PopSyndicate.com

Fantastic second volume of a fantastic series.

Very few releases get me as excited these days as the Popeye series from Warner Brothers. Never much of a fan as a child, I grew to appreciate the (mostly) black and white epics starring the cantankerous sailor as I grew older. Last year’s release of volume one whet my appetite, and while volume two, Popeye the Sailor: 1938-1940 isn’t quite as grand, it’s still tops in my book.

Unlike the previous release, which was four discs, this set is comprised of only two. While this at first sounds like bad news, it’s not; instead of releasing one set, Warners will be releasing volume three shortly, instead of the annual schedule originally intended.

There’s some wonderful shorts to be found here, even though they often get overlooked by animation buffs who worship the first few years of the series. “Hello How Am I” has Popeye being driven crazy by an imposter (actually Wimpy trying to scam some burgers from Olive Oyl). In “It’s the Natural Thing to Do” Popeye and his arch-nemesis Bluto attempt to refine themselves into gentlemen, until even Olive realizes how boring that is and convinces them to start beating the hell out of one another again. My personal favorite is “Fightin Pals” in which Bluto heads off to explore Africa, leaving a lonely Popeye to miss him; when Bluto turns up missing, Popeye heads off to save him. The strange “friendship” between the two in the last two mentioned shorts is a dynamic rarely seen in any cartoon. Bluto isn’t the bad guy, he and Popeye just enjoy fighting and get along otherwise.

The shorts (31 in total, including two of the color mini-features) look dazzling most of the time, and the animation by the Fleischers put even some of today’s stuff to shame. We get a whole bunch of special features, including mini-docs on various characters including the Jeep and Poopdeck Pappy (both of whom debut on this set). A very engaging lengthy documentary on the Fleischers is on hand and one of the high points of the extras. We also get another documentary on the comparisons between Popeye and Superman, another early Fleischer subject. There are pencil tests, art galleries, interviews and audio recordings added, as well as a Superman short, just for the heck of it. The selected commentaries are a bit on the disappointing side this time, most are rather dull and I’m really beginning to tire of historian Greg Ford. He seems to be a very nice guy, but his discussions are useless, as he does nothing but repeat what we’re already seeing and telling us how funny it is.

Also out at this time is Popeye & Friends Volume 1, a one-disc collection of 8 animated Popeye shorts from the 1960s revival for television. It’s okay for what it is, but pales incredibly in comparison to the originals.

Popeye the Sailor ranks just below the Looney Tunes Golden Collection in terms of quality animated releases these days. There’s some great stuff to be found here and Warners is doing a splendid job of presenting it to the public.

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