Let's Celebrake

It is New Year's Eve. Popeye and Bluto ride a sleigh to Olive Oyl's home. They are greeted by her grandma. The boys are taking Olive Oyl out, but Popeye can't stand leaving grandma home alone. He brings grandma along to the club. The place is jumping and Wimpy is the MC.

This Popeye cartoon has no actual violence. It does have some strenuous dancing. I like a lot of this. I love the idea of the grandma. I wonder about the design of grandma. It is a standard weakling old lady. Maybe if she's taller like Olive Oyl or something. I just want a more distinctive design. That would make this more memorable.

Popeye and Bluto all dressed up, side by side riding a horse drawn sleigh and singing? Something isn't right. Am I seeing things? These guys are supposed to be fighting. They aren't friends, so what's the deal? Well, it's New Year's Eve and the boys are taking out Olive...and not fighting over it.

Kindhearted Popeye feels sorry for "Grandma," an almost-deaf old lady who lives with Olive, so he escorts her to the "Happy Hour Club," too.

Bluto, who has very little in the way of compassion for anyone, sneers as Popeye asks Grandma to dance, thinking our hero is some sort of sap. He snatches Olive and hits the dance floor. Grandma is a little slow on her feet so when the emcee, Wimpy - of course, announces they are going to award a loving cup to the winners of the dance contest, Popeye gets an idea: feed grandma some spinach!

Well, granny gets her spinach and - wham! - she turns into Ginger Rogers! Watching her and Popeye spin around the floor is a real hoot.

No, there is no fighting, no violence, only a warmhearted story that may not evoke a lot of laughs but is guaranteed to give you a lot of smiles as you watch.

Popeye is kind enough to invite Olive's grandma to a New Year's Eve party. But when the dance contest starts, she can barely move. Until Popeye uses his favorite drug, Spinach, to solve the problem. This is a very good Popeye cartoon, avoiding a series of fistfights with Bluto.

This is a rare Popeye cartoon in that he doesn't fight Bluto and they don't compete for needy, damsel in distress, Olive Oyl.

Popeye and Bluto visit Olive Oyl on a horse-drawn sleigh. Olive says they are going for a dance on New Year's Eve. Popeye sees Olive's hard of hearing grandma sat all alone looking miserable and offers to take her dancing. It's bizarre to see Popeye acting charming by helping her with her coat and giving compliments.

The couples go to a dance off. There's a funny scene were Popeye tickles Grandma's chin with a whistle and Bluto looks on with gritted teeth. Grandma can barely move when Popeye tries dancing with her. Luckily a waiter has a can of spinach on a serving tray. Popeye asks her to open wide and drops the spinach into her mouth. You can probably guess what happens next.

It's a very charming, but not one of the best Popeye shorts. It certainly doesn't compare to the colourful glory of "Popeye The Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves" or "Sinbad the Sailor". The dance scenes also take up about half the film and lack the visual flair and Brechtian creativity of Tex Avery cartoons from around this time. It still comes recommended for animation fans.

Dave Fleischer and Fleischer Studios did a lot of cartoons that are good to great, the best of them gems. Over-cuteness did creep in at times, but there was always a lot of amusement and charm and they were always incredibly well made (some of the techniques used being innovative) and scored with nice easy to like characters if one doesn't mind the lack of depth.

Their Popeye cartoons are/were pretty much all good to brilliant, haven't seen a bad one. Do like most of the Famous Studios Popeye cartoons too and the best of their Popeye cartoons were among the better cartoons in their overall output, but Fleischer's are funnier, have more imagination and are better made, never once having the issue of hasty time constraints and lower budgets that the later Famous Studios cartoons did. Fleischer's Popeye cartoons were always well animated, even better scored and had a lot of entertainment value and wit as well as great chemistry and characterisation of the characters.

Enough of all that, lets talk about 'Let's Celebrake'. 'Let's Celebrake' is one of my favourites from this particular period of the Fleischer output. Everything that is so good about the Popeye series at its best is here and there is next to nothing to criticise, other than Olive having little to do and the story occasionally could have done with more surprises.

Popeye however is very likeable and amusing, while Bluto is even funnier. Their chemistry, as ever, drives the cartoon so it was essential for it to work, and it sparkles. Wimpy makes a fun short appearance while Grandma nearly steals the show once she is fed the spinach. The voice acting is adept as always, with Jack Mercer relishing Popeye's asides in particular.

In 'Let's Celebrake', the non-stop gags are beautifully timed and never less than very funny and a riot at its best. The dance setting, particularly the sight of Popeye and Grandma spinning around the floor, is used to full advantage and imaginatively so. The story is slight and occasionally formulaic, but so full of energy and filled to the brim with heart and warmth that it doesn't matter.

As to be expected, the animation is excellent, beautifully drawn, lively, smooth and meticulously detailed, never too elaborate or cluttered neither too static or simplistic. Every bit as good, and even better perhaps, is the music, with its lush orchestrated, merry energy and character, it adds to every expression, gesture and action and at its best it enhances the impact. Fleischer's direction is as accomplished as ever.

Overall, truly great and as said one of my favourite Popeye cartoons from this relatively late Fleischer studios period. 9/10 Bethany Cox