The product takes the form of four 1-sided discs, where each disc is stamped with an orange background and a black & white drawing of Popeye with Olive Oyl, Whimpy, Bluto, or Sweetpea. The discs come in cardboard case, where thick, sturdy plastic inserts are attached to the case for holding the discs. There are 60 cartoons in all, plus 24 extra cartoons featuring Popeye and friends, or other cartoon characters from a still earlier era, that is, from the years 1921 to 1933. On the front of the cardboard case, the image of Popeye is 3-dimensional, that is, the cardboard had been put into a mold during manufacturing, so that image of Popeye is raised by about a millimeter.
The quality of the video images on the discs is superb. There are no streaks or lines. The picture is stable and not jittery. The voices are often, but not always distinct. It is my guess that this was intentional. Popeye spends a lot of time muttering things quickly. Olive Oyl spends alot of time mumbling while fretting. Whimpy never says much more than, "I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today."
Most of these cartoons contain the same basic elements. In a nutshell, Popeye and Bluto compete for the affections of Olive Oyl, get into a fistfight with each other, where Popeye eventually takes out a can of spinach and consumes it, as a source of super-human strength. Usually, Popeye wins Olive Oyl's heart.
The following outlines a few of the plots:
THE TWO-ALARM FIRE. Please note that this is one of the very best and most clever episodes. Popeye and Bluto work in the same firehouse as firemen. Olive's house is on fire. I little flame runs down the sidewalk, climbs a little up a telephone pole, and yanks the fire alarm. Flames shooting out of adjacent windows take the form of hands, and the flame-hands shake hands with each other. Other flames move across the rooftop adn assume the shapes of moving ducks, and Popeye shoots the flame-ducks using water, one by one, just like at a shooting gallery at a state fair. Bluto climbs on the roof to rescue Olive, but he is overcome. Then Popeye rescues both of them. 5 STARS.
THE DANCE CONTEST. Popeye and Olive had a date together at a dance contest. Wimpy pulls a lever that eliminates poor dancers, by way of a trap door. Actually, the dance floor has many such trap doors. Bluto is already inside, and he "borrows" Olive from Popeye. He proves to be a much better dancer than Popeye. Wimpy gets busy pulling the lever. Popeye eats his spinach, and turns into a splendid dancer, and he and Olive win the contest. The dancing maneuvers were drawn very skillfully. 5 STARS.
WE AIM TO PLEASE. Popeye and Olive open up a small diner in the city. This cartoon begins with Popeye and Olive in a song and dance routine. Wimpy orders a hamburger, but walks out without paying. Popeye pushes a button on the cash register, and a sign pops up, and the sign reads, "IN THE RED 20 CENTS." Bluto orders 6 sandwiches, but he tears up the bill for 60 cents. Then there is a big fight. Olive gives spinach to Popeye. Popeye slugs Bluto, and Bluto turns into a big sausage, which hangs from the wall. A sign materializes on the Bluto-sausage reading, "60 CENTS." 4 STARS.
MY ARTISTICAL TEMPERATURE. We see a brick building labeled, "Sweet Art Studio." Inside, Popeye is doing a sculpture, making Venus de Milo out of clay, and Bluto is doing a painting. Both men wear French berets. The arms of Venus keep sagging, because they're made of soft clay. And so, Popeye snaps them off, thereby providing a Venus sculpture just like real Venus sculpture (lacking arms). Olive comes into the art studio. Bluto and Popeye fight. Bluto throws Popeye into a painting of a Russian man, and Popeye is propelled through the painting, and all we see are his legs jutting out from the lower part of the canvas, and his legs to a typical Russian folk dance. Olive proclaims, "I'm getting out of here," but Bluto grabs her. Bluto smashes a dozen canvases over Popeye's head, and Popeye proclaims, "I've been framed." Finally, Popeye makes a sculpture of Olive, as Statue of Liberty, but holding a can of spinach instead of a torch. 4 STARS.
HOSPTALIKY. Olive is a nurse in this episode, and she walks into a hospital. Popeye and Bluto pretend to be sick, in order to gain admission, but Olive says no, they're not really sick. Popeye insists, "My high blood pressure is low." But this doesn't convince Olive. Popeye stands in the middle of a busy intersection, with the goal of being run over, but somehow all the whizzing cars avoid hitting Popeye. Bluto stands in a rock quarry hoping to get injured by dynamite, but as it turned out, he was standing on a pile or rocks in a dump truck, and the dump truck drives away before the dynamite explodes. Popeye teases a bull with a red cape, and the bull charges. When the bull strikes Popeye, the bull bounces off and becomes a dozen sausages, which dangle from a nearby tree. One of the sausages has a label with Hebrew writing, reading kosher. Finally, Popeye feeds spinach to Bluto, and Bluto beats Popeye to a pump. The result, is that Popeye succeeds getting admitted to the hospital, and getting tended to by Olive. Despite the perverted plot line, I find that it is clever, so I give this one 5 STARS.
THE TWISKER PITCHER. We see a baseball game featuring Popeye's team, Popeye's Pirates, and Bluto's team, Bluto's Bears. Out on the playing field we see Popeye dropping his can of spinach into his baseball suit, for future emergency use. But he drops it accidentally, and Bluto secretly eats it, and then fills the can with ordinary grass. Popeye at bat, and the catcher signals to Popeye with semaphore flags. Popeye's team is losing badly. Then it is Popeye's turn to pitch, so he eats the can of spinach, not realizing that it is really grass. But he makes a face, indicating that the taste is wrong. Popeye's team continues to do badly. At this point, the score is 21 (Bluto) to zero (Popeye). Then, Popeye takes out an envelope of grass seeds, plants them, resulting in a fast-growing spinach plant, and he eats the spinach, which results in a great improvement in his performance. But in the last minute of the cartoon, the score is 21 to 22, and Popeye wins. 4 STARS.
BEWARE OF BARNACLE BILL. Popeye visits Olive and asks to get married. But Olive says she loves Bluto (Barnacle Bill the sailor). Olive and Popeye take turns singing the Barnacle Bill song. Then Bluto shows up in his sailor suit, at Olive's house. There is a big fight. Bluto throws a chest of drawers at Popeye, and Popeye materializes from the top drawer. The fight continues, and Popeye tosses Bluto into the ocean. Then Olive decides that she wants to marry Popeye instead. But Popeye changes his mind and calls her a "cabbage head." 3 STARS.
BE KIND TO ANIMALS. Olive and Popeye are in the park feeding seeds to birds. Bluto has a banana cart, pulled by a horse. Bluto whips the horse and prevents the horse from drinking from a bathtub by the road, clearly labeled as being water for horses, and Bluto hoists the bathtub into the air, and drinks all the water himself, leaving the horse very thirsty. Olive yells at Bluto to stop whipping, but Bluto yells, "Mind your own business, you long-legged scarecrow." Popeye eats a box of spinach that was in the back of the banana cart. There is a big fight. Bluto ends up pulling the banana cart, while the horse sits in the driver's seat, and holds the whip in his mouth, and whips Bluto. 3 STARS.
PLEASED TO MEET CHA. Popeye and Bluto come to visit Olive, but one rings the bell to the front door, and the other rings the bell to the back door. Once inside, they have a fight. Bluto slugs Olive with his fist, in order to get her out of the way. Then, the three of them sit calmly on the couch with Olive in the middle. Bluto and Popeye then agree to a contest of practical jokes, in order to determine who gets Olive. These take the form of THREE STOOGES type pranks, where dishes get smashed over their heads. Olive laughs and laughs. Then there is a big fight, and Olive's furniture gets demolished. Popeye wins, and he does a great trick. He whisks the carpet, causing all of the furniture to be restored in unbroken condition, and sitting neatly on the carpet. In my opinion, this is one of the more perverted Popeye cartoons. 2 STARS.
One of the greatest trivia questions in the Free World is as follows: "Who did the voice of Olive Oyl?" The answer is, the same woman who does the voice of BETTY BOOP. Her real name is, Mae Questel (1908-1998).
The typical viewer might get tired of all of the fist-fighting, when watching four or more episodes in a row. Therefore, I recommend that any person buying these Popeye discs, watch these episodes with restraint, that is, watch only two or three cartoons in one sitting, and not more.
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Reviews with images
This Is The Real Thing... At Long Last !!!!
This is it, Popeye cartoon fans! We have dreamed about it, wished for it, and hoped for it. Warner Brothers Video, by arrangement with King Features Syndicate, is issuing here the first 60 ORIGINAL Fleischer Studios Popeye cartoons. Wonderful! These fantastic cartoons are being released in chronological order of their theatrical release, FULLY RESTORED from the original negatives in beautiful black and white, UNCUT, with all Paramount titles restored. Volume 1, 1933-1938, is a 4-disc collector's edition. Also included in this release are the first two Three-Color-Technicolor two-reel specials: "Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor", and "Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves". If that isn't enough, 5 hours worth of bonus materials are included: Audio commentaries from Mark Kausler, Jerry Beck, Mark Evanier, and others. More features include restrospectives on Popeye and Max Fleischer, behind the toons featurettes, and bonus shorts.So many of us remember seeing many of these vintage Popeye shorts when we were kids, and fondly remember the incredible animation from those early Fleischer Studios Popeye's. In 1933, the original Popeye voice was done by William Costello. Sometime in 1935 he was fired and The Sailor Man's voice was taken over by Jack Mercer, who kept at it for the remaining duration of these great cartoons. Remember that wonderful muttering in those early years by Popeye? That was the great Jack Mercer. Who could forget that fantastic "Is that so?" and all the other regular mutterings that Popeye would utter, more so especially during the Fleischer years. Bluto was fantastic, too, with some great back-and-forth quips between himself and his rival. His voice was delivered by William Pennell from 1933-1935, then Gus Wickie from 1935 until his death in 1938. The voice of Olive Oyl was delivered by Mae Questel.So, all you Popeye fans... this is what we have been waiting for many a year. Throw out all your other Popeye videos and DVDs. Get rid of your VHS tapes that you made from the Cartoon Network. Destroy (with pleasure) all of those horrible colorized Popeye's made infamous by Mr. Turner. Animation historian Jerry Beck says that "your eyes will POP at the restorations. If you've never seen them you are in for a revelation." At long last...the first official release of the Max Fleischer cartoons on DVD. Without a doubt, you will be absolutely, positively delighted!!!
Top reviews from other countries
R. Smith
your EYES will POP with sheer delight;
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 29, 2008