A Dream Walking

Olive Oyl rises from her night-time slumbers to go sleepwalking on the bare girders of a skyscraper under construction. Popeye and Bluto fight over who gets to save her.

This is not only considered one of the best Popeye cartoons. When you see a list of the best cartoons of all time, it usually includes this one. I agree with that assessment, and the reasons I enjoy it so much include not only the beautifully timed gags -- a hallmark of the Fleischer studio -- but its rhythm, set to the pace of the title song, and its sense of space and three-dimensionality. That was another accomplishment of the Fleischers; Max had a number of patents and inventions in the field under his belt, including rotoscoping, and they aid in the transfer of the thrill comedy genre to this cartoon.

Though nowadays people think of Warner Brothers and MGM as the top rivals to Disney (with a great deal of justification, to be sure) in the early 1930s, Fleischer Studios more than held their own against the Mouse. Technically, their work was as good or nearly so most of the time. There was also an antic lunacy to much of their work that had been part of animation since the silent days. That lunacy was and is not part of what Disney wanted, preferring to go to a more touching, somewhat realistic approach in the mid-1930s. Compare Steamboat Willie to The Old Mill and you'll understand what I mean. While Betty Boop was more inclined towards the bizarre or unusual, Popeye could throw in some lunacy as well. A Dream Walking is visually an incredible piece of work and a strange cartoon into the bargain. Throw in a great script and story and you have, if not the best, certainly one of the top three, Popeyes of all time. Too bad Fleischer Studios isn't more generally remembered for their excellent work. Well worth looking for. Most highly recommended.

Sometimes a theme song, so to speak, accompanies these early Popeye cartoons, and that's the case here as we listen to "Have You Ever Seen A Dream Walking?"

Well, Popeye does here with Olive Oyl. So does Bluto. These two spot Olive outside walking on a flagpole and on the roof of their high-rise building and both vow "to save her." In this episode, both guys have rooms on the second-to-the-top floors and Olive lives on the top floor. Both guys have Olive's picture above their bed and Olive has both guys' photos above hers! Yes, this is the first of instance of many years of fickleness by Olive. Prior to this, the first 14 cartoons had Olive strictly interested in Popeye only. As the years went on, she played the two guys against each other all the time.

Tons of sight gags make this an excellent Popeye cartoon. Olive taking giant strides from rooftop to rooftop to a construction sight are very good; the shots the two guys trying to save her are clever....very clever with all three of them sleepwalking on the high beams at one point. You really have to see this as a description doesn't quite do it justice. The ending, though, isn't justice for poor Popeye.

This was a hoot to watch and looked fantastic on that restored DVD package of cartoons featuring Popeye from 1933 to 1938. They did great job from the master prints of these theatrical releases.

Dream Walking, A (1934)

*** (out of 4)

Olive Oyl begins sleepwalking and heads for a construction site so Popeye and Bluto fight over who will get to save her. Here's a pretty good short that gets risen a few levels by the clever imagination from director Fleischer. The construction site is full of nice gags including a nice sequence where Popeye runs into Wimpy who is working as a watchman. Naturally, Wimpy is more interested in his hamburgers than anything else. The film has a terrific ending with Olive's reaction when she finally wakes up. Early in the film there's a scene with Olive in bed, which is surrounded by pictures of both Popeye and Bluto. This film must have been released before the Hayes Office really started pushing their moral issues on film and the "pre-code" era as this is something that wouldn't have been passed.

Popeye is in deep sleep. Next door, Bluto is also deeply sleeping. Above them on the top floor, Olive Oly has both boys' pictures on her bedroom wall. She starts sleep walking out the window and dangerously onto the apartment roof tops. Both Popeye and Bluto chase after her.

I really like the roof tops stroll and I love her walking from one roof top to another. More can be done with that. I imagine a lot of gags with her interrupting other people. They do go to the familiar construction site with the familiar gags. There is a surprise Wimpy appearance and it wraps up nicely. It's a simple Popeye cartoon and it's done very well.