Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Blistering performances.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Baby Wants a Bottleship (1942) *** (out of 4)The troublesome Swee'pea is left with Popeye and sure enough the old man has a hard time keeping up with him. The baby ends up on a ship where all sorts of trouble happens.If you're a fan of the Popeye shorts then you know that there were several that had the sailor going up against this baby and usually losing the battle. This short is a pretty good one as we get the typical excellent animation but also some pretty good laughs. The highlight has to be the scene where Popeye thinks he has rocked the baby to sleep but the baby has other ideas. If you're a fan of the series then you should certainly enjoy this one.

Baby Wants a Bottleship was really superb for the final Popeye produced by Max and Dave Fleischer. The word play Baby Wants a Bottleship was fitting for the title, as Swee'Pea wanted nothing more than to roam aboard the battleship U.S.S. Pennsyltucky (cross between Pennsylvania and Kentucky) to which Popeye had been assigned. On shore leave, Popeye was asked by Olive Oyl to baby sit Swee'Pea while she went shopping. He gave Swee'Pea a tiny boat that he had whittled, which the babe threw away, and, when Olive was out of sight, crawled onto the Pennsyltucky, squalled when Popeye put him back in the carriage, then when put to sleep, crawled back onto the ship. Popeye pursued the baby until he was fired by a gun that Swee'Pea had activated, was buffeted about (and perhaps bowled over ten pins), then knocked out. Olive, returning from shopping, got Popeye to eat his spinach and save Swee'Pea. Popeye gave him another tiny boat; Swee'Pea squalled. He gave Swee'pea a bigger boat. No go. A BIGGER BIGGER boat. Didn't like that either. A BIGGEST BIGGEST BOAT. Swee'Pea squalled yet again So, with Olive, he steered the Pennsyltucky-- DOWN MAIN STREET-- to "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man", then "Volga Boatmen". This is somewhat suggestive of Swee'Pea's cartoon debut in Little Swee'Pea, when after his trip to the zoo, Popeye gave him a wooden monkey(which made the babe squall, but that time, he went no further (did not offer teddy bear, stuffed dog, stuffed elephant, etc. instead). All in all, a fitting way of illustrating Swee'Pea, just as J.Wellingron Wimpy's passion for hamburgers, agreeing to pay for them Tuesday, showed HIS nat

"Children are more trouble than human beings," says Popeye who has his hands full with Swee' Pea. Olive leaves the little tyke in his stroller and asks Popeye to look after him for a few minutes while she goes somewhere. They're right outside the shipyard where Popeye's big naval battleship, "the Pennsyltucky," is docked.Of course, the nosy baby gets loose and quickly gets aboard the big ship. Popeye goes after him, and takes a beating while trying to catch the kid. Olive has to come back, rescue Popeye who is laid out next to dead, and give him his spinach before Swee Pea blows them all up!Earlier, when the little guy was screaming because he couldn't get what he wanted (to run the ship), while he's bawling Popeye says, "Children should be seen and not heard." The WW2 Popeye cartoon could probably be said the same for, as it has very little humor. It's watchable, but not the best of material.

The late Flerischer Popeyes -- still done in black and white in 1942 -- are just as gag-filled as the early ones, but they lack something: the dirt of the earlier ones, derived from the Thimble Theater. The new lines are clean and unencumbered, but somehow the grit of the early ones -- along with the muttered, coarse comments of Popeye -- lent the early Popeyes a richness that was unique.Of course, it was, undoubtedly, far more expensive to add in those ugly details, and given the precarious nature of the Fleischer studios at this point -- the operations would collapse in bickering between producer Max and director brother Dave within a year, and Paramount would demand repayment of notes that led to the end of the 25-year-old cartoon factory.The gags here are still good and perhaps you prefer the cleaner versions. It's worth your time in either case.