I-Ski Love-Ski You-Ski

The story to this one is okay-standard Popeye beats up Bluto, this time on skis. What makes this a very special cartoon (and it is a very special cartoon) is the visuals and the work of Jack Mercer as the voice of Popeye.

The visuals-words cannot adequately describe them, they must be seen-are still great almost 70 years later. The backgrounds, animation, detail, everything is exceptional. The Fleischers seldom made a visually unimpressive cartoon.

Jack Mercer's name is well-known to fans, but the average person probably knows very little about him. But much of what makes Popeye the Popeye most people think of stems from Jack Mercer's work as his "voice". The unde the breath mutterings that are often the funniest parts of the cartoon were largely written or ad-libbed by Mercer. He is as much responsible as anyone for Popeye's personality. Thank you, Jack Mercer.

Well worth watching. Most highly recommended.

Popeye and Bluto are walking in the snow to meet Olive Oyl in her cabin. Popeye invites Olive to do some extreme climbing. They are followed closely by Bluto. At the top, they ski back down.

This starts fair enough with the Popeye trio doing their usual drama. Then the trio do some extreme mountain climbing. They are going straight up. I wouldn't mind playing with that concept more. The rest is doing extreme skiing back down. If I have a choice, I like the climb up better. As for the title, I finally see the I Love You. Is that a Polish joke? At least, it is different, but there has to be something less clunky.

Popeye takes Olive Oyl mountain climbing. Bluto tries to sabotage their fun.

It's a typically enjoyable Popeye cartoon from the Fleischer era, enhanced by some nice background work and tabletop animation to bring a sense of dimensionality to the movie. Although it's often forgotten, producer Max Fleischer was an inventive man whose contributions to animation include rotoscoping. Although they are largely forgotten in the modern era of computer-generated imagery, his work helped reduce the costs of hand-drawn animation, long the most expensive type of movie-making, because every frame had to be drawn by hand and then individually photographed.

Dave Fleischer was responsible for many gems. Ones that were amusing and charming, though over-cuteness did come through in some efforts and the stories were always pretty thin, with appealing characters, outstanding music and visuals that were inventive and with innovative animation techniques.

'I-Ski Love-Ski You-Ski' is classic Popeye the Sailor. It is a great cartoon, is all that Popeye is all about and is hilarious at its very best. Have always enjoyed many of the Popeye cartoons a good deal and like Popeye very much, Fleischer's efforts were always well animated and scored with lots of entertainment value and great chemistry between the characters. 'I-Ski Love-Ski You-Ski' has everything that makes the Popeye series so appealing in its prime era and does nothing to waste the three main characters or make them less interesting.

The weakest asset is the story, full of energy but pretty standard formula. The humour and gags though elevate, avoiding the trap of repetition. Especially with a pretty hysterical, highly imaginative (visually and in gags) and beautifully choreographed climax, and with Popeye's mountain climbing (which is like mountain climbing as you have never seen it before).

All three characters are great, though Olive Oyl is slightly underused yet has some great material still. Popeye is always amusing and likeable, and even funnier and more interesting is Bluto. The interaction between them is one of the main things that drives 'I-Ski Love-Ski You-Ski' and is one of the best assets, so much fun to watch.

Furthermore, the animation is exceptional, 'I-Ski Love-Ski You-Ski' is for me up there with the best looking Popeye cartoons. It's beautifully drawn and with immaculate visual detail, that doesn't ever feel cluttered or static, and lively and smooth movement. The music likewise, lots of merry energy and lush orchestration, adding a lot to the action and making the impact even better without being too cartoonish. Fleischer's direction is always accomplished and his style is all over it.

Mae Questel was the ideal voice for Olive Oyl and Gus Wickie is a mix of energetic and menacing as Bluto. Best of all is Jack Mercer, a huge part as to why Popeye works so well as a character, mumblings and asides have seldom been funnier before or since.

In conclusion, great cartoon. 9/10

I-Ski Love-Ski You-Ski (1936)

*** (out of 4)

It's love in the snowy mountains as Popeye takes Olive Oyl mountain climbing but with Bluto coming along you know a fight is going to break out.

Here's another highly-entertaining and fun short from Fleischer who once again manages to make a film that seems as fresh as anything else from this era. What I've always been so impressed with is how these Popeye shorts move like a musical number and there's just a graceful feel to them. This one here has plenty of nice laughs as Popeye gets all the abuse you'd expect him to receive and then we get some rather fun action and especially during the ending with Bluto and the sailor going downhill and throwing punches whenever they can.