Popeye the Sailor volume 2
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I’m from the school of thought that cartoons are better animated when black and white. Look at the old Fleischer Superman compared to the 60s and 70s animated shows. There is absolutely no comparison. Let’s get more specific now. Let’s look at the old original black and white (Fleischer again) Popeye shorts. These are brilliant. Especially compared to the later versions created by other companies like the god awful Popeye and Son.

Now, I can’t explain why the original or early versions are so much better, because you would think technology made so many steps in the animation realm. Sadly, I think that animators and studios became too worried about costs and just got lazy. The Popeyes from the 30s and 40s ran on the big screens and not some poorly animated Saturday morning television show. You can see the love in these shorts. They are funny, well animated and a hell of a time to watch. Hell, Popeye himself changed in the later years.

Popeye started out as a sailor that loved Olive Oil, the flat-chested overly dramatic oddity, and he would always try to do nice things for her to win her love. Bluto wasn’t even in many of the shorts, unlike the later years when he is always trying to steal Olive from Popeye. Here, Olive is even dating Bluto at times and Popeye is the one trying to do the stealing. The beauty of the old shorts is the humor (adult at that) that would come out of Popeye himself. The man has a tendency to talk to himself. He will just narrate every action, like a form of turrets syndrome, and it is hilarious. When Popeye started to have understandable dialogue is the day that he went downhill.

The cartoons are short and absurd. The plots are thin, but the hijinks and comedy are huge. This is the Popeye that I always loved. The character is an American icon and this collection highlights that to perfection.

Popeye the Sailor Vol. 2 collects his theatrical shorts from the years 1938-1940 all in a nice packaging. These are classics in every sense of the word. Popeye gets into all kinds of trouble, especially with the introduction of the Jeep. This collection is jam packed with extras that not only get you a history of Popeye and his characters, but also gets you excited all over again with the character. Character mini featurette recaps, commentary, Fleischer Retrospective AND MORE. This is more than enough for Popeye fans. My only complaint, if any, is that some of the cartoons do not have the quality of remastering that others have. Some have been meticulously redone for high quality, while others seem to not have had the best prints to work with. Small issue when you are enjoying the cartoons and laughing along.

I have always been a fan, but until this was sent to me, I forgot that I was. With the character of Popeye being watered down throughout the later parts of his life, it is good to jump back to the early days when the character was at his prime. If you are an avid fan or just one that remembers enjoying the few Popeye cartoons that you watched, you should grab this collection. With animated shows becoming more and more lazily animated and being overrun with imports or computer art, it is good to go back to a day where animation was an art and not just churned out sub-par product.

Added:  Tuesday, July 01, 2008
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