Popeye (Boomerang) - 5/20/02

[Jon Cooke]

"Woodpeckin'" - redrawn
"Cartoons Ain't Human" - redrawn
"Her Honor the Mare"
"The Marry-Go-Round"
"We're On Our Way to Rio"
"The Anvil Chorus Girl"
"Puppet Love"
"Pitchin' Woo at the Zoo"

"Moving Aweigh"
"She-Sick Sailors"
"Tops In The Big Top"
"Shape Ahoy"
"For Better or Nurse"
"House Tricks?"
"Service With a Guile"
"Klondike Casanova"
"Rocket to Mars" - edited


Boomerang final begins to show the real color Popeye cartoons... after a few weeks of redrawns. Anyway, not a bad block. They showed a few I rarely saw air on CN ("For Better Or Nurse", "House Tricks?" and "Service With a Guile").

They skipped "Pop-Pie Ala Mode" (of course), "Spinach Packin' Popeye", and "Mess Production". I need copies of the last two, and never saw them on CN either. What's wrong with them? Do they have stereotypes of some kind? :confused:


-Jon

[Pilmedium]

I wish I could have seen this show.

[lislebartman]

I dunno why they skipped "Mess Production". The plot is harmless (kinda like "A Dream Walking", except it takes place at a factory with Olive walking amongst all the machinery in a daze after being clunked on the head...) and there are no racial stereotypes or black-face gags in it...

I'm not sure about "Spinach Packin' Popeye". The plot for that one eludes me at the moment...

[J Lee]

"Spinach Packin' Popeye" is a cheater cartoon, usnig clips (with original soundtracks) from the first two Fleischer color two-reelers, "Sinbad" and "Ali Baba." Nothing censorable in either of them or in the new animation in the cartoon (unless they're worried about blood donations or boxing).

[Pilmedium]

Originally posted by J Lee
"Spinach Packin' Popeye" is a cheater cartoon, usnig clips (with original soundtracks) from the first two Fleischer color two-reelers

Although skipping cartoons is never a good idea, cheater cartoons are bad any way.

[Geezil]

No, not a bad block at all! And this Geezil had long forgotten (or maybe just never fully appreciated) that rich vein of Forties humor running through all the Famous color entries listed above. (Hey, how many glued-to-their-TVs 1950s/1960s kids had any idea on first viewing :confused: what "Spinach -- 17 Points" meant??) Not to mention that Tytla and Tyer were in the credits for "Rocket to Mars," which (of course) goes to the heart of that short's like-no-other-at-all-from-Famous flavor.

So I'll say again to anyone at AOL Time Warner reading this: Bring on those Popeye DVDs!!!!!!!

[Dane Martin]

Originally posted by Pilmedium
I wish I could have seen this show.

Tell me about it. I don't believe I've seen _any_ of those... :(

[J Lee]

(Hey, how many glued-to-their-TVs 1950s/1960s kids had any idea on first viewing what "Spinach -- 17 Points" meant??)

The only thing I knew was the point total went up on color spinach compaired to black-and-white -- I think it was worth only 10-points at the end of "Cartoons Ain't Human." ;)

Stopping today's show at "Rocket To Mars" was appropriate, because it was Jim Tyer's last cartoon before taking the New Haven Railroad up to New Rochelle and his loopy style of animation to Terrytoons. Watch next week's Popeye block on "Boomerang" and see the cartoons begin to stiffen up and lose their style of humor between 1946 and 1949 (a trend that continued until the last two years or so of the series).

[Geezil]

Originally posted by J Lee
The only thing I knew was the point total went up on color spinach compaired to black-and-white -- I think it was worth only 10-points at the end of "Cartoons Ain't Human." ;)

Nope, I went back to re-check ... it was 17 points in B&W and color. :bosko: :dot: So it goes.

And just to clarify, I could have gone on to write one of those famous TTTP mile-long essays on all the '40s comic energy packed into that two-hour-plus Boomerang block (and beyond). For instance:


the frequent business in extreme close-up between Bluto and Olive, which kind of lets us know that Olive was never totally freaked out by his brand of "pitching woo" as long as Bluto managed to keep his psychotic side in check;

the slightly less frequent excesses by Popeye, Bluto, and various supporting characters that usually wound up "CENSORED";

Popeye vs. the Cops ("Ah! So it's music ye want!");

Bluto and Popeye as "pals," best orchestrated by Jim Tyer;

All the Brilliant Gags We Didn't See in the First Half of "Seein' Red, White and Blue" (hey, I couldn't resist a futile dig at CN here);

and All the Brilliant Gags We Did See (sort of) in "Cartoons Ain't Human."


...But I just didn't feel like it. ;)

[J Lee]

Hmmm, could have sworn the point total went up from B&W to color. Well, at least that shows the U.S. Board of Price Controls and Rationing was doing their job and there was no jump in Spinach prices between late 1942 and early 1943 (when the two cartoons were made, since apparently both were done, or at least started, while the studio was in Miami).