Happy Birthdaze

About half a century ago, when Popeye cartoons were brought to television, I recall seeing for the first time "Happy Birthdaze", which may well have been meant to celebrate tenth anniversary of the beginning of the making of the Popeye animated cartoons by Paramount. It was quite amusing, and was one of many Popeyes satirizing World War II, in that Popeye and his shipmate Shorty were granted shore leave to celebrate Popeye's birthday at Olive Oyl's apartment, and that Olive was able to obtain, notwithstanding rationing, enough sugar for the birthday cake. One notably hilarious part involved the men's room opening into the hall (perhaps old apartment house or tenement built before bathrooms were common), in which twice Popeye opened the door and a torrent of water spilled out! That reminds me of when a friend thought that the term "water closet" (technical term for flush toilet) meant a closet full of water, in which one opens the door and-- SPLASH! Well, here was a REAL water closet! Both times the water drained Popeye into the storm sewer; traffic thwarted his escape, until he got out through a manhole, pushing the cop on the beat up into the street light! Cuckoo! Cuckoo! That made the street light look something like one of an old type of street light, with pinwheel-like crinkled-disc reflector (radial-wave). Though Shorty was a dud (in first of three cartoons in which he was featured), and the word play "birthdaze" is timeworn, it was surely fitting for this cartoon.

A shipmate of Poppy's named "Shorty," a pathetic little guy, accompanies Popeye to Olive Oyl's house, where she has baked a pie to celebrate Our Sailor Man's birthday. You just know Shorty is going to screw up the day for Popeye. Well, he does, with Popeye winding up twice in the sewer outside after opening a bath door and being greeted by a wave of water.

I wonder what Bob Hope thought of this cartoon? I know Bing Crosby must have liked it as Popeye makes some wise-guy reference to Hope.

Overall, this is another of the fairly-weak Paramount Pictures Popeye efforts made during the early '40s and the WWII era. They didn't have the same look or feel as the '30s efforts or the '50s and "Shorty," who was in three cartoons, was not humorous. There is even an attempted suicide scene or two in here! Are you kidding me?

Happy Birthdaze (1943) During shore leave, Popeye takes his suicidal (yes, suicidal) friend Shorty over to Olive's house for Popeye's birthday party. Shorty, who alternates between overenthusiastically trying to help out and moping about feeling down (and pulling out a gun to blow his brains out) manages to completely destroy the party and Popeye and Olive's relationship. This cartoon has to be one of the funniest things I've ever seen. The best gag: the conversation between Popeye and Shorty at the beginning ("Ya looks like Bob Hope!")

Will admit to preferring, as far as Popeye cartoons go, Fleischer Studios' output throughout the 30s. Find that they are better made, more inventive and funnier, they tended to be formulaic in terms of story but when they did their changes of pace (and they had a number of those) they were generally better than those of Famous Studios from the early 40s onwards.

Am not implying here that Famous Studios' output isn't good. Much of it is actually, though the later years did see evidence of tight budgets and hasty deadlines which accounted for the inferior animation quality (a general issue with later Famous Studios), the stories being far less imaginative and the humour not as plentiful or imaginative, also with it being more amusing than hilarious. With that being said, most of them were among the studio's better efforts in an increasingly variable output, being still funny and with great character interaction and even better music as well as some successful changes of pace.

'Happy Birthdaze' is not one of the best Popeye cartoons, from Famous Studios (early period and overall) or overall. It is far from a misfire though and is still entertaining enough.

More imagination wouldn't have gone amiss and there was a need of more momentum in the material.

Didn't really care for the character of Shorty in the first of three appearances, not an awful lot of personality, somewhat annoying and he brought a negative energy to the cartoon at times, namely in an aforementioned scene that felt out of place amongst everything else.

On the other hand, the animation is fine, simple but has some nice detail in the backgrounds, the shading is crisp and the character designs are far from ugly or off. Some inventive shots. Even better is the music (always important for me to talk about and Popeye cartoons always fared very well in this respect), again lush and cleverly orchestrated and doing so well adding to and enhancing the action. The dialogue amuses mostly and the action is suitably wild.

Popeye is amusing and likeable and Jack Mercer, again relishing the mumblings and asides, does a great job voicing him. There are a fair share of very funny moments thankfully in 'Happy Birthdaze', namely the opening conversation and the water gag.

Concluding, decent but not great Popeye. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Happy Birthdaze (1943)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Popeye stumbles across a Navy man who is about to commit suicide so he intervenes and decides to throw the guy a birthday party. However, it soon hits Popeye why this guy has no friends and it's because he's very annoying.

HAPPY BIRTHDAZE isn't a very good episode but at the same time there are enough interesting bits to make it worth watching. I say that because there's really not a good pace or flow to the material and while there is a lot of action none of it is funny enough to really make much of an impact. The film will be enjoyed by fans of the series but others should start somewhere else.