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Popeye the Sailor, Vol. 2: 1938-1940
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Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Find all by Warner Home Video
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Theatrical Release: October 12, 2008
Average Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
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Retail Price: $34.98
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Starring: Popeye the Sailor
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: 1000019015
User Submitted Popeye the Sailor, Vol. 2: 1938-1940 Reviews
September 23, 2008
Another Great Popeye Collection
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.
August 22, 2008
FEWER TOONS THAN VOL. 1 BUT STILL FUN!
The second volume of Popeye shorts has been released, covering the years 1938 - 1940. The two disc set features 31 shorts along with numerous extras. There is a misconception that every Popeye short involved him eating spinach and fighting arch-nemesis Bluto but this set seems aimed at disproving that theory. Many of these shorts are without Bluto and even without that strength-producing green vegetable. It seems as if the Fleischers were now trying to domesticate their star. More and more episodes feature Popeye with Olive Owl and Sweet Pea. Two other family members are introduced in this set: The magical dog Eugene the Jeep, and Popeye's long lost father, Poopdeck Pappy.
"The Jeep" is the first appearance of the dog, which has the ability to disappear and move through solid objects. Popeye enlists his aid to find Sweet Pea who has wandered out of his crib into the city. This episode is filled with sight gags and Popeye tries to keep up with the Jeep as he walks up, down, and through buildings. It would be another episode on this set, "Popeye presents Eugene the Jeep" that shows us how Popeye first acquired his fantastic pet.
In "Goonland", Popeye is out searching for his father who disappeared when he was born. He discovers him being held captive on Goon Island by the giant Goons. Popeye and Pappy unite to defeat the Goons and return to civilization.
In another episode that involves no Spinach or Bluto, Popeye keeps getting parking tickets from the same cop as he helps Olive with her Spring-cleaning. Here's a tip, watch these episodes with the subtitles on so you can read all of Popeye's mutterings that are sometimes hard to hear. They are hilarious! He constantly calls the cop "Occifer" instead of Officer.
In fact, in one episode, Popeye and Bluto are the best of friends, sort of...Bluto goes off to explore Africa in "Fighting Pals". When his expedition gets lost, Popeye goes to look for him. Tired and exhausted, Bluto actually gives Popeye some spinach to rejuvenate him and the episode closes with a brawl.
Perhaps the most famous short in this set is "Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp" a two-reel short filmed in gorgeous Technicolor. Popeye is Aladdin, trying to win the hand of Princess Olive and finds the magical lamp but an evil, non-Bluto villain wants the lamp for himself.
The set show just how diversified the Fleischer studio was when it came to Popeye. They could do riotous slapstick humor without always resorting to Spinach or fighting. The shorts have been remasterd and are uncut and look gorgeous, especially the Technicolor gem. Not as much material on this set as the first one, but it's great stuff!
July 27, 2008
POPEYE THE SAILOR, VOL. 2
Although not quite as fun and satisfying as the first volume of the original Popeye cartoons, still highly recommended...
July 25, 2008
More of the Best
Even though it's a much smaller box than the first Popeye collection, it's still a must have for fans of the Fleischer ouevre. The restorations, as in the first set, are meticulous, and there's a pretty good hour doc on the whole Fleischer history, including a couple of things (a 1950s luncheon set up by former arch rival Walt Disney) that I didn't know before. As with the first box, some of these cartoons are as good as golden age theatrical cartoons ever got. There are first appearances by the Jeep, the Goons and Pappy, and the third of the three Technicolor specials. By the way, the early colorized versions of these beautiful black and white cartoons hide much of the detail and quality of these pieces, ironically making them look much more poorly drawn than they are. Stick with the black and white and you'll have a much better visual experience.
July 2, 2008
Another great set although fewer cartoons this time.
This set covers a time of change at the Fleischer Studios as they made the decision to move to Coral Gables, Florida where they were given the first air conditioned office building in Florida as an enticement by the state. This move was made more difficult as Mae Questel declined to follow and the voice of Bluto, Gus Wickie, had died the previous year. At the same time, the theaters and distributers were looking for more conformist Disney style animation and less of the rough and tumble weirdness that marked the Fleischer style. The short "It's The Natural Thing To Do" makes a great direct commentary on this.
So this is an uneven set with some of the best traditional Popeye cartoons ever made and some rather uninspired films predicting the later Famous Studios Popeye films. The films also have a big variation in style as some are in the classic Fleischer style and others in a softer more rounded design which seems to depend on who was the lead animator listed. The influence of the now very obscure Fleischer Color Classics series (made to compete with Disney's Silly Symphonies) is very evident in the final 2-reel color Popeye. This is the weakest of the three made but is perhaps the most sophisticated in film technique. Greg Ford's excellent commentary will get you thru the first ten minutes.
The Fleischer documentary is very good although one fact is incorrect. Paramount did not "ask" the Fleischers to make a feature. The Fleischers had been trying to make a feature for years but were unsuccessful until Paramount saw the success of Snow White. Listen to the commentary on "Alladin" for more details. Also reason for the feud between Max and Dave is glossed over. Some people who worked at the Fleischer studios said that Dave's repeated cheating on his wife really galled Max who was happily married to one woman for his whole life. The final straw was when Dave had another affair, this time with the wife of an employee.
There's no real reason not to get this set if you are a Popeye fan. I would hope that one day the Fleischer's other output from the 1920's and 1930's gets restored and released, especially the Song Car Toons and the Screen Songs plus Betty Boop.
June 28, 2008
I'M POPEYE!
"Hello How Am I" will be worth the price of the DVD alone. But generally it's good to have all the classic shorts coming in bit by bit. We can complain all day about it being a shorter set, but as long as it gives me more Popeye to enjoy watching, I'm happy.
June 27, 2008
It's strong to the finich...
Another great collection. Almost perfect restoration (with the exception of a couple of shorts with jittery opening credits and 2 shorts on disc one that used TV credits), great extras, great commentaries (made even better with the absense of John Kricfalusi, Eddie Fitzgerald and Kali Fontecchio...all three are talented cartoonists, but horrible commentators). This set is a must-have for fans of Popeye the Sailor, the Fleischers and anyone interested in classic animation.
*TOOT TOOT*
June 24, 2008
Challenging Transfers, but Another High Quality Release
These cartoons were notoriously difficult to restore--where Volume 2 was originally intended to be another four disc set, the restorations on this particular group of films proved to be much more challenging than expected.
With that said, I think the producers did a great job delivering us another high-quality "official" Popeye The Sailor release. There are some instances where the picture jumps during the opening credits or the sound quality swells, but overall the quality and integrity of these cartoons has been restored 99 percent. In other words, the producers of this set did the best they could to fix what were very damaged originals.
If you enjoyed Popeye The Sailor Vol. 1 you will enjoy Vol. 2 as well. You definitely see some changes in the Fleischers' direction, as they uprooted their studio and moved to Miami, in some cases placing Popeye in a suburban setting rather than the gritty city of the cartoons in the first volume. And it's interesting to see all of that off-screen drama manifest itself on-screen. But as the saying goes, you can take the kid out of the city but you can't take the city out of the kid; even though Popeye may find himself in calmer neighborhoods, he is still the same rough and tumble sailor, ready to crack a can of spinich and throw down with anyone.
What I think is so impressive about these sets is that they don't only rekindle your interest in Popeye--they pull you into the Fleischers' history and they boost your overall interest in animation. The extras and "Popumentaries" give you detailed looks at specific characters and voice-actors, and the packaging is really beautiful, perfectly capturing the era that these films represent.
I would recommend this set to any fan of Popeye, any fan of animation, or any fan of DVD collections, for that matter. While you may find a spot where the picture shakes in one or two of the cartoons, that is only because the originals are seventy years old and this specific batch of originals was particularly damaged. The picture isn't perfect, but then again, neither is Popeye--the one-eyed, toothless, middle-aged scrapper--the unlikeliest of heroes. The producers did the best they could to restore the films--and for me, that grittiness actually adds to the set's authenticity. Looking forward to Vol. 3.
June 24, 2008
Great cartoons, poor restoration compared to Vol 1
I was really disappointed in volume 2. The constant up and down jitter and brightness changes, either from shrinkage or sprocket wear or decomposing prints, is fatiguing to watch. That could have been easily corrected by image stabilzation without causing artifacts. Compare any of the opening credits with those of Volume 1 and there is a HUGE difference. The sound seemed tinny and lacking a low end. They look no better than the "Popeye Show" prints on Cartoon Network. And the 2 or 3 aap title cards were inexcusable! And the shimmery titles on "the Jeep" I have never seen even on a dollar store public domain DVD. Didn't they let Jerry Beck or anybody that is remotey familiar with these cartoons preview this set before they started pressing them?
I am not some weenie who looks at DVD releases frame by frame trying to find things to complain about. But this is obvious stuff that I am recalling from memory just from ONE VIEWING
June 23, 2008
Superman butchered!
This isn't really a review of the Popeye cartoons, but of one of the bonus cartoons on the set. Namely the Superman cartoon. There are dozens of different companys putting out the Fleischer Superman cartoons, which are great. But most of these public domain DVDs are poor quality. I've been waiting for Warner to put out a collection, but aside from putting them on the complete movie collection they have yet to do so. I'm not interested in the movies, and wasn't about to spend a fortune on the complete movie collection just to get the cartoons. So when I saw that one was included on this set I was curious to see how it compared with the Bosko and Bridgestone disks (both distributed by Image) which I have.
What a disappointment! The cartoon - "The Mechanical Monsters", was the second one made and is one of the best. But Warner has completely butchered it! They've taken the beginning portion of the FIRST Superman cartoon (the part about Krypton) and edited it into this one right after the credits, completely eliminating the part about Superman's X-Ray vision on the ONLY cartoon that mentioned it in the opening! And with a horrible splice affecting the dialogue to boot! Then they tacked on the wrong Paramount end logo! What's up with that?? Is that Warner's idea of restoration? Were the ones included in the movie set like this? I'm sure glad I didn't spend the money to find out!
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