The Hungry Goat

The Hungry Goat (1943)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A hungry goat enters a Naval ship and runs into Popeye. The goat tries eating everything on board so Popeye goes to war with him.

THE HUNGRY GOAT isn't the greatest Popeye short that you're going to watch but it's mildly entertaining due to some creative moments. These come from the Admiral leaving the "cartoon" and going into a theater to watch the film. This made for a couple funny scenes but the rest of the film is rather routine. There was a lot of action but none of it was overly funny. The animation itself was quite good so fans of the series should enjoy this.

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.

'The Hungry Goat' for me is among the better faring Popeye cartoons made during the war, while not being one of the best overall.

Some of it is fairly predictable and more imagination in some of the material wouldn't have gone amiss to make it feel fresher.

Occasionally, the drawing is a touch lacking in refinement.

However, most of 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. The inventive overhead shots are striking. 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 even more so the increasingly wild action.

Popeye is amusing and likeable, with great rapport with the goat, and Jack Mercer as always does a great job voicing him. Gilbert Mack has a lot of fun as the goat, and do find the goat the more interesting and funnier character here. While not what one would call hilarious, 'The Hungry Goat' is amusing with well timed gags that don't feel repetitive or dragged out. The funniest and most creative moments however agreed come from the Admiral, also an amusing character.

In conclusion, decent. 7/10 Bethany Cox

This is a strange Popeye cartoon because first the first two-and-a-half minutes, you'd think it wasn't a Popeye cartoon; it was someone else. It's a goat, and he even stops and talks to us - the audience, which is usually pretty funny. Bugs Bunny and other Loony Tunes characters used to do that quite a bit.

It's World War II and there is a scrap metal drive going. Hey, how's a respectable goat going to eat? The goat finally spots a big ship and sees a lot of potential food with all that metal. After 2:38 of the cartoon has elapsed, Popeye finally shows up.

Some very clever jokes are seen from that point on, but I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen this one. Suffice to say, you might go from rooting against this weird goat to rooting for him. It's a really bizarre, frenetic cartoon - with no spinach, either! Just when I was getting discouraged with these 1943 Popeye cartoons, a good one like this pops up, giving me hope I'll see more.

The ending to this cartoon is really great.