Popeye's two different looks.

[SpeedyLover]

Popeye The Sailor and his cartoon gang are characters you don't see too much of these days.They seemed to be a lot more popular during my childhood days in the 1970s.One thing I found both interesting and somewhat peculiar,is the different appearances that Popeye and his friends seemed to go through over the years.Popeye in particular.In the original black and white Paramount/Max Fliescher cartoons,Popeye had his most firmuliar appearance of a black sailor suit with red collar.Then there was the KingFeatures version.Popeye looked so different in these cartoons,with a completely white sailor suit.Not to mention,originally the entire cast of Popeye characters had dot eyes.In this version,only Wimpy,Sweepee and the Jeep sustained dot eyes.By 1978,we had what was called The All New Popeye Hour from Hanna Barbera,where Popeye went back to his original and more familiar appearance,and the entire cast of characters all went back to dot eyes.The Sea Hag,who had been a green witch in the KingFeatures cartoons,was now a flesh colour.I also noticed how the Hanna Barbera Popeye cartoons appeared to be less violent than both KingFeatures and Max Fleischer.In the Hanna Barbera version,I don't think I ever saw Popeye and Bluto punch eachother out,the way they famously did in the other two versions.:bosko:

[Matthew Hunter]

Well, my guess for the white sailor suit in the Paramount/Famous studios cartoons is that it was a nod to WWII. They changed the design to suggest a Navy sailor uniform. The hat changed too, from an old-time captain's hat to a Navy sailor cap. Made sense, as they used Popeye in several WWII-themed cartoons, like "Scrap the Japs" and "Spinach Fer Brittain".

-Matthew

[shadejford]

P
Popeye The Sailor and his cartoon gang are characters you don't see too much of these days.They seemed to be a lot more popular during my childhood days in the 1970s.One thing I found both interesting and somewhat peculiar,is the different appearances that Popeye and his friends seemed to go through over the years.Popeye in particular.In the original black and white Paramount/Max Fliescher cartoons,Popeye had his most firmuliar appearance of a black sailor suit with red collar.Then there was the KingFeatures version.Popeye looked so different in these cartoons,with a completely white sailor suit.Not to mention,originally the entire cast of Popeye characters had dot eyes.In this version,only Wimpy,Sweepee and the Jeep sustained dot eyes.By 1978,we had what was called The All New Popeye Hour from Hanna Barbera,where Popeye went back to his original and more familiar appearance,and the entire cast of characters all went back to dot eyes.The Sea Hag,who had been a green witch in the KingFeatures cartoons,was now a flesh colour.I also noticed how the Hanna Barbera Popeye cartoons appeared to be less violent than both KingFeatures and Max Fleischer.In the Hanna Barbera version,I don't think I ever saw Popeye and Bluto punch eachother out,the way they famously did in the other two versions.:bosko: Popeye started wearing that white sailor suit in 1941. The cartoons were still being produced by Fleischer. In l942, Paramount removed Fleischer and retained key Fleischer directors, writers and animators. The studios was renamed "Famous Studios" and the characters all got oval-shaped eyes. However, starting in the late '30s, the characters would alternate between having the dot eyes and the oval-shaped eyes. Sometimes, this happened within the same cartoon. And yes, the white sailor suit was a nod to World War II.

[J Lee]

The interesting thing about the debut of Popeye's sailor suit is that the cartoon "The Mighty Navy" was actually made half a year before the United States entered World War II, which is the reason why the flag of the attacking battleship says "Enemy (Name Your Own)", though with the Churchillian large "V" on the title card, there's no doubt the Fleischer crew knew who the real enemy was.

"The Mighty Navy" apparently was inspired by the ending, which showed Popeye had been adopted as the symbol of the Navy's bomber squadron So the Fleischers drafted Popeye into the military and also put the 'A" unit to work on the cartoon, as it was the first Popeye done by Seymour Kneitel and Abner Matthews since the studio began work on "Gulliver's Travels" in late 1938, while Tedd Pierce and Bill Turner did the story, with Pierce also doubling as the voice of the ship's captain. So the changeover to the sailor's suit was treated as a big event by the studio.

(And IMHO, while seeing the sailor suit Popeye is now considered by many people the sign of a weak cartoon, the military settings actually revived the series for a while. The last of the pre-war cartoons were trying to avoid going stale by not using Bluto in the standard fight over Olive situation, but the Fleischers never really never found anything satisfactory to replace him with -- watching Popeye get bested by flies and crows or frustrated by his pappy just wasn't as satisfying as watching him punch Bluto's lights out. Hitler and Tojo gave the sailor man new enemies worth eating spinach over, and even gave the writers new ideas on how to work Bluto back into the series. Things really didn't start going downhill until about late 1948 or so).

[Friz]

Does everybody know about this one?

RELEASE DATE APRIL 6TH
Popeye (75th Anniversary Collector's Edition)
http://i6.ebayimg.com/02/i/01/84/72/9e_1.JPG

3-volume collector's set commemorates the 75th anniversary of one of the most beloved cartoon characters of all time--Popeye the Sailor Man! Contains 8 hours of the original King Features Syndicate classics, including "Egypt Us," "Barbecue for Two," "Sea No Evil," "Insultin' the Sultan," "Giddy Gold," "Gem Jam," and many more.
********************************************************
********************************************************
Came accross this on e-bay. Looks like a nice set.
The Comic-Kings used to be played all the time twenty or so years ago and I didn't tape very many of them. It would be nice to catch up with them again and see them with older eyes.