(Note: Click here to watch this cartoon, in inferior but watchable condition, on YouTube.)
This is the very first Popeye cartoon from the fabled Fleischer Brothers studios. What immediately strikes one is that Popeye and his supporting cast emerge, like Venus on the half shell, fully formed. Unlike other classic animation icons who had to go through long evolutions before reaching their most archetypical forms, such as Bugs Bunny (or most of his Warner Brothers comrades), Mickey Mouse or even the Fleischer’s own Betty Boop, who appeared to be a Moreau-like half dog in her earliest appearances.
In contrast, Popeye and Olive and Bluto are so perfectly captured the first time out that you could stick this cartoon in the middle of the 100 plus Popeye cartoons from this era and most people wouldn’t give it a second thought.
Even so, this first outing, technically, is a Betty Boop cartoon. Betty has what is at best an extended cameo in the proceedings, singing a hula song and with her visibly swaying breasts barely covered with a lei. And while the main Popeye triad is again perfectly manifested here, there are yet elements that strike the knowledgeable viewer as more of the Boop cartoons than the Popeyes. For instance, the background characters are anamorphized animals. Characters at rest constantly bob up and down in place, as if they were literally incapable of standing still. These traits were both dropped after a small number of Popeye outings, but I always kind of dug the bobbing thing.
Popeye himself not only appears fully formed at the beginning of the cartoon, but is moreover introduced singing his then newly-written theme song. This is the extended version with a few more stanzas (“I’m one tough gazookus / who hates all palookas / Wot ain’t on the up and square…”). As he ambles along singing the song, he engages in one of the running gags that would become a series hallmark. He punches various objects up into the air, only for them to break apart and rain down as smaller component parts; i.e., Popeye punches a big, mounted fish, and it falls to Earth as a shower of sardines.
The plot is completely familiar, too. (Most of the time, the setting changed, but not the essential Popeye vs. Bluto for Olive’s attentions framework.) Popeye and Olive attend a fair—where Betty comes out and performs a number—and Bluto ends up carrying off Olive. (With Betty in the area?! There’s no accounting for taste, I guess.)
Bluto maintains the upper hand, and he and Popeye engage in some typically hilarious fisticuffs, and soon Olive is tied up in the bent portions of a railroad track. Popeye rather casually endures a beating at Bluto’s hand, then nonchalantly eats his spinach, with predictable results. He quickly defeats Bluto…indeed, he seems to outright kill him, since Bluto ends up in a coffin. And then, unable to get Olive free in time, he saves her by punching the oncoming train, whereupon it falls to bits.
It’s hard to describe how charming these cartoons are. For my money, they stand with the very upper echelon of the Warner Brothers stuff, and I can’t think of a better compliment than that. In fact, if I could only have one, I’d rather own these Popeyes than the cream of the Warner’s studio. If you haven’t seen these, buy the set, which is easily worth the $40 or $50 it runs (60 full cartoons and a ton of great extras), or at least rent them from Netflix or your local library or whatever.*
[*Other suggestions: Wait for Deepdiscountdvd’s 20% off sale in November, and knock an additional $8 bucks off the price. Or put in on your Amazon wish list. Christmas isn’t that far off, after all.]
One aspect of Popeye that doesn’t get much notice is that he is, as far as I know, the first authentically superhuman mass media character. Even before he eats his spinach, he is capable of stupendous feats. When Bluto cuts a rope bridge hanging over a cavern – which he does by using the beak of a passing bird as a pair of scissors – Popeye casually tosses the dangling rope across the divide and pulls the opposite hillside over to abut his. (!!) And again, this is before he eats spinach. Since Superman was still (officially) five years in the future, I think Popeye has a claim to that first superhero title.
Great moments: The perfectly realized first appearances of Popeye, Olive and Bluto. The first performance of “I’m Popeye the Sailor Man.” Popeye making Olive pay to get them into the carnival. (This happened a few times in the early cartoons, then Popeye become more chivalrous.) The apt use of the tune “Barnacle Bill the Sailor” as Bluto’s theme. Popeye’s first exclaimed “WHAM!” as he punches something. Popeye performing a hula dance with a barely dressed Betty. The scene at the bridge. Popeye and Bluto’s first fight. The intriguing, enduring mystery of what, exactly, either Popeye or Bluto see in Olive.
The Bad: I’m not Mr. PC Guy, but that black guy at the carnival game—yipes! The animal background characters, which quickly went by the board.
Bonus: Just in case you haven’t seen this yet.
