[Dean's World] Dean: A Fabulous Popeye Collection

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Posted by Dean:
A Fabulous Popeye Collection
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1187389770.shtml


   A great gift showed up in the mail this week: [1]Popeye the Sailor:
   1933-1938, Vol. 1.

   I've been saying this for years: the vast majority of Popeye cartoons
   are no damned good, so I don't blame people who say they don't like
   Popeye. But the Popeye of the mid-to-late 1930s (which were better and
   more innovative than anything Disney or anyone else was putting out at
   the time), and of the World War II era, are genuinely funny and
   original--and very groundbreaking for their time. And I've been
   writing for years on this blog (now and then) that it's incredibly
   frustrating to try to find a decent collection of original,
   high-quality Popeye cartoons. Well I was thrilled a few weeks ago to
   learn that Warner Home Video is now distributing a
   restored-from-the-original-print, pristine quality, completely
   unedited and complete library of all the original (i.e. good) Popeye
   cartoons, starting with even the very first one, which was technically
   a [2]Betty Boop cartoon and which I'd never seen before.

   This four-disc collection spans every single Popeye cartoon ever
   issued from 1933 (his first film appearance) until the end of 1938. I
   must admit that most of the first disc is probably only of interest to
   animation history geeks like me. Although some of those very earliest
   cartoons seem pretty crude and obvious by modern standards (my 9 year
   old mostly found them uninteresting) they have some funny moments
   indeed, easier to understand when you realize just how cutting edge
   and politically-incorrect they were for their day (especially, for
   example, the episode where Popeye goes to Mexico). Still, Popeye was
   just developing that first year or two. The original voice actor,
   [3]Billy Costello, furthermore, may have established the original
   Popeye voice, was a decent singer but was not a very talented voice
   actor, and that shows in these very earliest cartoons.

   On the other hand, the disc 1 cartoons (1933-1934) do show a far more
   interesting Olive Oyl than a lot of people think of. I know more than
   one woman who can't stand Olive Oyl because they think of her as a
   helpless damsel-in-distress type, but in these early cartoons Olive
   was really rarely like that. She may need Popeye's help now and then,
   but she also helps him now and then, and is usually quite
   self-possessed. Not that she would ever be a "feminist icon," but in
   those very early cartoons she's no more stupid or helpless or
   stereotypical than any other character, and actually has a spine most
   of the time.

   Now I haven't even finished reviewing disc 1 of 4 yet. I know discs
   2-4 have even better material. But there's plenty to enjoy here just
   on disc 1 for the film history geek, and the history geek in general.
   For not only are these a great study in animation history, they're
   also a great insight into the time and place they were made:
   lower-middle-class urban America in the midsts of the Great
   Depression. These cartoons all show that very clearly if you know
   about the history of that era. Plus they're incredibly Politically
   Incorrect: guns, alcohol, tobacco, and ridiculous levels of senseless
   violence--delightfully so if you ask me. All before the censorship
   codes desanitized cartoons and turned them into nothing but
   little-kiddie material for almost a half-century. (Imagine, for
   example, anyone making a cartoon today involving characters who get
   into a whisky-drinking and gun shooting competition just before
   starting a fistfight to prove who's most manly).

   I've only just finished disc 1. And yes, you're going to have to
   suffer through it: in the next few weeks I'm going to review discs 2-4
   too. :-)

   But if you're any kind of true fan of animation history, or want to
   expose your kids to what cartoons were like before they were
   sanitized, or want to learn about a character who was once much more
   popular than Mickey Mouse, you should [4]buy this set. I admit, it's
   only if you're a hard-core animation fan. But if you are, this is an
   amazing collection, with both video and sound quality the best I've
   ever seen, and a collection as complete and perfect as you could ask
   for.

   Jaymaster: Thank you so, so much.

References

   1. http://www.amazon.com/Popeye-Sailor-1933-1938-Vol-1/dp/B000P296AS/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-7691124-0761730?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1187387373&sr=1-1/deansworld01-20
   2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Boop
   3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_%22Billy%22_Costello
   4. http://www.amazon.com/Popeye-Sailor-1933-1938-Vol-1/dp/B000P296AS/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-7691124-0761730?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1187389660&sr=1-1/deansworld01-20]