Females Is Fickle

Females is Frickle (1940)

*** (out of 4)

Popeye and Olive Oyl are out at sea when she accidentally drops her pet fish into the water. She forces Popeye to go after it and soon enough he's battling various sea creatures.

FEMALES IS FRICKLE is certainly a title that probably wouldn't go over too well today but for the most part this here is another entertaining short for the series. There are several good moments to be found here and as usual there's some great animation. The highlight is pretty much everything underwater as we get some terrific fight sequences as Popeye tries to save this fish. This includes some very funny bits towards the end when Popeye turns various sea life into various products.

Olive shows up on Popeye's boat with a goldfish. When it falls in the ocean, Popeye is expected to rescue it. This leads to all kinds of problems. The thing leads him on a chase that won't end. When all is said and done, Olive really overreaches and the result is quite appropriate. Usually, Popeye must expend his spinach to battle Bluto or some huge bad guy. Here, it is to catch a little fish.

This is a "fish tale," not a romance story involving Olive's fickleness to Popeye. "Fickle," in this case, must mean just changing her mind as does with a little goldfish in this entertaining cartoon.

The is a short (five minutes) but very wild ride as Olive's new pet goldfish "Gertrude" jumps overboard, and Popeye has to rescue her (after Olive calls him a coward for not wanting to do it. You could blame him; the goldfish spat in Popeye's eye. He's a wise little sucker.) The bulk of the cartoon, then, is Popeye's chase in the ocean after this little fish. He meets all kinds of creatures, including a giant jellyfish, which swallows our Sailor Man.

I won't say everything that is in here. Suffice to say it's very fast-moving and the artwork is good, too. Sight gags are numerous, both above and below water, and most of them are pretty clever. If you're a Popeye fan, you'll enjoy this.....particularly the ending!

1940 was a much better year than expected for the Popeye series. Am saying this because in the early 40s Fleischer Studios went through a drastic decline, with a lot of average at best and even weak cartoons. On the most part though, for this period the Popeye cartoons were surprisingly good and the best quite impressive. While there wasn't really anything in 1940 on the same level as the best of the 30s efforts but it is a good example of the Popeye series being the best of the studio's theatrical series during its worst period.

Don't be off by this cartoon's dubious title, which some today may find somewhat sexist. The title doesn't really have to do anything with the cartoon itself and gives a wrong impression of it before watching, both in what it's about and what happens and also because there is nothing much of a negative attitude towards women or as they're described in the title. The closest 'Females is Fickle' comes to that is what Olive does at the end, considering what Popeye went through that was quite frustrating, despite her actually have good intentions at this point, and one is totally on Popeye's side seeing how he takes it at the end. If anybody is put off that is a shame because 'Females is Fickle' is among the better 1940 Popeye cartoons.

'Females is Fickle' is one of the shorter Popeye cartoons and somehow it does feel a little too on the short side. The very end was a little unsatisfying and like the story had run out of gas.

It has always felt odd hearing Olive voiced by somebody else other than Mae Questel, Margie Hines somehow doesn't do it for me (that's true too in all the cartoons where she replaced Questel), her voice doesn't fit the character design or have the same amount of energy when voicing her and she fails in making Olive (who has little to do here) endearing enough.

However, Popeye has great comic timing and that it is evident that he'd do anything for Olive showed him to be a likeable character too. The undersea characters are colourful support and really liked how they were used in the numerous and often hilarious gags. Especially in the second half and the wonderfully wild climax, the pace throughout is lively and the fight sequences are visually inventive, exciting and fun.

Animation is neatly and expressively drawn (especially with Popeye) and still very much like the work that goes into the backgrounds. The music, appropriately like its own character, is as beautifully orchestrated and characterful as ever. Jack Mercer shows once again shows why he was the most popular Popeye voice actor and the definitive one.

Summarising, impressive. 8/10

While Popeye is knitting a new anchor chain, Olive Oyl shows up with her new pet goldfish. It does tricks, like jumping into the ocean. Olive goads Popeye into save it, despite the various threats down below.

There are some pluses to this Fleischer cartoon, like the lack of Bluto, and I still recall the couplet with which Popeye ends the cartoon. The minuses, however, include some reused gags, and something wonky about the animation that makes Popeye. Look a bit two-dimensional against the background. The Fleischers were proud of their ability to increase the sense of depth in their cartoon, using one of Max's inventions, a cyclorama for background. Did they fail to bring it down to Florida when they moved the studio? Still, there are plenty of gags, making this a typically good example of the Fleischer cartoons.