This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Stylish but barely mediocre overall

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

"Popeye the Sailor" is a black-and-white cartoon from over 80 years ago made by the legendary Fleischer brothers. If you know a bit about Popeye, you will find the usual ingredient in here. It runs for roughly 7.5-minutes like most other cartoons from that era, features the title character with his spinach and Olive and Bluto are included already as well. Olive is pretty rough when other sailors try to make a move on her as all she wants is Popeye. Unfortunately, I must say that this little movie did not really impress me. I have seen other Popeye short films that were a lot better, for example the very famous Popeye vs Sindbad cartoon. None of the action in here (nor the inclusion of Betty Boop promoting Popeye), or the animation, felt truly witty or memorable and that is why I will not recommend it.

While I have never been a huge fan of Popeye because the cartoons are so darn repetitive, this very first Popeye is well worth seeing--for historical reasons, because it was significantly better than the efforts of most other studios (which tended towards cutesy singing cartoons) and because it was so original at that time. However, the Fleischer Studios was a bit hesitant to just toss Popeye out there and hope that people will like him. Instead, they billed this as a Betty Boop cartoon on the title screen. Additionally, Betty makes a short but risqué appearance mid-way through the film--sort of like she was giving her seal of approval to the series.One big difference between this and most of the later Popeye cartoons is with Olive Oyl. Her voice was not provided by the usual Mae Questel (also the voice of Betty Boop). Olive's horribly annoying voice is not so annoying and Bonnie Poe's voice is noticeably deeper and less migraine-inducing! Aside from that, the cartoon is pretty much like any of the early Popeyes. The art work is the usual beautifully detailed black & white Fleischer animation that you can't help but respect. Bluto and Popeye do their usual routines, though Popeye does seem a bit more macho without his spinach than later films and so the difference that the spinach makes is less notable. Also, notice the final scene where our hero saves Olive--and possibly kills a train load of innocent people in the process! One sad thing in the film many won't notice is the carnival bit where Popeye and the rest are throwing balls at a guy's head. Such ball throwing booths were common back then and involved throwing baseballs at a Black man's face! While the guy in the cartoon is pretty cartoony, he is Black skinned and this is a sick little aspect of the 1930s that has been forgotten--and that probably isn't a bad thing at all.

I'll start off by saying what incredible artisans and crafts-persons Fleischer, Segar and Co. were. They achieve a type of brilliance that even Disney(during that period)doesn't quite match. Now, that said I seriously doubt I would allow children to watch it even though I did. Its just too violent and the consequences of the extreme nature of it is played for laughs. Popeye's world in the cartoon is an impoverished one and its heavily suggested that the violence is a necessary part of that environment. I see it as part of life during an economic depression. Everything is heightened, gender roles, racial stereotypes and a sense that the rug has been pulled out from under all the characters(they change jobs a lot). Spinach takes on a weird quality and I thought about street drugs being the actual little helper that Popeye may be using. PCP anyone? Sherms? Crack? Crank?

The first Popeye cartoon ever, although it was marketed as a Betty Boop cartoon. It was also the first in a series of cartoons where Betty Boop met various characters from newspaper comics (Such as The Little King) in animated form. Naturally, Popeye was the only one who the Fleischer Brothers got any mileage out of.Very entertaining, like all the early Popeye's. Betty Boop makes only a small cameo, but it's hard to miss. Try to get the black and white version, since the colorized version, I dunno. It just seems to take away some of the excitement.4/4