![]() One big difference between this and most of the later Popeye cartoons is with Olive Oyl. Additionally, Betty makes a short but risqué appearance mid-way through the film-sort of like she was giving her seal of approval to the series. Instead, they billed this as a Betty Boop cartoon on the title screen. ![]() However, the Fleischer Studios was a bit hesitant to just toss Popeye out there and hope that people will like him. ![]() While I have never been a huge fan of Popeye because the cartoons are so darn repetitive, this very first Popeye is well worth seeing-for historical reasons, because it was significantly better than the efforts of most other studios (which tended towards cutesy singing cartoons) and because it was so original at that time. All in all, a very good debut cartoon but not among my favourite Popeye cartoons. Betty Boop makes a small but memorable appearance, that's both sexy and cute. All three lead characters are engaging and their personalities established well even for so early on. It's a very entertaining cartoon and smartly written, with a lot of charm and energy. The music is merry and energetic, though again am more familiar with the scoring of Winston Sharples later. On the other hand, the animation is beautifully drawn, smooth and meticulously detailed, the black and white crisply shaded. Popeye and Bluto were fine courtesy of William Costello and William Pennell, but Bonnie Poe's voice agreed (from personal opinion this is) doesn't really fit Olive Oyl, and it was strange hearing a deeper voice when so used to Mae Questel's pretty iconic interpretation. There is a finding its feet/style feel, and there is a preference to the voice actors who would take on the roles later. 'Popeye the Sailor' is a good debut for Popeye, but there have been better cartoons of his since. However, you can see from this early cartoon that it's no surprise this comic strip character made it big "in the movies." This guy was punching everybody and everything, and so was Olive! In later cartoons, Popeye entertained us more with his clever remarks and reinventing of words. Also, Popeye's answer to everything was a punch, destroying whatever he hit.even a train! He's always ready to show his stuff, but a little more so than normal in this debut cartoon. Mae also did Betty Boop, and my guess is they didn't want the same voice for both characters in the same cartoon. Her voice was a lot lower than Mae Questel's who did Olive for most, if not all, of the other cartoons. The only thing different was Bonnie Poe doing some voice work as Olive. Betty does a quick Hawaiian dance which she did in several other cartoons before they made her put more clothes on by the end of 1934. Betty only has a small number in here, so even if the cartoon is under name, it's really Popeye's. ![]() ![]() That storyline went on for decades but was always fun to see as the sailor man bested the bearded bully time after time. Popeye demonstrates his strength, dexterity and resourcefulness in his screen debut and it's quickly established Bluto is the enemy and wants Olive. The combination of sight gags and music - they loved music in cartoons and movies back in the '30s - is guaranteed to make you feel good after watching. It's tough to beat these clever, funny 1930s Popeye cartoons. (There was no television back then.) Anyway, just watching the first few minutes of this cartoon produced a big smile on my face. Actually, we find out it's a "Betty Boop" as Betty joins in the singing, with a similar lyric about it "being a cinch that every inch he's a sailor." Popeye came from the comic strips, so the first thing we see when the story begins in a newspaper headline reading, "Popeye A Movie Star," meaning the audience will now see him at the movie theater. Right off the in the introduction, other - not Popeye - is singing a "Strike Up the Band" song. Wow, it's interesting to see how different this first Popeye cartoon was from all the others we are used to seeing. ![]()
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