Popeye, the Ace of Space

[BlueAngelGal]

I have to say, I was majorly impressed to see the left print of "Popeye, the Ace of Space" on The Popeye Show the other night...I taped it, thankfully, and spent a good chunk of time running the opening and closing titles over and over, just admiring the novel look of them. My question is, have they EVER shown this on TV before, with the original titles? I don't recall ever having seen it before, though after seeing the stills on Jerry Beck's site, I was eagerly awaiting it.

[Nelson]

This was the second time that CN has presented " Popeye The Ace Of Space" on "the popeye show" before.But I noticed that the Paramount & famous logo was more towards the left of the screen outside of the stars. But it was a great print I must say.

[Thad Komorowski]

The "left shifting" thing was done on the print to create a 3-D effect.


-Thad

[Dave Mackey]

Originally posted by BlueAngelGal
I have to say, I was majorly impressed to see the left print of "Popeye, the Ace of Space" on The Popeye Show the other night...I taped it, thankfully, and spent a good chunk of time running the opening and closing titles over and over, just admiring the novel look of them. My question is, have they EVER shown this on TV before, with the original titles? I don't recall ever having seen it before, though after seeing the stills on Jerry Beck's site, I was eagerly awaiting it.

Since AAP picked up all the Popeyes produced prior to 1955 and replaced the titles from the get-go, "Popeye The Ace Of Space" was never seen on TV with the original Paramount mountain titles until Cartoon Network unearthed an original print for The Popeye Show.

Now "Boo Moon" may be kicking around somewhere with the original titles as well, but getting anyone to run Casper cartoons in 2002 is like pulling teeth.

BTW, this year marks the 50th anniversary of the 3-D Craze.

[Nelson]

Speaking of which, the announcer said that they can't show "Ace Of Space" in 3-D yet..Does this mean that down the road that we can see this cartoon in it's original 3-D form?

[BlueAngelGal]

Originally posted by Nelson
Speaking of which, the announcer said that they can't show "Ace Of Space" in 3-D yet..Does this mean that down the road that we can see this cartoon in it's original 3-D form? I wondered that myself....is there a usable right print out there somewhere? If so, there could be a 3-D screening at some point. However, I wonder how hard it was to find even one print with the original titles, and whether a right print exists anymore. :(

[Jerry Beck]

20 years ago, when I worked for United Artists, I tried to convince them to strike a 3-D print of POPEYE THE ACE OF SPACE (this was during the brief 3-D revival with films like COMIN' AT YA, etc.). We dug out the original three strip negative - and i got a chance to inspect it (both negs, that is, right & left). It was cost prohibitive at the time (and still is) but it can be done.
I found a technicolor 16mm print of POPEYE THE ACE OF SPACE at a film convention in New Jersey about eight years ago. It is one of my prized possesions. That's where the frame grabs on my website come from, and it is what Cartoon Network used to "restore" their version.
When I worked for Harvey Comics in 1994, I had a chance to see the negatives (Left & Right) for BOO MOON. Unlike POPEYE, the original titles do not indicate "A Stereotoon" or that it is in 3-D. At least not the neg I saw - I'd love to take another look at it.
So, the good news is that both negs exist and prints (or video copies) could be made - unfortunetly it won't be for a long time.

[J Lee]

Back around the summer of 1974-75 in New York, they had a weekend 3-D film revival festival down in Greenwich Village, which paired 3-D cartoons with 3-D feature films. I went to see "Hypnotic Hick" and "Lumber Jack Rabbit," but off the top of my head I can't recall if either of the Paramount cartoons were shown on different weekends. If they ever did make it into the theater some other week, the ads for it are probably available on the back copy microfilms of the Village Voice or the New York Times (more likely the Voice than the Times since it was an revival house show).

[Jerry Beck]

J Lee - I attended that 3-D festival - it was later like 1978-9 I think. It was at the 8th Street Playhouse. Those two cartoons were the only two cartoons they ran. Remember they ran the 3 Stooges in SPOOKS also.

[J Lee]

Shows you how may memory fogs over the years -- I got my college summers mixed up with my high school ones. But it is nice to know I didn't miss anything else and don't have to kick myself from here to eternity over it. ;)

Finally seeing the pies in the face from SPOOKS the way they were meant to be seen -- along with the "ATTACK OF THE WB SHIELD" -- was a nice experience, even if the rest of "Lumber Jack Rabbit" was pretty tame.