Popeye The Sailor: 1938-1940 Volume Two (DVD)

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.

The second volume of Popeye brings us to the end of the peak period which picks up in 1938.Due to a labor dispute in 1937, the Fleischer studio moved to Miami, where labor laws were not as strict. They also recruited many West-coast talent to their new state of the art studio. These factors really changed the aesthetic of the cartoons. The incidental and one shot characters look more Disney like and the atmosphere is less urban and gritty.One of best shorts is Goonland (1938), which brings Poopdeck Pappy and the goons to the screen. Popeye’s reunion with his Pappy is no doubt one of the most heartwarming moments in the series. Hello How Am I (1939) has Wimpy stealing Popeye’s identity for a hamburger dinner. The mysterious Jeep character makes a few appearances.The final two-reel Technicolor short Aladdin In His Wonderful Lamp (1939) is presented in a beautifully restored print. Not as strong as the first two, but has excellent color and staging.Puttin’ On The Act (1940) is often panned by critics, but is a very charming vaudeville act with Popeye and Olive Oyl. It also showcases Jack Mercer’s versitility with Popeye impersonating Durante and Groucho.One of the biggest tragedies during this time was the loss of Gus Wicke as Bluto. Presumably, he refused to make the move to Miami. (Pinto Colvig was miscast as Bluto on occasion). Mae Questel also refused to make the move, but resumed voicing Olive Oyl a few years later.The bonus features are really worth checking out. A Popular Science short subject shows the inner workings of the Fleischer studios with an emphasis on the making of Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp. An audio interview with Jack Mercer is a real delight.While not as many of the best Popeye shorts are here, any Popeye fan should relish this collection and all the great special features.

'POPEYE the SAILOR' VOL.2 continues the ongoing release of the entire SAILOR SAGA from beginning to end, and these early, black-and-white [bar one] works from FLEISCHER STUDIOS represent more cartoon comedy gold from ANIMATION'S dazzling era of the 1930s and early '40s.This 2-disc set presents bright, vividly detailed prints that are a credit to these works: there is occassional shaking, wobbling opening titles etc, but these occur only twice I really noticed, and overall these cartoons are in pretty good shape, certainly good enough for me, [someone who can't stand substandard picture clarity.]Kicking off with 'I YAM LOVE SICK',-----a brilliantly offbeat short featuring bizarre boffins giving POPS the medical going-over----this set contains a wide range of non-formulaic, inventive, atmospheric delights.A highlight here is undoubtedly 'GOONLAND', in which PAPPY is saved from imprisonment on a remote island: this beauty contains the scene where the onscreen battling between POPEYE and the GOONS causes the filmstrip to break----and a LIVE-ACTION pair of hands hastily repairs the damaged film! Fantastic stuff....Some of these gems I hadn't seen before, and some, like 'MUTINY AIN'T NICE' are atmospheric gems that truly deserve a wider audience: 'WOTTA NIGHTMARE' is an eerie, spellbinding effort containing much surrealism as POPEYE encounters typical 'dreamlike' situations: running in slow-motion, etc. It has to be said that the COLOUR entry here, 'ALADDIN and his WONDERFUL LAMP' [approx. 15 mins long] isn't quite up to the level of the previous 2-reeler 'specials', but still features radiant colour, excellent background design and memorable character poses.The 'JEEP' makes a welcome appearance [twice] and this set also contains a decent-length documentary on the FLEISCHER STUDIO story, which features much archive clips. A bonus here is definately the TECHNICOLOR 'SUPERMAN' short: 'the MECHANICAL MONSTERS' [1941] : here, lovingly restored to pin-sharp glory......hopefully the entire 'SUPERMAN' cartoon catalogue will be released eventually.I collect much vintage ANIMATION collections, but these FLEISCHER masterpieces undoubtedly give me the most pleasure. I can appreciate the artistry of DISNEY'S work, but much of their output was over-refined and 'soft' in gag-structure; I personally prefer the no-holds-barred, rollocking anarchy that sums up these hypercharged works.All that could really equal this stuff would be a fully restored set of TEX AVERY'S M-G-M work, which has still to surface.'POPEYE' VOL 3 [out SEP. 30] covers the WAR years......the tantalizing clips illustrated here make my mouth water already............can't wait!

This is a comprehensive second volume of the complete Fleischer Popeye Cartoon films. It comes complete with some fascinating documentary material and is essential for vintage Popeye enthusiasts and film historians. As the cartoons were made in black and white, and have not been colored (i.e, ruined) they are probably not going to be of interest to children today (except the more discerning ones), but these are taken from the original 35mm films, and are sometimes actually beautiful to look at. This may be a step down from the original Segar newspaper strip, but it's hundreds of times better than an recent corruption of Popeye the Sailor. Only available as Region One DVD - I converted my Region Two player to accept this US format, and it was worth it!

I don't write reviews as a rule, but this DVD is a revelation! I can't believe how good the quality of sound and vision is on something made so long ago. Whoever cleaned-up and remastered this collection did a brilliant job. That's just the technical plus.The cartoons themselves have stood the test of time better that I had ever hoped, looking as fresh and funny as they did when I first watched them as a kid more than fifty years ago.An added plus was that this US-made DVD worked on my new blue-ray player, so I didn't have to buy a multi-region player.Be warned: after watching it you'll want to add the other two Popeye collections in this series to your shopping list.RECOMMENDED! BUY IT! GUARANTEED YOU'LL WATCH IT OVER AND OVER!

Es una lástima que una gran colección de dvd's que acaba de ser reeditada en 2019 venga empacada en una bolsa. Considero que debieron meterla en una caja para protegerla mejor. Por lo menos los discos están intactos.

Please see my review for Popeye Volume 3, 1941-1943. My general thoughts on the level of satisfaction with the Amazon-sponsored distributor are there. What I can report unique to this set is that there is a lot of WW2 propaganda and anti-Axis stereotyping. You have to consider the sentiment of the time and accept these cartoons as snapshots of history rather than judge them in the light of today's mores. If you can do that, then good on you, and you'll enjoy, perhaps even learn from, the cartoons in this set for what they represent. Why five stars instead of four? The price was unbelievably right.