"Blunder Below" and other LNB&W Popeye edits

[Jon Cooke]

I have been going through my collection of CN Popeye cartoons these past few days and was wondering if anything was cut from "Blunder Below". I have a feeling there's something missing from the final battle between Popeye and the submarine. Possibly an appearance by some Japanese soldiers? Has anyone ever seen the unedited version?

Also, I noticed a weird edit on LNB&W's showing of "Pip-eye, Pup-eye, Poop-eye, an' Peep-eye" which removed Popeye's nephews re-appearing after the iris closes to say: "We still don't like spinach!" That part was included on today's broadcast of the redrawn version on the Acme Hour.


-Jon

[J Lee]

I don't remember there ever being any Japanese soldier charactures even in the pre-PC days in "Blunder Below," but unlike it's prequel, "The Mighty Navy," where they even make a joke about not saying who the enemy is, it's pretty clear in this cartoon it is a Japanese sub, and there may have been an edit in there to remove some sort of Japanese "Rising Sun" emblem to make the enemy more generic and therefore safe for today's easily-influenced audiences (since showing it uncut to kids in the late 1950s and 1960s prompted that big war with Japan we all remember from around 1982)

[Bobby B]

Originally posted by Jon Cooke
I have been going through my collection of CN Popeye cartoons these past few days and was wondering if anything was cut from "Blunder Below". I have a feeling there's something missing from the final battle between Popeye and the submarine. Possibly an appearance by some Japanese soldiers? Has anyone ever seen the unedited version?


I have the unedited (albeit redrawn) version on tape from TBS or TNT in the late 1980's. After the sub fires the torpedoes at Popeye, a stereotypical "Jap" pokes his head out and says "So solly!". After the sub ducks the thrown-back torpedoes, he pops out and says it again, only this time Popeye bashes him right in his buck teeth. After Popeye punches the sub for the last time on the deck of the battleship (saying "So sorry" in the process), the sun on the sub's Japanese flag "sets".

When Fred Grandinetti reviewed this cartoon for the Official Popeye Fanclub newsmagazine, he remembered it being edited as far back as the late 1960's.



Also, I noticed a weird edit on LNB&W's showing of "Pip-eye, Pup-eye, Poop-eye, an' Peep-eye" which removed Popeye's nephews re-appearing after the iris closes to say: "We still don't like spinach!" That part was included on today's broadcast of the redrawn version on the Acme Hour.


-Jon

[Mike]

>>Also, I noticed a weird edit on LNB&W's showing of "Pip-eye, Pup-eye, Poop-eye, an' Peep-eye" which removed Popeye's nephews re-appearing after the iris closes to say: "We still don't like spinach!" That part was included on today's broadcast of the redrawn version on the Acme Hour.<<

You can chalk that one up to LNB&W's fake irises. Every Popeye cartoon shown has a fake iris. Apparently it's to save time or something. While the iris generally comes at the end of the cartoon, it's so fast and abrupt that often two or three seconds of footage is snipped. Usually the footage is sort of meaningless, but in some instances, like in this cartoon, it isn't. The folks at CN probably didn't notice that there was additional footage after the iris in this cartoon. I doubt the edit was intentional (but then again, these are the same folks behind that "Hasty Hare" edit from a few years back!)

Mike

[Jon Cooke]

You can chalk that one up to LNB&W's fake irises. Every Popeye cartoon shown has a fake iris.


Yeah, I don't care for those fake irises either. On some cartoons it doesn't really make a difference. But on others it makes the cartoon end really abruptly. For example, Poopdeck Pappy's singing at the end of "My Pop, My Pop" is cut short before he finishes.

There are some VERY RARE examples of Popeyes that don't end that way. "What -- No Spinach?" had its a.a.p. opening and closing on a recent showing.


-Jon