petersgrgm

Marry-Go-Round was eloquent of Shorty's nature. He had pinups of Dorothy Lamour while Popeye had pictures of Olive Oyl-- HIS girl back home. As it happened, the ship to which Popeye and Shorty were assigned was stationed not far from where Olive Oyl was running a boarding house. (Was it for war-industry workers?) There was ALSO good luck in that as Popeye was trying to work up courage to propose, the Boatswain gave a "Now hear this" whistle and announced that Popeye and Shorty would have shore leave. Popeye half-heartedly, with Shorty egging him on, tried to propose; Olive was not so happy to see Popeye as she was multi-tasking, as boarding-house owner. Shorty got into the act, which peeved Popeye. Shore leave over, Popeye had Dorothy Lamour's pictures while Shorty had Olive's! for only the second of three Popeyes with Shorty, this one was stellar. It was only the second Popeye, excluding the 3 Fleischer specials of the Thirties, that would be color; Her Honor the Mare was first. All in all, a stellar cartoon.

Planet Mouseola is an example of the later Fanmous Studios cartoons, where Seymour Kneitel and Izzy Sparber were among the few familiar faces in that enterprise. It was filmed in 1960, after the last of the Popeyes were produced, and had outer space as is theme (as the title implied). THAT was a prevalent theme in cartoons at that time, with the United States' forging ahead with the space program. Trouble is that that theme was so repetitious as to turn some people off! Nevertless, this cartoon stood out, characters being a cat visited by a mouse who said he was from another planet-- the Planet of Many Mice! (He really put a wine glass over his head to SIMULATE a space helmet.) The mouse put the feline through a lot of tests, finally put him in a rocket that got him out of the way. Famous Studios did not set the world on fire with Planet Mouseola, but made a more amusing cartoon related to outer space than a lot of others with that theme, and was not a mere fill-in-the-blanks approach to cartooning with standardized story themes, prevalent among the newer Famous Studios cartoon

"Spinach Roadster" was illustrative of the relationship between Popeye and Bluto, which varied from one episode to another. Bluto was made originally, by Max and Dave Fleischer, Popeye's nemesis, though he appeared in only one or two episodes in the Thimble Theater comic strip of Elzie Segar's, BRUTUS being the REAL heavy then; he and Popeye were later often friendly rivals instead. In this Popeye cartoon, Bluto and Popeye were showcasing their cars. Popeye opened by driving his tin Lizzie, singing a new song, "When I'm at the Wheel of my Automobile", with anchor as brake, naturally as he WAS a sailor. Bluto drove up in his sharp new car, offering Olive a ride, but she was already going with Popeye, in what Bluto called "that piece of junk". Popeye got that rattletrap started and drove off with Olive; Bluto was determined to sabotage the jaunt. First, Bluto changed the sign that read Route "D" to say DETOUR, arrow pointing toward a rock-strewn by-road. (Route "D" IS really only make-believe, as it is not likely that there IS a place where letters instead of numbers are used for routes; I once envisioned that sort of place, but it was just fantasie.) Popeye negotiated it, causing rocks to fall on Bluto. So, Bluto caused the gas to run out and sabotaged the jalopy, driving away with Olive. Popeye opened his repair kit to find FOUR CANS OF SPINACH, naturally. These gave him strength and got his car running. Popeye finally punched Bluto and his car, so he pedaled away boo-hoo-ing on a scooter, sniveling about loss of his fine car (showing him to be adult-sized baby, which, sadly, many supposed grown-ups are in reality); Popeye triumphantly drives on with Olive. Amusing way of illustrating what Popeye and Bluto are li