I Eats My Spinach

This is the fourth Popeye cartoon and it's maintained the same excellent quality of the previous cartoons in the series--with exceptional animation and great backgrounds. However, unlike the previous cartoons, this one is a bit more cartoony in style and feel--which isn't necessarily bad.

This installment of the series finds Popeye taking his skinny girlfriend to the rodeo. Naturally, the star of the rodeo is Bluto and he tries very hard to impress Olive. Not wanting to be outdone, each time Popeye jumps into the ring and does his own rodeo tricks. Eventually, the expected happens--Bluto kidnaps Olive--apparently to rape her. Popeye, with a bull giving chase, comes to save the day.

This cartoon features a few firsts--Popeye singing an extended version of his theme song and an appearance by Wimpy. An excellent cartoon that holds up pretty well today.

Popeye takes Olive Oyl to the Rodeo. There she cheers wildly for Bluto, who's performing. Popeye jumps down and does him one better. Eventually they fight when Bluto kidnaps Olive.

Even though many of the early Popeye cartoons use exactly the same, dull plot that would be used for the next two dozen years, I enjoy them immensely. One reason is the immense number of gags that director Dave Fleischer insisted on cramming into every short, not just the big gags, but the little ones, like the street signs that proclaim Popeye is walking down "Foist Street". Another is the shabby, patched-together world these characters live in, recreated from Segar's THIMBLE THEATER comic strip, whence these characters arose.

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.

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.

Apparently this was the fourth of the Popeye episodes. It starts out with the Sailor Man singing his signature song as he walks through one dangerous situation after another. He is on his way to pick up Olive Oyl for a date. They are going to the Rodeo where Bluto is the headliner. Olive is initially taken with the big lunk until Popeye begins to outdo him in every event from trick riding to bull wrestling. Of course, instead of bettering his adversary, Bluto grabs Olive and runs off with her, forcing Popeye to react. Quite well done.

You can tell this is another early Popeye (the fourth one ever) with the ultra-macho and strong (almost Superman) powers of our hero, and Olive putting up with anything just to be with her sailor man. Here, after Popeye's introductory song which he sings while walking down the street past a lot of tough guys, good and bad, Popeye calls on Olive. He does so by throwing a boulder through her top-story window! He shimmies down the water drain into a barrel but doesn't seem bothered by that. When he asks if she wants to go the rodeo, she says OK, and off they go.

The rodeo proves to be the showdown we have seen for so many Popeye cartoons: Popeye vs. Bluto. In this story, Bluto is part of the rodeo, billed as "The Great Bluto." Olive reaches in her blouse (this was pre-Hays Code days) and gets her money out and pays for both of them. Wow, too bad Popeye didn't have Olive under his thumb like this in later years.

However, this is the first instance (of many to come) where Olive turns fickle and is enamored by some feat the beastly Bluto performs. "Ohh, what man," she cools after Bluto gives a great exhibition of horse riding.

Popeye's jealousy kicks in and the real fun starts as each guy tries to outdo the other to impress Olive. Of course, Bluto kidnaps Olive to set the customary finale.

There are some funny sights in here, such as a big bull turning the tables on Bluto, tying him up and then taking bows from the fans! The end is clever, too, with the "meat market."