Popeye Meets William Tell

Because William Tell has lost his son in a shooting accident, Popeye substitutes for the lad when Tell is ordered to shoot an apple off his son's head.

Dave Fleischer is credited as the director, but it's Shamus Culhane who does the honors. It shows with a fluid and clean style of animation unusual for the series. The gags are also unusual, with the King's soldiers looking like and behaving like Keystone Kops, and a lack of the small gags that usually filled the Popeye cartoons.

The Fleischers' studio was busy with the aftermath of their first feature, GULLIVER'S TRAVELS, and the forthcoming MISTER BUGS GOES TO TOWN. In fact, the new series started at this time showed the same streamlined work.

Popeye Meets William Tell (1940)

** (out of 4)

After narrowly avoiding Popeye with an arrow, William Tell tells him that he's looking for his missing son. Soon the two are teaming up against a cruel King.

POPEYE MEETS WILLIAM TELL is one of the weaker films from the series for a number of reasons but the biggest is the fact that it really doesn't contain any laughs. Basically the majority of the six-minute running time has Popeye and Tell arguing with one another and there's also no good action or anything else for that matter. Fans will find it mildly amusing but that's about it.

Popeye meets William Tell and starts a fight with the king and his guards so he is forced to be shot under an apple by William Tell! Everything about this cartoon is a little different from your average Popeye cartoon. For one thing, the music is classical, unlike most which either is jazzy or nautical, and the whole setting is different, for one thing, Bluto isn't even in this!! Nor Olive, Wimpy or even Geezil! It is Popeye with a bunch of disneyesque looking humans, but the cartoon is excellently executed, and Popeye has his moments, even his song at the end is slightly different!

BEWARE OF CRUDELY REDRAWN COLORIZED VERSIONS!

This a strange Popeye cartoon, one involving a famous character from history.....but this isn't history! It' revisionist history in it's most absurd form, involving a wacky English "High Governor," William Tell and Popeye. What Popeye was doing over in England and in that period of history, is never explained. There is no Olive Oyl or any of the "normal" Popeye character, just these exaggerated characters from another age.

Our Sailor Man is justing by, minding his own business, when an arrow nearly takes his head off. Popeye turns back, spots this nerdy-looking little guy with a squeaky voice who turns out to be the famous "William Tell." "Well, blow me down!" says Popeye upon learning this. The two exchange verbal unpleasantries and then the story gets really weird. One thing leads to another and it winds up, with Popeye pretending to be Tell's son and standing next to a tree doing the famous shoot-the-apple-off-the-son's head-routine. All kinds of mayhem ensue with a couple of shocking surprises (including that famous arrow scene) and a few very good sight gags.

It's kind of stupid and outrageous but it is fun for the most part and very entertaining. You won't believe some of the goofy material that's in this cartoon.

There is a good message, however, and way ahead of it's time: it concerns the evils of smoking. Popeye evens puts that message into his usual song finale, although he never put it into practice. As far as I know, Popeye always smoked his pipe!

Popeye encounters William Tell who is bitter after just shot his son under an apple last week. He opens a locket to reveal his son as Groucho Marx. The King demands everyone to bow down before him. Popeye complies but William Tell refuses. The King orders William Tell to shot an apple off his son's head. Popeye pretends to be the son and the first arrow hits him in the chest.

I don't really care about this William Tell character. I may like him more if he's sad rather than angry. I'm not sure that Popeye would volunteer to be his son although I do like the ending. At least, this is doing something different with Popeye.