MARIO GAUCI
Despite a brief (semi-nude!) appearance by Betty Boop as an exotic dancer at a fair, this cartoon by the Fleischer brothers introduced us to the popular figures of Popeye, Olive Oyl and Bluto – who would naturally take off in a long-running series of their own and basically eclipsed the career of the studio's afore-mentioned star attraction! It is interesting to note, at this juncture, that the essence – with respect to characterization, gag type and plot structure (not to mention, the equally iconic theme tune!) – was there from the outset. That said, while I admit to having sat through many of these during my childhood, much like the live-action stuff of The Three Stooges which yours truly sampled again a few years back (let alone their strictly kiddie-oriented animated fare!), I seem to have irrevocably outgrown this particular brand of comedy and now approach it with an inevitable measured step
John T. Ryan
ALWAYS on the lookout for new material and fresh "faces" to bring to their animated films, the Brothers Fleischer, Max and Dave, had apparently struck some sort of deal with Hearst's King Features Syndicate to bring some of their humorous comic strips to the screen.* Consequently we saw the likes of 'HENRY' by Carl Anderson, 'THE LITTLE KING' by Otto Soglow and the runaway hit character from E.Z. Segar's THIMBLE THEATER Comic Strip, POPEYE.RECIPROCALLY perhaps, King Features distributed a BETTY BOOP Comic Strip in the 1930s; which was credited to Max Fleischer, but most likely was ghosted by others.EXPERIMENTATION with the newspaper strips was limited to these three; but only the only one to come around to the full fruition** for the Fleischer Brothers, Paramount Pictures Corporation and We, the People, was the gruff, squinty-eyed, bow-legged, nearly bald, red-headed, ham fisted scrapper of a seaman, Popeye, Himself. *** THE first cartoon, titled POPEYE THE SAILOR (Fleischer Studios/Paramount Pictures, 1933), was officially part of the BETTY BOOP Series; although Miss Betty graciously defers to the Spinach Man, taking a supporting, almost cameo, sort of a part as a Hula Dancing Girl at the carnival, which was the setting for the story.AMAZINGLY, this initial outing seemingly contained all of the basic elements that were Popeye stuff, right from the start. It was almost as if it was a sort of genetic code for cinematic productions; with all that would come later over the next 6 decades being present in primitive form in the very first outing.OUR STORY: Popeye meets up with Olive Oyl (they're obviously already 'goin' steady.') as he disembarks his ship for some much needed shore leave. Bluto shows up to provide some rivalry and the means of providing some fisticuffs. Miss Boop as we said before, comes in well into the second half of the picture; but manages to get in some really neat hoofing with Popeye, both being products of the Fleischers' Patented Rotoscope Process.**** REALLY, Schultz, that's about it; of course it's all embellished with plenty of those famous sight-gags, for which Director Dave Fleischer had become so well known.NONE of the other cast of Mr. Segar's characters from the strip make an appearance. There's no Roughhouse, no Wimpy, no Swea' Pea. Missing in action are Castor Oyl (Olive's brother), Sea Hag, Poop Deck Pappy and Eugene, the Jeep. However, they would all be highly visible in future cartoons, coming series in Popeye's venerable and prolific cinematic output.THE cast of voice actors was a little different than what we later would become used to. Popeye and Olive were rendered by William Costello and Bonnie Poe. Mae Questel was there, but did her usual Betty Boop; but not Olive, yet. Jack Mercer hadn't signed on as Popeye until some time later; although we did view a print of this cartoon that apparently had been re-dubbed with Mr. Mercer's unmistakable rendition of the Sailor Man's golden tones.BIZARRE is the only way that to describe many of the supporting characters; be they part of a carnival crowd or one of Popeye's co-worker sailors taking their shore leave. It seemed to be out of place (at least to this writer) to have the being anthropomorphic funny animals. Whereas this , we're certain, had been a common practice in the BETTY BOOP world, no POPEYE picture ever would repeat its use; opting for adherence to the principle of depicting only humans (and Parrots) as talkers.NOTE: * King Features' adventure strip properties such as TIM TYLER'S LUCK, JUNGLE JIM and FLASH GORDON were adapted to the screen by Universal Pictures as Cliff-Hanging Serials.NOTE: ** Oddly enough, the one cartoon "Star" Fleischer Studios had copyright on was Miss BETTY BOOP, herself. Their two most successful series were the All Color SUPERMAN Cartoons of the 1940's (owned by D.C./National Comics) and our guy, POPEYE (Hearst's King Features Syndicate).NOTE: *** Yeah, Schultz, just the same as yours truly, Popeye is a Red Head, poor guy! NOTE: **** The ROTOSCOPE is an animation production device of MAX & DAVE FLEISCHER'S which is used to make realistic animated movement by allowing animators to trace individual frames of film of live action persons and animals even.POODLE SCHNITZ!!
tedg
Spoilers herein.Popeye's first cartoon after he matured on the comics page. I believe the Fleischer cartoons may be the best of the era. Where other pioneers were working with characters abstracted especially for the screen, the Fleischers gave life to `real' characters.
Betty Boop until 1934 - when regulatory prudes stripped her of her magic - was an amazing invention: sexy, somewhat dumb. But the important thing was the flapper persona.By 33, the Fleischers bought the rights to Popeye and this is the first appearance on screen. His dumb but endearing masculinity is a perfect match for Betty's similar femininity. She only appears in a cameo here, except the voice of Olive is very similar (and done by the same person). Betty was retired in 39, to be replaced by the unplucky, unsexy Olive.The world of film stereotypes would never be the same. The death of the Clara Bow type begins with this short.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
