Popeye the Sailor, Vol. 2: 1938-1940
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Popeye the SailorBrand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Subtitled)
Format: Animated, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Original recording remastered, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 218 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-06-17
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of Popeye the Sailor, Vol. 2: 1938-1940
Movie Review: Another Great Popeye Collection
Summary: 5 Stars
At the risk of sounding like a snob these aren't cartoons they're classic animation. Here we have a meeting of two 1930's giants, Fleischer Studios and perhaps the most indelible character in entertainment history, Popeye the Sailor Man. A short, balding, toothless, middle aged sailor with a misshapen body, poor grammar and a face only Olive could love. Popeye is less than an everyman, he's a misfit with the strength of a battleship. It's nearly impossible not to like Popeye because he represents the gangly, awkward side in all of us, protected by an inhuman ability to inflict and absorb punishment. Popeye is completely unaware of how he stands apart from the rest of humanity, he simply is who he is and Heaven help anyone who dares taunt the squinty eyed runt.
I have always been a huge fan of Disney but Fleischer Studios produced some of the most entertaining, influential animation ever during their short 21 year existence. At their peak the Popeye cartoons were as good as anything Disney ever put out. This DVD collection contains a very nice retrospective on the history and achievements of Fleischer Studios. I had no idea they produced full length features to compete with Disney. As a special bonus the collection includes an entire Superman cartoon `The Mechanical Monsters' which holds up incredibly well 70 years later.
The second Popeye DVD collection is half the size of the first but the quality remains top notch. We finally get to see the Jeep, Goon Island and even Poopdeck Pappy. There are special features devoted to the background and history of the Jeep and Pappy. There is another feature on Mae Questel, the voice of Olive Oyl for most of the Popeye cartoons, that's worth watching. Oddly enough Bluto doesn't even appear until the ninth episode (Customers Wanted) and that one is mostly just flashbacks to previous episodes. One of my favorite characters, Wimpy, hardly appears at all.
What makes this collection so special for me is the inclusion of commentary on many of the cartoons. It really helps fans to understand details about these cartoons they wouldn't naturally be aware of. For instance Fleischer would use different animators for distant and close up shots (probably a common practice in animation studios). After awhile you can actually start to recognize the style of specific animators. Even if I couldn't match a name to a cartoon I could see that there were more than subtle differences in drawings between episodes and I definitely had my favorites. The episode "Popeye meets William Tell" was done by a pair of animators who got their start at Fleischer but had been working for Disney. The cartoon has a very different style that didn't really mesh with the Popeye character (this is admitted by the lead artist from an old interview). You would never know this background if it weren't for the commentary.
Volume 2 is drawn from the years when Fleischer Studios moved from NY to Florida and you can see a difference is tone. I was a little disappointed by the reduced role of Bluto and near disappearance of Wimpy but it does feature perhaps my favorite Popeye cartoon, `Fighin' Pals' where we see that there exists a true friendship between Popeye and Bluto. These cartoons are both timeless and intractably tied to the late 30's early 40's. The humor holds up perfectly but a cartoon like this could never be made today. The rough and tumble, black and white style of Popeye springs from the depression era and the domesticated Popeye of later cartoons just doesn't work. Here is the animated Popeye at his peak. Enjoy.
Summary of Popeye the Sailor, Vol. 2: 1938-1940
Episodes:Disc #11. I Yam Love Sick2. Plumbing Is A Pipe3. The Jeep4. Bulldozing The Bull5. Mutiny Ain t Nice6. Goonland7. A Date To Skate8. Cops Is Always Right9. Customers Wanted10. ALADDIN AND HIS WONDERFUL LAMP11. Leave Well Enough Alone12. Wotta Nitemare13. Ghosks Is The Bunk14. Hello How Am I15. It s The Natural Thing To DoDisc #21. Never Sock A Baby2. Shalespearian Spinach3. Females Is Fickle4. Stealin Ain t Honest5. Me Feelin s Is Hurt6. Onion Pacific7. Wimmin Is A Myskery8. Nurse-Mates9. Fightin Pals10. Doin Impossikible Stunts11. Wimmin Hadn t Oughta Drive12. Puttin On The Act13. Popeye Meets William Tell14. My Pop My Pop15. With Poopdeck Pappy16. Popeye Presents Eugene The JeepFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre:?CHILDREN/FAMILY Rating:?NR UPC:?012569798069 Manufacturer No:?1000019015During the late 1930's, the Fleischers' Popeye the Sailor cartoons rivaled even Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse shorts in popularity, and this second collection makes it easy to understand why. In contrast to the realistically animated characters in Disney's lavishly beautiful shorts, Popeye, Olive and Bluto were rubber-limbed and broadly comic. These cartoons aren't badly animated: notice the fun the artists have with Olive's precarious balance in "A Date To Skate" (1938) or the way the trio struggles to act refined in "It's The Natural Thing To Do" (1939). The Fleischers' approach to animation was just broader and cartoon-ier than Disney's. But the period of 1938-1940 represented the last hurrah of the Popeye shorts. To accommodate the large staff needed for the studio's first feature, Gulliver's Travels (1939), producer Max Fleischer moved the studio from New York to Miami. The run-down apartment houses and gritty streets of the early Popeye cartoons gave way to suburban houses and gardens. The backgrounds and supporting characters in "Popeye Meets William Tell" (1940) look like leftovers from Gulliver, and the film lacks the ?lan of the shorts made just a year earlier. The studio would close and be re-organized under new management after the failure of Hoppity Goes to Town in 1941. Like the cartoons in the previous set, Popeye the Sailor 1933-1938, these transfers were made from beautiful masters with only minimal dust and scratches. In addition to four "Popumentaries," the extras include a rare, partial pencil test from "Females Is Fickle" (1940) and a 1938 "Popular Science" short showcasing the animation process at the Miami Studio. A must-have for cartoon lovers.(Unrated, suitable for ages 8 and older: cartoon violence, tobacco use, a few ethnic stereotypes) --Charles Solomon
(1. I Yam Love Sick, 2. Plumbing Is A Pipe, 3. The Jeep, 4. Bulldozing The Bull, 5. Mutiny Ain't Nice, 6. Goonland, 7. A Date To Skate, 8. Cops Is Always Right, 9. Customers Wanted, 10. Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp, 11. Leave Well Enough Alone, 12. Wotta Nitemare, 13. Ghosks Is The Bunk, 14. Hello How Am I, 15. It's The Natural Thing To Do, 16. Never Sock A Baby, 17. Shakespearian Spinach, 18. Females Is Fickle, 19. Stealin Ain't Honest, 20. Me Feelins Is Hurt, 21. Onion Pacific, 22. Wimmin Is A Myskery, 23. Nurse-Mates, 24. Fightin Pals, 25. Doin Impossikible Stunts, 26. Wimmin Hadn't Oughta Drive, 27. Puttin On The Act, 28. Popeye Meets William Tell, 29. My Pop, My Pop, 30. With Poopdeck Pappy, 31. Popeye Presents Eugene The Jeep)
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