Edit:
After having read some reviews on here I will say I agree with those who are misled by the title. It does imply a kind of celebratory 'best of' for the occasion. And for the life of me I can't figure out why the Popeyes of the late 40's and 50's aren't available but that's another matter. I knew what they were going in and specifically tracked these cartoons down. However, that aside,... for those who have nay-sayed and poo pooed this collection for what they are just don't see the big picture. Yes! are these cartoons wildly inconsistent? Are there 5 or 6 different house styles of art, direction, music and characterization that could drive a sane person or mildly, slightly obsessive compulsive person, who's a stickler for detail and consistency, into seizures? (including a distinct Larry Harmon- Bozo-set of cartoons that obviously used his cartoon production company that always kind of took me out of the moment,.....to 4 or 5 others). Yes there was. Did I realize this as a kid and love them anyway? The answer again, is yes, I did!
There are so many gems that fit into our afternoon roster of cartoons (along with reruns of Batman - but that's a whole other topic) They entertained us and became part of our afternoon routine in the summer right after swimming. There's Popeye trying to fit in with Olive Oyl and her new infatuation with beatnicks in the episode "CoffeHouse". (Evidently aside from wearing beat clothes and hair style, all you have to do to be a hip beat nick is to say the word "cool" over and over) And check out Brutus' beat poem 'Ode to an Onion'. Hilarious! There's the origin of Eugene the Jeep where Brutus is so mean he is a thistle farmer. "Jeeps is is pests, that's why I grows thistles". C'mon! That's funny stuff! And the episodes with creepy Alice The Goon.
As a kid you sensed that these were a little more low budget and this kind of made them all the more endearing. Even the music done by Ken Lowman (who deserves his own dedication page on the internet -- hmm, I may do that since no one else is) is great! Lowman does fun little ditties that stay in your brain with a barebones studio of musicians. One person to a part and it seems to be only 8 or 9 in the group. 1 trumpet, 1 clarinet, a flute, a harp, a tuba, a bassoon (I believe Lowman was a bassoonist as I found a book of bassoon etudes he wrote also) and a couple of guys doing percussion. Again, makes it fun and endearing. I used to write out some of this music for a rodeo band I played in. We played it for the riders as they came out of the chute. I can just imagine the cowboys and patrons of those rodeos wondering what in the world we were playing. "Is that Popeye music?!"
And then you have Jack Mercer as Popeye (whom I believe wrote all these episodes too), Jackson Beck as Brutus, and Mae Questel as Olive Oyl. They all do many other voices and give very entertaining performances in a more limited work environment. I mean, it was TV and was the first time Popeye was produced specifically for TV. Something people need to consider is all the other great Popeye cartoons of old were cinematic cartoons done with big movie studio budgets and only rediscovered on TV. The powers that be realized there was still a big audience for Popeye. Mercer was approached, given an assignment and delivered big for the studio, in my opinion. We were lucky to get these if you look at it like that. Beck is quoted in a book on Jack Mercer saying that they all banged out their voice work on these cartoons very quickly and under budge,...much to the studios surprise and delight. The team was in place, they'd all done it before. Knew their roles. They were pros at this by then. Just lack of direction or vision at the top. They could have done much more. Shame.
So in conclusion,.....yes, not as slick or consistent as prior Popeye endeavors. It was TV and they were working cheaper and under tighter time constraints. But man they are fun for those reasons alone. Even that bad stuff is fun. More people need to discover these. And I still say there needs to be some analysis and attention on these somewhere on the web. Again,...maybe I'll take that up.
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