Popeye the Sailor is a 1933 animated short produced by Fleischer Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures. While billed as a Betty Boop cartoon, Betty Boop only makes a small appearance, as it actually starred Popeye the Sailor in his first animated appearance.
Summary[edit]
The cartoon begins with stock film footage of newspapers rolling off a printing press. The front page of one of the newspapers appears, with a headline declaring that Popeye has become a movie star. The camera zooms in on the illustration of Popeye, which then comes to life, as Popeye (voiced by William 'Billy' Costello) sings about his amazing prowess in his signature song 'I'm Popeye the Sailor Man.'[1]
On land with his nemesis Bluto (voiced by William Pennell), the two sailors vie for the affections of Olive Oyl (voiced by Bonnie Poe). Popeye takes Olive Oyl to a carnival and pays the peacock 10¢ and Bluto blows off all of the peacock's feathers. They play two games, with Popeye 'winning' both times and then they watch Betty Boop doing the hula. Popeye jumps up on stage, wraps the bearded lady's beard around his waist for a grass skirt, and dances with Betty, mimicking her movements. He is then bit by a snake, but then tranquilizes it with his pipe.
Bluto then abducts Olive Oyl and ties her to a railroad track, using the track itself as 'ropes', in order to cause a train wreck to kill Olive, where a train is approaching. Popeye fights Bluto, but initially loses, but then eats spinach and then punches Bluto, causing him to get trapped in a nailed coffin. He then punches the approaching engine and its baggage car and coaches in the 'face', and wrecks the whole train in a crushing halt and sparing Olive's life, because of the can of spinach he ate.
Notes and comments[edit]
References[edit]
Trivia[edit]
External links[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Popeye_the_Sailor_(film)&oldid=891903421'
Popeye the Sailor is a cartoon fictional character created by Elzie Crisler Segar.[3][4][5] The character first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929, and Popeye became the strip's title in later years. Popeye has also appeared in theatrical and television animated cartoons.[4]
Segar's Thimble Theatre strip was in its 10th year when Popeye made his debut, but the one-eyed (left) sailor quickly became the main focus of the strip, and Thimble Theatre became one of King Features' most popular properties during the 1930s. After Segar's death in 1938, Thimble Theatre was continued by several writers and artists, most notably Segar's assistant Bud Sagendorf. The strip continues to appear in first-run installments in its Sunday edition, written and drawn by Hy Eisman. The daily strips are reprints of old Sagendorf stories.[4]
In 1933, Max Fleischer adapted the Thimble Theatre characters into a series of Popeye the Sailor theatrical cartoon shorts for Paramount Pictures. These cartoons proved to be among the most popular of the 1930s, and Fleischer â and later Paramount's own Famous Studios â continued production through 1957. These cartoon shorts are now owned by Turner Entertainment and distributed by its sister company Warner Bros.[6]
Over the years, Popeye has also appeared in comic books, television cartoons, arcade and video games, hundreds of advertisements,[4] peripheral products ranging from spinach to candy cigarettes, and the 1980 live-action film directed by Robert Altman and starring Robin Williams as Popeye.
Charles M. Schulz said, 'I think Popeye was a perfect comic strip, consistent in drawing and humor'.[7] In 2002, TV Guide ranked Popeye number 20 on its '50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time' list.[8]
Fictional character and story[edit]
Popeye's story and characterization vary depending on the medium. Originally, Popeye got 'luck' from rubbing the head of the Whiffle Hen; by 1932, he was instead getting 'strength' from eating spinach.[9] Swee'Pea is Popeye's ward in the comic strips, but he is often depicted as belonging to Olive Oyl in cartoons.
There is no absolute sense of continuity in the stories, although certain plot and presentation elements remain mostly constant, including purposeful contradictions in Popeye's capabilities. Popeye seems bereft of manners and uneducated, yet he often comes up with solutions to problems that seem insurmountable to the police or the scientific community. He has displayed Sherlock Holmes-like investigative prowess, scientific ingenuity, and successful diplomatic arguments. In the animated cartoons his pipe also proves to be highly versatile. Among other things, it has served as a cutting torch, jet engine, propeller, periscope, musical instrument, and a whistle with which he produces his trademark toot. He also eats spinach through his pipe, sometimes sucking in the can along with the contents. Since the 1970s, Popeye is seldom depicted using his pipe to smoke tobacco.[4]
Popeye's exploits are also enhanced by a few recurring plot elements. One is the love triangle among Popeye, Olive, and Bluto, and Bluto's endless machinations to claim Olive at Popeye's expense. Another is his near-saintly perseverance in overcoming any obstacle to please Olive, who often renounces Popeye for Bluto.
Thimble Theatre and Popeye comic strips[edit]
Thimble Theatre was cartoonist Segar's third published strip when it first appeared in the New York Journal on December 19, 1919. The paper's owner William Randolph Hearst also owned King Features Syndicate, which syndicated the strip. Thimble Theatre was intended as a replacement for Midget Movies by Ed Wheelan (Wheelan having recently resigned from King Features).[10] It did not attract a large audience at first, and at the end of its first decade appeared in only half a dozen newspapers.
In its early years, the strip featured characters acting out various stories and scenarios in theatrical style (hence the strip's name). It could be classified as a gag-a-day comic in those days.[10]
Thimble Theatre's first main characters were the thin Olive Oyl and her boyfriend Harold Hamgravy. After the strip moved away from its initial focus, it settled into a comedy-adventure style featuring Olive, Hamgravy, and Olive's enterprising brother Castor Oyl. Olive's parents Cole and Nana Oyl also made frequent appearances.
Popeye first appeared in the strip on January 17, 1929 as a minor character. He was initially hired by Castor Oyl and Ham to crew a ship for a voyage to Dice Island, the location of a casino owned by the crooked gambler Fadewell. Castor intended to break the bank at the casino using the unbeatable good luck conferred by stroking the hairs on the head of Bernice the Whiffle Hen. Weeks later, on the trip back, Popeye was shot many times by Jack Snork, a stooge of Fadewell's, but survived by rubbing Bernice's head. After the adventure, Popeye left the strip but, due to reader reaction, he was quickly brought back.[4][10]
The Popeye character became so popular that he was given a larger role, and the strip was taken up by many more newspapers as a result. Initial strips presented Olive as being less than impressed with Popeye, but she eventually left Hamgravy to become Popeye's girlfriend and Hamgravy left the strip as a regular. Over the years, however, she has often displayed a fickle attitude towards the sailor. Castor Oyl continued to come up with get-rich-quick schemes and enlisted Popeye in his misadventures. Eventually, he settled down as a detective and later on bought a ranch out West. Castor has seldom appeared in recent years.
In 1933, Popeye received a foundling baby in the mail, whom he adopted and named Swee'Pea. Other regular characters in the strip were J. Wellington Wimpy, a hamburger-loving moocher who would 'gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today' (he was also soft-spoken and cowardly; Vickers Wellington bombers were nicknamed 'Wimpys' after the character); George W. Geezil, a local cobbler who spoke in a heavily affected accent and habitually attempted to murder or wish death upon Wimpy; and Eugene the Jeep, a yellow, vaguely dog-like animal from Africa with magical powers. In addition, the strip featured the Sea Hag, a terrible pirate, as well as the last witch on Earth â her even more terrible sister excepted; Alice the Goon, a monstrous creature who entered the strip as the Sea Hag's henchwoman and continued as Swee'Pea's babysitter; and Toar, a caveman.[5]
Segar's strip was quite different from the cartoons that followed. The stories were more complex, with many characters that never appeared in the cartoons (King Blozo, for example). Spinach usage was rare and Bluto made only one appearance. Segar signed some of his early Popeye comic strips with a cigar, due to his last name being a homophone of 'cigar' (pronounced SEE-gar). Comics historian Brian Walker stated: 'Segar offered up a masterful blend of comedy, fantasy, satire and suspense in Thimble Theater Starring Popeye.[5]
Thimble Theatre became one of King Features' most popular strips during the 1930s. A poll of adult comic strip readers in the April 1937 issue of Fortune magazine voted Popeye their second-favorite comic strip (after Little Orphan Annie).[5] By 1938, Thimble Theatre was running in 500 newspapers, and over 600 licensed 'Popeye' products were on sale.[5] The success of the strip meant Segar was earning $100,000 a year at the time of his death.[5] Following an eventual name change to Popeye in the 1970s, the comic remains one of the longest running strips in syndication today. After Mussolini came to power in Italy, he banned all American comic strips, but Popeye was so popular the Italians made him bring it back.[citation needed] The strip continued after Segar's death in 1938; a series of artists performed the work. In the 1950s, a spinoff strip Popeye the Sailorman was established.
Toppers[edit]
Thimble Theatre had a number of topper strips on the Sunday page during its run; the main topper, Sappo, ran for 21 years, from Feb 28, 1926 to May 18, 1947. (Sappo was a revival of an earlier Segar daily strip called The Five-Fifteen aka Sappo the Commuter, which ran from Feb 9, 1921 to Feb 17, 1925.) For seven weeks in 1936, Segar replaced Sappo with Pete and Pansy -- For Kids Only (Sept 27 - Nov 8, 1936).[11]
There were also a series of topper panel strips that ran next to Sappo; Segar drew one of them, Popeye's Cartoon Club (April 8, 1934 - May 5, 1935). The rest were produced by Joe Musial and Bud Sagendorf: Wiggle Line Movie (Sept 11 - Nov 13, 1938), Wimpy's Zoo's Who (Nov 20, 1938 - Dec 1, 1940), Play-Store (Dec 8, 1940 - July 18, 1943), Popeye's Army and Navy (July 25-Sept 12, 1943), Pinup Jeep (Sept 19, 1943 - April 2, 1944), and Me Life by Popeye (April 9, 1944-?).[11]
Artists after Segar[edit]
Tom Sims and Bill Zaboly's Thimble Theatre (December 2, 1951)
After Segar's death in 1938, many different artists were hired to draw the strip. Tom Sims, the son of a Coosa River channel-boat captain, continued writing Thimble Theatre strips and established the Popeye the Sailorman spin-off. Doc Winner and Bela Zaboly,[12] successively, handled the artwork during Sims's run. Eventually, Ralph Stein stepped in to write the strip until the series was taken over by Bud Sagendorf in 1959.
Sagendorf wrote and drew the daily strip until 1986, and continued to write and draw the Sunday strip until his death in 1994. Sagendorf, who had been Segar's assistant, made a definite effort to retain much of Segar's classic style, although his art is instantly discernible. Sagendorf continued to use many obscure characters from the Segar years, especially O.G. Wotasnozzle and King Blozo. Sagendorf's new characters, such as the Thung, also had a very Segar-like quality. What set Sagendorf apart from Segar more than anything else was his sense of pacing. Where plotlines moved very quickly with Segar, it sometimes took an entire week of Sagendorf's daily strips for the plot to be advanced even a small amount.
From 1986 to 1992, the daily strip was written and drawn by Bobby London, who, after some controversy, was fired from the strip for a story that could be taken to satirize abortion.[13] London's strips put Popeye and his friends in updated situations, but kept the spirit of Segar's original. One classic storyline, titled 'The Return of Bluto', showed the sailor battling every version of the bearded bully from the comic strip, comic books, and animated films. The Sunday edition of the comic strip is currently drawn by Hy Eisman, who took over in 1994. The daily strip began featuring reruns of Sagendorf's strips after London was fired and continues to do so today.
On January 1, 2009, 70 years since the death of his creator, Segar's character of Popeye (though not the various films, TV shows, theme music and other media based on him) became public domain[14] in most countries, but remains under copyright in the US. Because Segar was an employee of King Features Syndicate when he created the Popeye character for the company's Thimble Theatre strip, Popeye is treated as a work for hire under US copyright law. Works for hire are protected for 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter. Since Popeye made his first appearance in January 1929, and all US copyrights expire on December 31 of the year that the term ends, Popeye will enter the public domain in the US on January 1, 2025, assuming no amendments to US copyright law before that date.[15]
Reprints[edit]
Comic books[edit]
Bud Sagendorf's cover of Popeye #50 (Oct.âDec. 1959) shows Popeye with his corncob pipe, single good eye and girlfriend Olive Oyl.
There have been a number of Popeye comic books, from Dell, King Comics, Gold Key Comics, Charlton Comics and others, originally written and illustrated by Bud Sagendorf. In the Dell comics, Popeye became something of a crimefighter, thwarting evil organizations and Bluto's criminal activities. The new villains included the numerous Misermite dwarfs, who were all identical.
Popeye appeared in the British 'TV Comic' series, a News of the World publication, becoming the cover story in 1960 with stories written and drawn by 'Chick' Henderson. Bluto was referred to as Brutus and was Popeye's only nemesis throughout the entire run.
A variety of artists have created Popeye comic book stories since then; for example, George Wildman drew Popeye stories for Charlton Comics from 1969 until the late 1970s. The Gold Key series was illustrated by Wildman and scripted by Bill Pearson, with some issues written by Nick Cuti.
In 1988, Ocean Comics released the Popeye Special written by Ron Fortier with art by Ben Dunn. The story presented Popeye's origin story, including his given name of 'Ugly Kidd'[16] and attempted to tell more of a lighthearted adventure story as opposed to using typical comic strip style humor. The story also featured a more realistic art style and was edited by Bill Pearson, who also lettered and inked the story as well as the front cover.[17] A second issue, by the same creative team, followed in 1988. The second issue introduced the idea that Bluto and Brutus were actually twin brothers and not the same person,[18] an idea also used in the comic strip on December 28, 2008 and April 5, 2009.[19][20] In 1999, to celebrate Popeye's 70th anniversary, Ocean Comics revisited the franchise with a one-shot comic book, titled The Wedding of Popeye and Olive Oyl, written by Peter David. The comic book brought together a large portion of the casts of both the comic strip and the animated shorts, and Popeye and Olive Oyl were finally wed after decades of courtship. However, this marriage has not been reflected in all media since the comic was published.
In 1989, a special series of short Popeye comic books were included in specially marked boxes of Instant Quaker Oatmeal, and Popeye also appeared in three TV commercials for Quaker Oatmeal,[21] which featured a parrot delivering the tag line 'Popeye wants a Quaker!' The plots were similar to those of the films: Popeye loses either Olive Oyl or Swee'Pea to a musclebound antagonist, eats something invigorating, and proceeds to save the day. In this case, however, the invigorating elixir was not his usual spinach, but rather one of four flavors of Quaker Oatmeal[21] (a different flavor was showcased with each mini-comic). The comics ended with the sailor saying, 'I'm Popeye the Quaker Man!', which offended members of the Religious Society of Friends or Quakers.[22] Members of this religious group (which has no connection to the cereal company) are pacifists and do not believe in using violence to resolve conflicts. For Popeye to call himself a 'Quaker man' after beating up someone was offensive to the Quakers and considered a misrepresentation of their faith and religious beliefs.[22] In addition, the submissiveness of Olive Oyl went against the Quakers' emphasis on women's rights. The Quaker Oatmeal company apologized and removed the 'Popeye the Quaker Man' reference from commercials and future comic book printings.[22]
In 2012, writer Roger Langridge teamed with cartoonists Bruce Ozella, Ken Wheaton, and Tom Neely (among others) to revive the spirit of Segar in IDW's 12-issue comic book miniseries, Popeye, Critic PS Hayes reviewed:
In late 2012, IDW began reprinting the original 1940sâ1950s Sagendorf Popeye comic books under the title of Classic Popeye.
Webcomics[edit]
In January 2019, in celebration of its 90 years of character, King Feature Syndicate launched the webcomicPopeye's Cartoon Club produced by Alex Hallatt, Erica Henderson, Tom Neely, Roger Langridge, Larry deSouza, Jeffrey Brown, Jim Engel, Liniers, Jay Fosgitt and Carol Lay.[24]
Theatrical animated cartoons[edit]
In November 1932, King Features signed an agreement with Fleischer Studios to have Popeye and the other Thimble Theatre characters begin appearing in a series of animated cartoons. The first cartoon in the series was released in 1933, and Popeye cartoons, released by Paramount Pictures, remained a staple of Paramount's release schedule for nearly 25 years. William Costello was the original voice of Popeye, a voice that was replicated by later performers, such as Jack Mercer and even Mae Questel. Many of the Thimble Theatre characters, including Wimpy, Poopdeck Pappy, and Eugene the Jeep, eventually made appearances in the Paramount cartoons, though appearances by Olive Oyl's extended family and Ham Gravy were notably absent. Thanks to the animated-short series, Popeye became even more of a sensation than he had been in comic strips, and by 1938, polls showed that the sailor was Hollywood's most popular cartoon character.[25][26]
Although Segar may have used spinach as a prop a few times, it was Max Fleischer who realized its potential as a trademark. In every Popeye cartoon, the sailor is invariably put into what seems like a hopeless situation, upon which (usually after a beating), a can of spinach becomes available, and Popeye quickly opens the can and consumes its contents. Upon swallowing the spinach, Popeye's physical strength immediately becomes superhuman, and he is easily able to save the day, and very often rescue Olive Oyl from a dire situation. It did not stop there, as spinach could also give Popeye the skills and powers he needed, as in The Man on the Flying Trapeze, where it gave him acrobatic skills.
In May 1942, Paramount Pictures assumed ownership of Fleischer Studios, fired the Fleischers and began reorganizing the studio, which they renamed Famous Studios. The early Famous-era shorts were often World War II-themed, featuring Popeye fighting Nazis and Japanese soldiers, most notably the 1942 short You're a Sap, Mr. Jap. In late 1943, the Popeye series was moved to Technicolor production, beginning with Her Honor the Mare. Famous/Paramount continued producing the Popeye series until 1957, with Spooky Swabs being the last of the 125 Famous shorts in the series. Paramount then sold the Popeye film catalog to Associated Artists Productions, which was bought out by United Artists in 1958. Through various mergers, the rights are currently controlled by WarnerMedia's Turner Entertainment.
In 2001, Cartoon Network, under the supervision of animation historian Jerry Beck, created a new incarnation of The Popeye Show. The show aired the Fleischer and Famous Studios Popeye shorts in versions approximating their original theatrical releases by editing copies of the original opening and closing credits (taken or recreated from various sources) onto the beginnings and ends of each cartoon, or in some cases, in their complete, uncut original theatrical versions direct from such prints that originally contained the front-and-end Paramount credits. The series aired 135 Popeye shorts over 45 episodes, until March 2004. The Popeye Show continued to air on Cartoon Network's spin-off network Boomerang.
While many of the Paramount Popeye cartoons remained unavailable on video, a handful of those cartoons had fallen into public domain and were found on numerous low budget VHS tapes and later DVDs. When Turner Entertainment acquired the cartoons in 1986, a long and laborious legal struggle with King Features kept the majority of the original Popeye shorts from official video releases for more than 20 years. King Features instead opted to release a DVD boxed set of the 1960s made-for-television Popeye the Sailor cartoons, to which it retained the rights, in 2004. In the meantime, home video rights to the Associated Artists Productions library were transferred from CBS/Fox Video to MGM/UA Home Video in 1986, and eventually to Warner Home Video in 1999. In 2006, Warner Home Video announced it would release all of the Popeye cartoons produced for theatrical release between 1933 and 1957 on DVD, restored and uncut. Three volumes were released between 2007 and 2008, covering all of the black-and-white cartoons produced from 1933 to 1943. In December 2018, a fourth volume featuring the first 14 color shorts from 1943 to 1945 was released on DVD and Blu-ray from Warner Home Video through the Warner Archive Collection.
Original television cartoons[edit]
In 1960, King Features Syndicate commissioned a new series of cartoons titled Popeye the Sailor, but this time for television syndication. Al Brodax served as executive producer of the cartoons for King Features. Jack Mercer, Mae Questel, and Jackson Beck returned for this series, which was produced by a number of companies, including Jack Kinney Productions, Rembrandt Films (William L. Snyder and Gene Deitch), Larry Harmon Productions, Halas and Batchelor, Paramount Cartoon Studios (formerly Famous Studios), and Southern Star Entertainment (formerly Southern Star Productions). The artwork was streamlined and simplified for the television budgets, and 220 cartoons were produced in only two years, with the first set of them premiering in the autumn of 1960, and the last of them debuting during the 1961â1962 television season. Since King Features had exclusive rights to these Popeye cartoons, 85 of them were released on DVD as a 75th anniversary Popeye boxed set in 2004.
For these cartoons, Bluto's name was changed to 'Brutus', as King Features believed at the time that Paramount owned the rights to the name 'Bluto'. 64-bit windows 7 home premium. Many of the cartoons made by Paramount used plots and storylines taken directly from the comic strip sequences â as well as characters like King Blozo and the Sea Hag.[27] The 1960s cartoons have been issued on both VHS and DVD.
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Popeye, Olive Oyl, Swee'Pea and Wimpy were featured prominently in the cartoon movie 'Popeye Meets the Man Who Hated Laughter', which debuted on October 7, 1972 as one of the episodes of The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie. In this cartoon, Brutus also appears as a turban-wearing employee of the nemesis, Dr. Morbid Grimsby.
On September 9, 1978, The All New Popeye Hour debuted on the CBS Saturday morning lineup. It was an hour-long animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, which tried its best to retain the style of the original comic strip (Popeye returned to his original costume and Brutus to his original name of Bluto), while complying with the prevailing content restrictions on violence. In addition to providing many of the cartoon scripts, Mercer continued to voice Popeye, while Marilyn Schreffler and Allan Melvin became the new voices of Olive Oyl and Bluto, respectively (Mae Questel actually auditioned for Hanna-Barbera to recreate Olive Oyl, but was rejected in favor of Schreffler). The All New Popeye Hour ran on CBS until September 1981, when it was cut to a half-hour and retitled The Popeye and Olive Show. It was removed from the CBS lineup in September 1983, the year before Jack Mercer's death. These cartoons have also been released on VHS and DVD. During the time these cartoons were in production, CBS aired The Popeye Valentine's Day Special â Sweethearts at Sea on February 14, 1979. In the UK, the BBC aired a half-hour version of The All New Popeye Show, from the early-1980s to 2004.
Popeye briefly returned to CBS in 1987 for Popeye and Son, another Hanna-Barbera series, which featured Popeye and Olive as a married couple with a son named Popeye Jr., who hates the taste of spinach, but eats it to boost his strength. Maurice LaMarche performed Popeye's voice; Mercer had died in 1984. The show lasted for one season.
Popeye as he appeared in Drawn Together
In 2004, Lions Gate Entertainment produced a computer-animated television special, Popeye's Voyage: The Quest for Pappy, which was made to coincide with the 75th anniversary of Popeye. Billy West performed the voice of Popeye, describing the production as 'the hardest job I ever did, ever' and the voice of Popeye as 'like a buzzsaw on your throat'.[28] The uncut version was released on DVD on November 9, 2004; and was aired in a re-edited version on Fox on December 17, 2004 and again on December 30, 2005. Its style was influenced by the 1930s Fleischer cartoons, and featured Swee'Pea, Wimpy, Bluto (who is Popeye's friend in this version), Olive Oyl, Poopdeck Pappy and the Sea Hag as its characters. On November 6, 2007, Lions Gate Entertainment re-released Popeye's Voyage on DVD with redesigned cover art.
Popeye has made brief parody appearances in modern animated productions, including:
Web series[edit]
On December 2, 2018, a Popeye web series named Popeye's Island Adventures produced by the WildBrain studio was premiered on its official YouTube channel.[29][30]
Theme song[edit]
Popeye's theme song, titled 'I'm Popeye The Sailor Man', composed by Sammy Lerner in 1933 for Fleischer's first Popeye the Sailor cartoon,[31] has become forever associated with the sailor. 'The Sailor's Hornpipe' has often been used as an introduction to Popeye's theme song.
A cover of the theme song, performed by Face to Face, is included on the 1995 tribute albumSaturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits, produced by Ralph Sall for MCA Records. A jazz version, performed by Ted Kooshian's Standard Orbit Quartet, appears on their 2009 Summit Records release Underdog and Other Stories.
Playground songparodies of the theme have become part of children's street culture around the world,[32][33] usually interpolating 'frying pan' or 'garbage can' into the lyrics as Popeye's dwelling place[34][35] and ascribing to the character various unsavory actions or habits[36][37][38][39] that transform the character into an 'Anti-Popeye', and changing his exemplary spinach-based diet into an inedible morass of worms, onions, flies, tortillas and snot.[40]
Other media[edit]
The success of Popeye as a comic-strip and animated character has led to appearances in many other forms. For more than 20 years, Stephen DeStefano has been the artist drawing Popeye for King Features licensing.[41]
Radio[edit]
Popeye was adapted to radio in several series broadcast over three different networks by two sponsors from 1935 to 1938. Popeye and most of the major supporting characters were first featured in a thrice-weekly 15-minute radio program, Popeye the Sailor, which starred Detmar Poppen as Popeye, along with most of the major supporting characters â Olive Oyl (Olive Lamoy), Wimpy (Charles Lawrence), Bluto (Jackson Beck) and Swee'Pea (Mae Questel). In the first episode, Popeye adopted Sonny (Jimmy Donnelly), a character later known as Matey the Newsboy. This program was broadcast Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday nights at 7:15pm. September 10, 1935 through March 28, 1936 on the NBCRed Network (87 episodes), initially sponsored by Wheatena, a whole-wheat breakfast cereal, which routinely replaced the spinach references. Music was provided by Victor Irwin's Cartoonland Band. Announcer Kelvin Keech sang (to composer Lerner's 'Popeye' theme) 'Wheatena is his diet / He asks you to try it / With Popeye the sailor man.' Wheatena paid King Features Syndicate $1,200 per week.
The show was next broadcast Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 7:15 to 7:30pm on WABC and ran from August 31, 1936 to February 26, 1937 (78 episodes). Floyd Buckley played Popeye, and Miriam Wolfe portrayed both Olive Oyl and the Sea Hag. Once again, reference to spinach was conspicuously absent. Instead, Popeye sang, 'Wheatena's me diet / I ax ya to try it / I'm Popeye the Sailor Man'.[42]
The third series was sponsored by the maker of Popsicles three nights a week for 15 minutes at 6:15 pm on CBS from May 2, 1938 through July 29, 1938.
Of the three series, only 20 of the 204 episodes are known to be preserved.
Popeye was recently featured on the Brad and John: Mornings on KISM 'When Animals Attack' segment.
Films[edit]Popeye (1980)[edit]
Director Robert Altman used the character in Popeye, a 1980 live-action musical feature film, starring Robin Williams as Popeye (his first starring movie role), Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl, and Paul L. Smith as Bluto, with songs by Harry Nilsson and Van Dyke Parks. The script was by Jules Feiffer, who adapted the 1971 Nostalgia Press book of 1936 strips for his screenplay, thus retaining many of the characters created by Segar. A co-production of Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Productions, the movie was filmed almost entirely on Malta, in the village of Mellieħa on the northwest coast of the island. The set is now a tourist attraction called Popeye Village. The US box office earnings were double the film's budget, making it a success.
Upcoming animated film[edit]
In March 2010, it was reported that Sony Pictures Animation is developing a 3D computer-animated Popeye film, with Avi Arad producing it.[43] In November 2011, Sony Pictures Animation announced that Jay Scherick and David Ronn, the writers of The Smurfs, are writing the screenplay for the film.[44] In June 2012, it was reported that Genndy Tartakovsky had been set to direct the feature,[45] which he planned to make 'as artful and unrealistic as possible.'[46] In November 2012, Sony Pictures Animation set the release date for September 26, 2014,[47] which was, in May 2013, pushed back to 2015.[48] In March 2014, Sony Pictures Animation updated its slate, scheduling the film for 2016, and announcing Tartakovsky as the director of Hotel Transylvania 2, which he was directing concurrently with Popeye.[49] On September 18, 2014, Tartakovsky revealed an 'animation test' footage, about which he said, 'It's just something that kind of represents what we want to do. I couldn't be more excited by how it turned out.'[50] In March 2015, Tartakovsky announced that despite the well-received test footage, he was no longer working on the project, and would instead direct Can You Imagine?, which is based on his own original idea.[51] Nevertheless, Sony Pictures Animation stated the project still remains in active development.[52] In January 2016, it was announced that T.J. Fixman would write the film.[53]
Video and pinball games[edit]
Parodies[edit]
Marketing, tie-ins, and endorsements[edit]
From early on, Popeye was heavily merchandised. Everything from soap to razor blades to spinach was available with Popeye's likeness on it. Most of these items are rare and sought-after by collectors, but some merchandise is still being produced.
World War II propaganda poster
Cultural origins and impact[edit]
Local folklore in Chester, Illinois, Segar's hometown, claims that Frank 'Rocky' Fiegel (b. in Chester, IL, January 27, 1868) was the real-life inspiration for the character Popeye. He had a prominent chin, sinewy physique, characteristic pipe, and a propensity and agile skill for fist-fighting.[65][66][67] Fiegel died on March 24, 1947 never having married. His gravestone has the image of Popeye engraved on it.[68] The town of Chester erected a statue of Popeye in Segar's honor in 1977 and began the Popeye & Friends Character Trail in 2006, adding a new Segar character to the trail each year.[69] According to Popeye historian Michael Brooks, Segar regularly sent money to Fiegel.[70][71]
Separate hometown residents of Chester also are claimed to have served as inspiration for two other Segar characters including Dora Paskel, an uncommonly tall, angular lady who ran a general store in town. She even donned a hair bun close to her neckline. William 'Windy Bill' Schuchert, a rather rotund man who owned the local opera house, was the seed for the character J. Wellington Wimpy. He even sent out his employees to purchase hamburgers for him between performances at a local tavern named Wiebusch's, the same tavern that Fiegel frequented and where he engaged in fistfights.[66][72]
Conjecture presented in Jim Harris' book highlighting the Santa Monica Pier raised the idea that while living in Santa Monica, Segar may have based some of Popeye's language on a local sailor; even though Harris never made a definitive claim.[73]
Cultural influences[edit]
Popeye on a Spanish Republican Air ForcePolikarpov I-16. Museo del Aire
Culturally,[74] many consider Popeye a precursor to the superheroes who eventually dominated US comic books.[75]
Such has been Popeye's cultural impact that the medical profession sometimes refers to the biceps bulge symptomatic of a tendon rupture as the 'Popeye muscle.'[76][77] Note, however, that under normal (uninfluenced by spinach) conditions, Popeye has pronounced muscles of the forearm, not of the biceps.
In 1973, Cary Bates created Captain Strong, a takeoff of Popeye, for DC Comics,[78] as a way of having two cultural icons â Superman and (a proxy of) Popeye â meet.[79]
The 1981 Nintendo videogame Donkey Kong, which introduced its eponymous character and Nintendo's unofficial company mascot Mario to the world, was originally planned to be a Popeye game. Mario (then known as Jumpman) was originally supposed to be Popeye, Donkey Kong was originally Bluto, and the character Pauline was originally Olive Oyl, but when Nintendo was unable to acquire the rights to use the actual franchise characters, it decided to create original characters instead.[80]
Popeye O Marinheiro 2008 Dvdr Torrent
The 1988 Walt Disney/Touchstone Pictures film Who Framed Roger Rabbit featured many classic cartoon characters, and the absence of Popeye was noted by some critics. Popeye (along with Bluto and Olive Oyl) actually had a cameo role planned for the film. However, since the Popeye cartoons were based on a comic strip, Disney found they had to pay licensing fees to both King Features Syndicate and MGM/UA. MGM/UA's pre-May 1986 library (which included Popeye) was being purchased by Turner Entertainment at the time, which created legal complications; thus, the rights could not be obtained and Popeye's cameo was dropped from the film.[81]
The Popeye Dance[edit]
The Popeye was a popular dance in the dance craze era of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Originating in New Orleans around 1962, the Popeye was performed by shuffling and moving one's arms, placing one arm behind and one arm in front and alternating them, going through the motion of raising a pipe up to the mouth, and alternate sliding or pushing one foot back in the manner of ice skating, similar to motions exhibited by the cartoon character. According to music historian Robert Pruter, the Popeye was even more popular than The Twist in New Orleans.[82] The dance was associated with and/or referenced to in several songs, including Eddie Bo's 'Check Mr. Popeye,' Chris Kenner's 'Something You Got' and 'Land of a Thousand Dances,' Frankie Ford's 'You Talk Too Much,' Ernie K-Doe's 'Popeye Joe,' Huey 'Piano' Smith's 'Popeye,' and Harvey Fuqua's 'Any Way You Wanta.' A compilation of 23 Popeye dance songs was released in 1996 under the title 'New Orleans Popeye Party.'[83]
Spinach[edit]
Initially Popeye's chief superhuman characteristic was his indestructibility, rather than super strength, which was attributed to his having rubbed the head of Bernice the Whiffle Hen numerous times after being shot. Popeye later attributed his strength to spinach.[84][85] The popularity of Popeye helped boost spinach sales. Using Popeye as a role model for healthier eating may work; a 2010 study revealed that children increased their vegetable consumption after watching Popeye cartoons.[86] The spinach-growing community of Crystal City, Texas, erected a statue of the character in recognition of Popeye's positive effects on the spinach industry. There is another Popeye statue in Segar's hometown, Chester, Illinois, and statues in Springdale and Alma, Arkansas (which claims to be 'The Spinach Capital of the World'), at canning plants of Allen Canning, which markets Popeye-branded canned spinach. In addition to Allen Canning's Popeye spinach, Popeye Fresh Foods markets bagged, fresh spinach with Popeye characters on the package. In 2006, when spinach contaminated with E. coli was accidentally sold to the public, many editorial cartoonists lampooned the affair by featuring Popeye in their cartoons.[87]
A frequently circulated story claims that Fleischer's choice of spinach to give Popeye strength was based on faulty calculations of its iron content. In the story, a scientist misplaced a decimal point in an 1870 measurement of spinach's iron content, leading to an iron value ten times higher than it should have been.[88][89][90] (In fact, the error was not a slipped decimal point, but a measurement error).[91] This faulty measurement was corrected in the 1930s, but the myth of extraordinarily high iron content persisted.[88][91]
Word coinages[edit]
The strip is also responsible for popularizing, although not inventing, the word 'goon' (meaning a thug or lackey); goons in Popeye's world were large humanoids with indistinctly drawn faces that were particularly known for being used as muscle and slave labor by Popeye's nemesis, the Sea Hag. One particular goon, the aforementioned female named Alice, was an occasional recurring character in the animated shorts, but she was usually a fairly nice character.
Eugene the Jeep was introduced in the comic strip on March 13, 1936. Two years later the term 'jeep wagons' was in use, later shortened to simply 'jeep' with widespread World War II usage and then trademarked by Willys-Overland as 'Jeep'.[92]
Events and honors[edit]
The Popeye Picnic is held every year in Chester, Illinois on the weekend after Labor Day. Popeye fans attend from across the globe, including a visit by a film crew from South Korea in 2004. The one-eyed sailor's hometown strives to entertain devotees of all ages.[93]
In honor of Popeye's 75th anniversary, the Empire State Building illuminated its notable tower lights green the weekend of January 16â18, 2004 as a tribute to the icon's love of spinach. This special lighting marked the only time the Empire State Building ever celebrated the anniversary/birthday of a comic strip character.[94]
Thimble Theatre/Popeye characters[edit]Characters originating in comic strips by E. C. Segar[edit]
Characters originating in comic strips by Tom Sims and Bela Zaboly[edit]
Characters originating in comic strips and books by Bud Sagendorf[edit]
Characters originating in comic strips by Bobby London and others[edit]
Characters originating in the cartoons[edit]
Filmography[edit]Theatrical[edit]
Television[edit]Popeye O Marinheiro 2008 Dvdr Movie
Television specials[edit]
Live-action feature film[edit]
DVD collections[edit]
theatrical cartoons:
TV Cartoons:
References[edit]
Further reading[edit]
External links[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Popeye&oldid=904280848'
(Redirected from Popeye the Sailor (Warner DVD series))
Popeye the Sailor opening title employed in the 1930s.
Popeye the Sailor is an American animated series of comedy short films based on the titularcomic stripcharacter created by E. C. Segar. In 1933, Max and Dave Fleischer's Fleischer Studios adapted Segar's characters into a series of Popeye the Sailor theatrical cartoon shorts for Paramount Pictures. The plotlines in the animated cartoons tended to be simpler than those presented in the comic strips, and the characters slightly different. A villain, usually Bluto, makes a move on Popeye's 'sweetie,' Olive Oyl. The villain clobbers Popeye until he eats spinach, giving him superhuman strength. Thus empowered, the sailor makes short work of the villain.
The Fleischer cartoons, based out of New York City, proved to be among the most popular of the 1930s, and would remain a staple of Paramount's release schedule for nearly 25 years. Paramount would take control of the studio in 1941 and rename it Famous Studios, ousting the Fleischer brothers and continuing production. The theatrical Popeye cartoons began airing on television in an altered form in 1956, at which point the Popeye theatrical series was discontinued in 1957. Popeye the Sailor in all produced 231 short subjects that were broadcast on television for numerous years, garnering enormous popularity with new generations.
These cartoons are now owned by Turner Entertainment and distributed by sister company Warner Bros. After many years of negotiations, Warner Home Video reached an agreement with King Features Syndicate for an official DVD release of the series. Restored and unedited Popeye cartoons through 1943 were released on DVD in the late 2000s. The 1930s Popeye cartoons have been noted by historians for their urban feel, with the Fleischers pioneering an East Coast animation scene that differed highly from their counterparts. In addition to becoming iconic within mainstream public consciousness, the majority of 231 Popeye short subjects are highly acclaimed by animation historians and fans.
Early history[edit]
Max Fleischer
Popeye the Sailor, created by E.C. Segar, debuted in his King Features-distributed comic strip, Thimble Theatre. The character was growing in popularity by the 1930s and there was 'hardly a newspaper reader of the Great Depression that did not know his name.'[1] It was obvious, however, that stars of a larger magnitude were being launched from animated cartoons, with the success of Mickey Mouse. In November 1932, King Features signed an agreement with Fleischer Studios, run by producer Max Fleischer and his brother, director Dave Fleischer, to have Popeye and the other Thimble Theatre characters begin appearing in a series of animated cartoons. The first cartoon in the series was released in 1933, and Popeye cartoons, released by Paramount Pictures, would remain a staple of Paramount's release schedule for nearly 25 years.
One source of inspiration for the Fleischers were newspapers and comic strips, and they saw potential in Popeye as an animated star, thinking the humor would translate well onscreen.[1] When the Fleischers needed more characters, they turned to Segar's strip: Wimpy debuted in the first regular Popeye cartoon, Swee'Pea, Poopdeck Pappy, the Goons and Eugene the Jeep arrived onscreen by the late 1930s. Popeye was also given more family exclusive to the shorts, specifically his look-alike nephews Pipeye, Peepeye, Pupeye, and Poopeye. Spinach became a main component of the Popeye cartoons and were used for the energetic finale in each. Eventually, the Fleischers paired Popeye and spinach together far more than Segar ever did. In 1934, a statistic was released noting that spinach sales had increased 33% since the creation of the Popeye cartoons.[1] Segar received crates of spinach at his home because of the Popeye association. The huge child following Popeye received eventually prompted Segar's boss, William Randolph Hearst, to order Segar to tone down the humor and violence. Segar was not ready to compromise, believing there would be 'nothing funny about a sissy sailor.'[1]
Voice cast[edit]
Many voice artists worked on the Popeye shorts over the two decades of production; this list is based on the most comprehensive artists.
Fleischer Studios[edit]
Popeye made his film debut in Popeye the Sailor, a 1933 Betty Boop cartoon. Although Betty Boop has a small cameo appearance, the cartoon mostly introduces the main characters: Popeye's coming to rescue Olive Oyl after being kidnapped by Bluto. The triangle between Popeye, Olive and Bluto was set up from the beginning and soon became the template for most Popeye productions that would follow. The cartoon opens with a newspaper headline announcing Popeye as a movie star, reflecting the transition into film.[1]I Yam What I Yam became the first entry in the regular Popeye the Sailor series.
Thanks to the animated shorts, Popeye became even more of a sensation than he had been in comic strips. As Betty Boop gradually declined in quality as a result of Hays Code enforcement in 1934, Popeye became the studio's star character by 1936. Popeye began to sell more tickets and became the most popular cartoon character in the country in the 1930s, beating Mickey Mouse. Paramount added to Popeye's popularity by sponsoring the 'Popeye Club' as part of their Saturday matinée program, in competition with Mickey Mouse Clubs. Popeye cartoons, including a sing-along special entitled Let's Sing With Popeye, were a regular part of the weekly meetings. For a 10-cent membership fee, club members were given a Popeye kazoo, a membership card, the chance to become elected as the Club's 'Popeye' or 'Olive Oyl,' and the opportunity to win other gifts. Polls taken by theater owners proved Popeye more popular than Mickey, and Popeye upheld his position for the rest of the decade.[3][4]
Fleischer cartoons differed highly from their counterparts at Walt Disney Productions and Warner Bros. Cartoons. The Popeye series, like other cartoons produced by the Fleischers, was noted for its urban feel (the Fleischers operated in New York, specifically on Broadway a few blocks from Times Square), its manageable variations on a simple theme (Popeye loses Olive to bully Bluto and must eat his spinach and defeat him), and the characters' 'under-the-breath' mutterings.[1] The voices for Fleischer cartoons produced during the early and mid-1930s were recorded after the animation was completed. The actors, Mercer in particular, would therefore improvise lines that were not on the storyboards or prepared for the lip-sync (generally word-play and clever puns).[1] Even after the Fleischers began pre-recording dialog for lip-sync shortly after moving to Miami, Mercer and the other voice actors would record ad-libbed lines while watching a finished copy of the cartoon.[5] Popeye lives in a dilapidated apartment building in A Dream Walking (1934), reflecting the urban feel and Depression-era hardships.[1]
The Fleischers moved their studio to Miami, Florida in September 1938 in order to weaken union control and take advantage of tax breaks. The Popeye series continued production, although a marked change was seen in the Florida-produced shorts: they were brighter and less detailed in their artwork, with attempts to bring the character animation closer to a Disney style. Mae Questel, who started a family, refused to move to Florida, and Margie Hines, the wife of Jack Mercer, voiced Olive Oyl through the end of 1943. Several voice actors, among them Pinto Colvig (better known as the voice of Disney's Goofy), succeeded Gus Wickie as the voice of Bluto between 1938 and 1940.
Fleischer Studios produced 108 Popeye cartoons, 105 of them in black-and-white. The remaining three were two-reel (double-length) Technicolor adaptations of stories from the Arabian Nights billed as 'Popeye Color Features': Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor (1936), Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves (1937), and Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp (1939).
Famous Studios[edit]
By the end of 1939, Max and Dave had stopped speaking to each other altogether, communicating solely by memo. In 1940, they found themselves at odds with Paramount over the control of their animation studio.[1] The studio borrowed heavily from Paramount in order to move to Florida and expand into features, and Gulliver's Travels (1939) and Mister Bug Goes to Town (1941) were only moderate successes.[6] In May 1941, Paramount Pictures assumed ownership of Fleischer Studios.[7] Paramount fired the Fleischers and began reorganizing the studio, which they renamed Famous Studios. With Famous Studios headed by Sam Buchwald, Seymour Kneitel, Isadore Sparber and Dan Gordon, production continued on the Popeye shorts.
In 1941, with World War II becoming a greater concern in the United States, Popeye was enlisted into the U.S. Navy, as depicted in the 1941 short The Mighty Navy. His regular costume was changed from the dark blue shirt, red neckerchief and light blue jeans he wore in the original comics to an official white Navy sailor uniform, which he retained until the 1970s. Popeye becomes an ordinary, downtrodden, Naval seaman in the wartime entries, usually getting the blame for mishaps. Film historian Leonard Maltin notes that the studio did not intend to make light of the war, but instead make Popeye more relevant with the times and show him in action.[1] The early Famous-era shorts were often World War II-themed, featuring Popeye fighting Nazis and Japanese soldiers, most notably the 1942 short You're a Sap, Mr. Jap. As Popeye was popular in South America, Famous Studios set the 1944 cartoon We're on our Way to Rio in Brazil, as part of a 'good neighbor' policy between the U.S. government and the rest of the continent during the war.
In late 1943, the Popeye series was moved to Technicolor production, beginning with Her Honor the Mare. Though these cartoons were produced in full color, some films in the late-1940s period were released in less-expensive two-color (usually) processes like Cinecolor and Polacolor. Paramount had begun moving the studio back to New York that January, and Mae Questel reassumed voice duties for Olive Oyl. Jack Mercer was drafted into the Navy during World War II, and scripts were stockpiled for Mercer to record when on leave. When Mercer was unavailable, Harry Welch stood in as the voice of Popeye (and Shape Ahoy had Mae Questel doing Popeye's voice as well as Olive's). New voice cast member Jackson Beck began voicing Bluto within a few years; he, Mercer, and Questel would continue to voice their respective characters into the 1960s. Over time, the Technicolor Famous shorts began to adhere even closer to the standard Popeye formula, and softened, rounder character designs â including an Olive Oyl design which gave the character high heels and an updated hairstyle â were evident by late 1946.
Many veteran Fleischer animators stayed with Famous Studios and produced these new Popeye cartoons, but the loss of the founders was evident.[1] Throughout the 1940s, the production values on Popeye remained relatively high. Animation historian Jerry Beck notes that, however, the 'gag sense and story sense fell into a bit of a rut.' By the time in the mid-50s, budgets at the studio became tight and staff downsized, while still producing the same number of cartoons per year. This was typical of most animation studios at this time period, as many considered shutting their doors entirely due to the competition from television.[1] Paramount renamed the studio Paramount Cartoon Studios in 1956 and continued the Popeye series for one more year, with Spooky Swabs, released in August 1957, being the last of the 125 Famous shorts in the series.
Music and theme song[edit]
Popeye's signature theme song was composed by Sammy Lerner and premiered in the first Popeye cartoon in 1933. Cartoon music historian Daniel Goldmark notes that Popeye is one of few cartoon characters of the time to have a theme: Disney/Warner Bros. composer Carl Stalling and MGM's Scott Bradley disliked themes and phased them out quickly.[1] For the first few cartoons, the opening-credits music consisted of an instrumental of 'The Sailor's Hornpipe,' followed by a vocal variation on 'Strike Up the Band (Here Comes a Sailor),' substituting the words 'for Popeye the Sailor' in the latter phrase. 'I Yam What I Yam' was used as the theme song for further cartoons. Goldmark divides the Popeye theme into two parts: the sailor horn pipe and the lyrical portion. The opening horn pipe can be dated back to the 1700s and further as a traditional sea shanty. Winston Sharples and Sammy Timberg composed most of the music for Popeye shorts. Timberg composed the themes to the Fleischers' Betty Boop and Superman cartoons, but asked Lerner to write Popeye's theme song because he had a date that night.[1]
The music of Popeye is described as a mix of 'sunny show tunes and music from the street.'[1] Being located on Broadway, the Fleischers were well placed for popular music developments in the 1930s. Director Eric Goldberg notes a very urban feel to the music of Popeye, reflecting 'the type of cartoons they were making.' The Fleischers were big fans of jazz and would approach local jazz musicians to work on the cartoons, most of whom were more than happy to oblige.[1] The use of jazz and very contemporary popular music highlighted how audiences were fascinated by new music. Tight on a budget, the producers took advantage of their free access to the Paramount music library, including hit songs that would be introduced in feature films.[1] Many cartoons, such as It's the Natural Thing to Do (1939), take their titles from popular songs of the time. Staff songwriters would also write original songs for the shorts, such as in 1936's Brotherly Love and I Wanna Be a Lifeguard; the studio would hire outside songwriters to compose originals in addition. With the onset of World War II, the music in Popeye became more lush, fully orchestrated and patriotic.[1]
For generations, the iconic Popeye theme song became an instantly recognizable musical bookmark, further propelling the character's stardom.[1]
Theatrical Popeye cartoons on television[edit]
The original 1932 agreement with the syndicate called for any films made within 10 years and any elements of them to be destroyed in 1942. This would have destroyed all of the Fleischer Popeye shorts. King was not sure what effect the cartoons would have on the strip; if the effect was very negative, King was very eager to erase any memory of the cartoons by destroying them. Paramount knew that the Popeye cartoons were among their best-selling and most popular, and they held them separately for future distribution, seeing television as a rising outlet.[1]
In 1955, Paramount put their cartoon and shorts library up for television sale. U.M. & M. TV Corporation acquired the majority of the shorts, however, King Features put a high asking price on the Popeye cartoons. However, Interstate Television began negotiating with Paramount and King Features for the TV rights to the Popeye cartoons.[8] Interstate was the TV subsidiary of Allied Artists at the time.
In June 1956,[9] Paramount sold the black and white cartoons to television syndicator Associated Artists Productions (a.a.p.), one of the biggest distributors of the time, for release to television stations, with the color cartoons being sold a year later.[1] a.a.p. created their own openings for the cartoons, as they did with the pre-August 1948 Warner Bros. cartoons they were distributing. The color cartoons featured a similar open to the Warner Bros. cartoons, using a version of the Popeye theme song introduced in Olive Oyl For President in 1948. However, unlike the WB cartoons, a.a.p. was asked to remove the Paramount logos and 'Paramount presents' title cards, yet Paramount's imprint was still noted in the a.a.p. prints, which referenced Fleischer and Famous Studios and left Paramount's credits and copyright tags intact. Once they began airing these cartoons were enormously popular. Jerry Beck likens Popeye's television success to a 'new lease on life,' noting that the character had not been as popular since the 1930s.[10] King Features realized the potential for success and began distributing Popeye-based merchandise, which in turn led to new Popeye TV productions. These productions were farmed out to numerous studios and were of very low quality, employing limited animation, and many artists were unhappy with the quality of such cartoons.[1] Most cities of large size aired an 'uncle show,' in which a local weatherman or entertainer would host a children's show in the afternoon, and Popeye shorts became a huge component in the success of these.[1]
By the 1970s, the original Fleischer and Famous Popeye cartoons were syndicated to various stations and channels across the globe. In the intervening years, however, Popeye cartoons slowly disappeared from the airwaves in favor of newer television editions.[10] a.a.p. was sold to United Artists in 1958, which was absorbed into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to create MGM/UA in 1981. Ted Turner purchased MGM/UA in 1986, gaining control of all Popeye shorts. Turner sold off the production end of MGM/UA shortly after, but retained the film catalog, giving it the rights to the theatrical Popeye library. After acquisition, the black-and-white Popeye shorts were shipped to South Korea, where artists retraced them into color. The process was intended to make the shorts more marketable in the modern television era, but prevented the viewers from seeing the original Fleischer pen-and-ink work, as well as the three-dimensional backgrounds created by Fleischer's 'Stereoptical' process. Every other frame was traced, changing the animation from being 'on ones' (24 frame/s) to being 'on twos' (12 frame/s), and softening the pace of the films. These colorized shorts began airing on Superstation WTBS in 1986 during their Tom & Jerry and Friends 90-minute weekday morning and hour-long weekday afternoon shows. The retraced shorts were syndicated in 1987 on a barter basis, and remained available until the early 1990s. When the Cartoon Network began in 1992, they mostly ran cartoons from the Turner library, which included Popeye.[10] Turner merged with Time Warner (now WarnerMedia) in 1996, and Warner Bros. (through its Turner subsidiary) therefore currently controls the rights to the Popeye shorts.
For many decades, viewers could only see a majority of the classic Popeye cartoons with altered opening and closing credits. a.a.p. had, for the most part, replaced the original Paramount logos with their own. In 2001, the Cartoon Network, under the supervision of animation historian Jerry Beck, created a new incarnation of The Popeye Show. The show aired the Fleischer and Famous Studios Popeye shorts in versions approximating their original theatrical releases by editing copies of the original opening and closing credits (taken or recreated from various sources) onto the beginnings and ends of each cartoon, or in some cases, in their complete, uncut original theatrical versions direct from such prints that originally contained the front-and-end Paramount credits.
In the UK, Popeye aired on Cartoon Network from 1993 to 2001 and on Boomerang from 2000 to 2005. The series, which aired 135 Popeye shorts over 45 episodes, also featured segments offering trivia about the characters, voice actors, and animators. The program aired without interruption until March 2004. The Popeye Show continued to air on Cartoon Network's spin-off network Boomerang. The restored Popeye Show versions of the shorts are sometimes seen at revival film houses for occasional festival screenings. The Popeye Show is currently airing on Cartoon Network in Pakistan as well as in India. A daily half-hour block of Popeye has been able to be seen on the Boomerang network in the past. However, the Fleischer Popeye shorts shown on this block are mostly the 1980s colorized versions, and most of the title cards thereof have been edited to the a.a.p. logo which replaces the original Paramount one. In 2012, Popeye reruns ceased.
Home video[edit]Background[edit]
There were legal problems between King Features Syndicate and United Artists in the early 1980s regarding the availability of Popeye on home video. United Artists had television rights, but King Features disputed whether that included home video distribution.[10] In 1983, MGM/UA Home Video attempted to release a collection of Popeye cartoons on Betamax and VHS tapes titled The Best of Popeye, Vol. 1, but the release was canceled after MGM/UA received a cease and desist letter from King Features Syndicate, which claimed that they only had the legal rights to release the collection on video.[11] While King Features owned the rights, material, comics, and merchandizing to Popeye's character, King Features did not have ownership to the cartoons themselves.
Throughout the years, there have been many bootleg VHS cassettes and DVDs featuring public domainPopeye cartoons, where the copyright had lapsed.[10] While most of the Paramount Popeye catalog remained unavailable on VHS tape, a handful of shorts fell into the public domain and were found on numerous low-budget VHS tapes and DVDs. Most used a.a.p. prints from the 1950s, which were in very poor shape, thus resulting in very poor image quality. These cartoons were seven B&W 1930s and 1940s cartoons, 24 Famous Studios cartoons from the 1950s (many of which fell to the public domain after the MGM/UA merger), and all three Popeye color specials (although some copyrighted Popeye cartoons turned up on public domain VHS tapes and DVDs).
After purchasing Turner in 1996, it would take many years for Warner Bros. to make a deal to distribute Popeye on home video.[10][12] In 1999, home video rights to the Turner film library were reassigned from MGM/UA Home Video to Warner Home Video. It was reported in 2002 that Warner and King Features parent Hearst Corporation were working on a deal to release Popeye's cartoons on home video.[11] Over 1,000 people signed an online petition asking Warner and King Features to release the theatrical Popeye cartoons on DVDs.[13]
Popeye cartoons were never officially released in any form until the late 2000s.[10] In 2006, Warner Home Video and King Features Syndicate along with KFS' parent company Hearst Entertainment finally reached agreement allowing for the release of the theatrical Popeye cartoons on home video.[14] The original Paramount logos appear on these cartoons because Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures cross-licensed each other's logos in a deal which also involved Paramount-distributed John Wayne movies originally released by Warner Bros., and therefore preserving the artistic integrity of the original theatrical releases.[15] Three volumes were produced between 2007 and 2008, released in the order the cartoons were released to theaters. The first of Warner's Popeye DVD sets, covering the cartoons released from 1933 until early 1938, was released on July 31, 2007. Popeye the Sailor: 1933â1938, Volume 1, a four-disc collectorâs edition DVD, contains the first 60 Fleischer Popeye cartoons, including the color specials Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor and Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves. Volume One and Three of the series had the 'Intended For Adult Collector And May Not Be Suitable For Children' advisory warning. Historians supervised the release as consultants, assuring no colorized versions of unrestored prints were used.[10]
Restoration timelines caused Warners to re-imagine the Popeye DVD sets as a series of two-disc sets. Popeye the Sailor: 1938â1940, Volume 2 was released on June 17, 2008,[16] and includes the final color Popeye special Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp.[17]Popeye the Sailor: 1941â1943, Volume 3 was released on November 4, 2008,[18] and includes Popeye's three seldom shown wartime cartoons: You're a Sap, Mister Jap (1942), Scrap the Japs (1942), and Seein' Red, White, and Blue (1943).
The first volume was included, either erroneously or through somewhat fraudulent means, in a batch of boxed sets sold in discount outlets for $3 or less in the summer of 2009.[19]
DVD collections[edit]
Filmography[edit]References[edit]
External links[edit]
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