built in 1678).

The ghosts - with British accents - don't want to be interrupted "after all these years," so they plan to get rid of the unwanted guests. There are some funny scenes, such as Popeye using a swordfish as a saw, Olive's "swimming" on board, thinking she's in the ocean because he blindfolded head is in a bucket of water.

Overall, however, it isn't much: "fair," at best with primitive-looking artwork and no restoration on the DVD disc. This is part of the 75th Anniversary Collector's Edition of Popeye The Sailor Man in which there are 34 cartoons spread among two discs.

Popeye and Olive Oyl are floating on a raft, waiting for rescue. They think they spot it, but the ship that comes is an old, wooden hulk, crewed by malign ghosts.

The last of Famous Studio's theatrically released Popeye cartoons is mostly ok, with a good number of gags reasonably animated. On the downside, the background work by John Zago is simple and crude.

Why was it the last, when Paramount's cartoon division would continue to produce shorts for the theaters for another ten years? The answer is they didn't need to. There was always a fee to be paid to King Features whenever they produced a new one, and it's not as if the older Popeye cartoons were withdrawn from circulation.

The late 50s was one of Famous Studios', at its best in the 40s, weakest periods (and the lesser quality continued generally in the 60s), not just the Popeye series but actually especially overall. Even then though, the Popeye series was still generally the best of the studio's different theatrical series, even the worst of Popeye from the period was better than the worst of Casper the Friendly Ghost and Herman and Katnip from this period.

'Spooky Swabs' is sadly a lesser Popeye effort in my view, it was the final cartoon in the series and instead of the series going out with a bang it ends with a whimper. Is it bad? No, far from it, don't consider any of the Popeye cartoons bad even the more controversial ones. Compared to the Fleischer Popeye output, a much better and more consistent output than Famous Studios', in especially the mid-late-30s, 'Spooky Swabs' is quite a long way off in quality, not a particularly good representation of the series and quite a sad way to end it.

Will start with the good things. The music is wonderful, and was continually the best thing about the average or less Famous Studios efforts. It's beautifully and cleverly orchestration and the merry rhythms and character make it a lot of fun to listen to and enjoy, also adds a good deal to the action. The voice acting from Jack Mercer and Mae Questel, the most famous voices for Popeye and Olive and the best, is dependably good, especially Mercer who always made asides and mumblings fun regardless of the quality of the writing.

Nothing is hilarious here, but there are moments that amuse like as mentioned previously those with the swordfish mistaken for a saw and the (attempt at) swimming on board. The ghosts are suitably spooky and quite fun and have always found it difficult to dislike Popeye.

However, other Popeye cartoons other than 'Spooky Swabs' are much better animated. Lower budgets and tighter time constraints really showed here, because the animation did look scrappy and not always complete looking with very little life to it as well. A few mildly amusing moments aside, 'Spooky Swabs' has the major problem of just not being funny. This is hardly laugh-a-minute material, the opposite actually, and there is little to no freshness to it, very predictable and tired.

Very like the story itself, which despite having no Bluto or the rivalry between him and Popeye felt more fatigued and predictable than most of the cartoons that featured Bluto (a vast majority of the series actually). There is very little momentum here and Olive is neither interesting or endearing.

In summation, lukewarm. 5/10

I guess this is the last Popeye produced. It is notable as being quite uninteresting. Olive and Popeye are floating on a raft when they discover a derelict ship--a ghost ship--filled with ghosts. They have invaded the territory of these ghosts, who look like the bad guys in the Casper comic books. The confrontations are quite simplistic with the ghosts going unseen and playing tricks on the new passengers. Olive falls over board about six times and Popeye ends up being a target when she can't see what she is swatting at. The conclusion is blah. Ghosts are really made of sheets--right? It's not worth a second look.

Popeye and Olive are shipwrecked on a raft in the open ocean. They spot a ship, the Sea Witch. When they get onboard, nobody seems to be there. Instead, it has a crew of ghosts. Popeye intends to sail the ship back to civilization, but the ghosts have other ideas.

This is the last release from Famous Studios and the end of an era. I like this one more than most of the Famous Studios production. Popeye is an actual sailor in this one. I like the ghosts design which reminds me of many cartoons from the 60's and 70's. I even like the animation which has that old TV feel. The story is simple. It works.